Fans discuss whether Jerry's tennis joke from his stand-up routine was borrowed from George Carlin's material, with skepticism about the claim and debate over Carlin's originality.
Did anyone else notice that Jerry stole part of George Carlins "what is or isn't a sport" routine in his monologue last night? He said that "Tennis is just ping-pong played while standing on the table". Right from Carlin who said.."Tennis isn't a sport. Tennis is just ping-pong played while standing on the table. All racquet games are derivitives of ping-pong. Even volleyball is racquetless ping-pong played with an inflated ball and a raised net while standing on the table."
Shame, shame Jer. Maybe all that time hanging out with 18-year olds has warped his brain to the point where he can't tell his material from some- one elses.
If I have to read his book, that doesn't say too much for his standup. Don't get me wrong -- I really really like his show. But I must bring up one more point. I heard -- and I don't know if this is true, please tell me if its common knowledge or a vicious rumor or whatever -- that the real-life Jerry will not let people crap in his bathroom. "I don't know, it just makes me feel uncomfortable." What kind of a guy is this? I imagine if he invites a couple of friends over on Sunday morning to read the Times and have coffee and Entemanns danish, or perhaps scrabbled eggs on onion bagels, that he ends up with some pretty uncomfortable people in his living room. All of which leads me to wonder whether he is too conventional. He does like to make fun of people who are different, or perhaps just revel in their difference. It's like an exercise in setting yuppie standards in a confusing world. Which is not all bad. But when he has on, say a deaf person, he seems to insist that her deafness play an enormous role in the show. Ditto for dwarfs (little people), Cubans (cigars) and other caricatures. But I love the show. Maybe he should invite on Carol O'Connor to do a reprise of the old Archie Bunker character. THAT would be great.