# what's the deal with Jerry Lewis?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-jerry-lewis/82414>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 18, 2001, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-jerry-lewis/82414 "2001-09-18T17:09:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![davesink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@davesink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davesink)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-jerry-lewis/82414/1 "2001-09-18T17:09:58Z")

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I’ll admit I haven’t been following the career of “funnyman” Jerry Lewis recently, but a glimpse of him on the Labor Day Telethon was quite jarring. He was so bloated he bore an eerie resemblance to Martin Short’s Glick character. I forgot about it until I saw him on the cover of one of the supermarket tabloids this week. Had I not seen him on the telethon, I’d have sworn it was retouch job. Inside the tabloid, spokespeople attributed his appearance to pneunomonia medication. Is that possible and/or probable, or has he been getting steadily chunkier and I haven’t noticed. I think the last time I saw him was in Martin Scorcese’s “King of Comedy”.

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**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-jerry-lewis/82414/2 "2001-09-18T17:41:05Z")

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Lewis had spinal surgery in early February this year. The surgery was to alleviate back pain caused by his over-enthusiastic pratfalls of years past. The surgery could have caused him to have some bloating, I suppose.

He’s in his 70’s, so he does get sick from time to time. But he just finished a lengthy appearance as the Devil in a revival of “Damn Yankees”, and he has several shows scheduled in Vegas and NY.

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2001, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-jerry-lewis/82414/3 "2001-09-18T19:36:29Z")

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I don’t _know_, but if he’s having spinal problems, he may be on corticosteroids, which would cause bloating, especially of the face.

[http://www.stat.washington.edu/TALARIA/LS3.4.1.html](http://www.stat.washington.edu/TALARIA/LS3.4.1.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Corticosteroids…also reduce cerebral and spinal cord edema and are essential in the emergency management of elevated intracranial pressure and epidural spinal cord compression. Steroids are part of the standard therapy for tumor-induced spinal cord compression (Byrne, 1992), and they are effective in reducing pain due to perineural edema and pressure on nerves. Dexamethasone (16 to 24 mg/day) or prednisone (60 to 100 mg/day) may be added to opioids for the management of pain in bronchial or lumbosacral plexopathy. Undesirable effects such as myopathy, hyperglycemia, weight gain, and dysphoria may occur during prolonged steroid therapy.