I'm just curious, and if anybody's answer to this is yes, I would really be interested in hearing the reasons: Does anybody laugh when the Simpsons throw in a Johnny Carson imitation? Whether it's the usual "Mmmmm, that's good [fill in the blank]" or last night's pointless insert with the golf swing. I really want to know, Why is that funny? I'm 37, and I'm guessing few people younger than 30 even get those references. I was not a fan of Carson nor do I think he is terrible (unlike Steve Allen). And I thought the cameo with the real Carson on Krusty Gets Kancelled was OK. But for some reason, whenever they do a "Mmmm, that's good..." it bugs the crap out of me.
The Johnny Carson refs -- WHY???
Dec 16, 2002, 11:05 AM ET26 posts by 16 posters
26 posts
Ho, Ho Ho, you are correct, sir!
I dunno, I'm 30 and i still think the carson stuff is funny. BTW great ed mcmahon!
"Brett Buck" wrote in message news:[email]...
wrote in message news:SBpL9.160$[email]...
They need more Leno stuff!
Leno references would fit in well with the Simpsons being not funny. "We're going to look at some newspaper typos that required no effort on our part, but first, I'm going to do a 15 minute monologue with little laughter." ________________________________________________________________
If love of money is the root of all evil, why do churches want it so badly?
Remove "bination" to reply.
Comedy isn't funny anymore...You've got some big chinned slob reading typos from the Palookaville Post! Well, here's a headline for ya. Nobody cares!
"that's good plastic explosive!"
--Lurky McLurkerson
I dunno, sometimes it fits in well and is funny, other times it seems a little outta place. But in general it usually is at least somewhat funny. (never bugged the crap outta me at least)
"James Hammer" wrote in message news:...
ha ha, well you know what I mean. Just bugs me that they lazily repeat a reference rather than, say, writing a joke. and for whatever reason, this one stands out (two Carson refs already this season)
I'm under 30 and I get them. But that could be because Comedy Central reruns a lot of the old SNLs where Dana Carvey is Carson and Phil Hartman is Ed McMahon. I don't have any memory of watching Johnny Carson myself, but I did watch when The Family Channel aired a half hour of random Carson bits. ________________________________________________________________
If love of money is the root of all evil, why do churches want it so badly?
Remove "bination" to reply.
["Sydney Assbasket "; Tue, 17 Dec 2002 03:22:33 GMT]
I miss 'im. (Sniff.)
NaturalD wrote in message news:[email]...
Steve Allen thought Carson was terrible or you think Steve Allen is terrible. If it's the former, I think he was just steamed Cason lifted so many of his bits, if it's the latter then you haven't watched enough Steve Allen.
"Ian Boothby" wrote in message news:...
curse my imprecise language. I was saying that I have no strong opinion about Carson but I think Steve Allen is an arse. I admit I've never seen much of his material. It predates my birth. From my lifetime, he is best known as a guy who took out ads in newspapers calling on people to boycott entertainment from a world that had passed him by. And what little I have seen of his material (that routine where he gives a mock-serious recital to the lyrics of the early rock and roll song Be Bop a Lula) gives the impression that even in his "prime" he was an unfunny, pompous fool. That was enough Steve Allen for me to watch. Was he being a comedian when he claimed to have written several thousand songs? you'd think at least one of them would be as well remembered as Be Bop a Lula.
NaturalD:
He also invented the pog!
On 16 Dec 2002 08:05:35 -0800, [email] (NaturalD) wrote:
I appreciate jokes that might be out of the normal range of the target demographic. I think a pretty funny joke is in the Barbershop Quartet episode when Grandpa and Jasper turn on the radio to catch the last few minutes of Paul Harvey and he says something to the effect "... and that little boy, that nobody liked, grew up to be ... Roy Cohn!" That's a pretty funny line but I'm pretty sure not many people under thirty (or over thirty) would know who Roy Cohn is or why the joke is funny. I'm glad they put stuff like that in there, though. It adds depth and texture and elevates the show from merely being a cartoon for kids.
Shorty
[email] (Shorty Kellems) wrote in message news:...
I agree. If every joke could be appreciated by every potential viewer, the show might as well be Home Improvement or something. I appreciate when they make a joke that requires a bit of arcane knowledge. But the key word is "joke". I don't see how simply playing "spot the TV reference" qualifies. I get the reference, but unlike the Cohn line, I find nothing to laugh at. Obviously humor is personal and individual. I guess the fact that some people enjoyed the 1895 House episode proves that.
Could someone explain the Roy Cohn line to me? Wasn't he an aide to Joe McCarthy or something?
On Tue, 17 Dec 2002 12:09:59 -0800, "Mark Wilden" wrote:
There's not much to explain, really. He was Joe McCarthy's aide and hit-man. He was the real brains behind McCarthy's red-scare act. Generally regarded as one the darkest figures of the fifties. One creepy dude.
Anyway, the joke is that it would be curious to hear what kind of messed up life the guy had lived before he met up with McCarthy. One could imagine him being just as weasily as a child and therefore, not well liked.
At least, that's how I took it.
Shorty
Roy Cohn was known for being ambitious and ruthless.
He was one of the prosecuting attorneys at the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1951. They were convicted of espionage and sentenced to death. Years later new information surfaced revealing that Ethel was innocent.
He was a mouth piece for Senator Joe McCarthy in the fifties and helped with the witch hunts, which ruined many people's lives.
After the failure of the Army/McCarthy hearings, Cohn moved to New York and became a lawyer whose clients were mostly mobsters. He was later disbarred.
He was also a closeted gay and a conservative Rebuplican. He died of AIDS in 1986, I believe.
Markc65 wrote:
He was, for instance, the lawyer for the idiots who ran Studio 54.
Brett
Shorty Kellems wrote in message news:[email]...
Plus the fact that those sappy "and that little boy grew up to be..." stories are usually used for "nice" historical, etc. figures.
On 17 Dec 2002 11:14:57 -0800, [email] (NaturalD) wrote:
You're point is valid but I think that the Carson reference is a special case. Carson, even in this day and age, is still an institution of sorts. He's still a recognizable character. I think lapsing into a Carson impression is pretty much the hallmark of any hack comedian who has run out of funny things to say and deperately resorts to a tired imitation to get a laugh.
The risk of beating a joke or a reference to death is pretty real. Not sure if the Carson one has reached that stage. It doesn't bug me that much, anyway. I think repetitively relying on celebrities is a much bigger cop-out. Inserting a celebrity as a substitute for humourous writing is pretty lame and indicates a certain laziness. I think bankrupty would be too strong a condemnation but I think it is a trick they try to pull a little to often.
Shorty
[email] (Shorty Kellems) wrote in message news:...
1. Esoteric popular culture and historical references are part of the essence of the Simpsons. Live with it, in other words.
2. Roy Cohn was a self hating gay man who was a psychopath. He did die of AIDS, but up to the very end he was threatening to sic his political cronies on anyone who tried to "out" him.
3. The Carson references are not just for older viewers, but for any popular culture buff.
Space
"Aaron Hirshberg" wrote in message news:[email]...
Actually, I was at least vaguely aware of all that, but what was the _joke_?
Is it one of those jokes where you laugh because you understand it, not because it's actually funny?
On Wed, 18 Dec 2002 11:40:50 -0800, "Mark Wilden" wrote:
The idea of Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" is that it offers intriguing or surprising facts about well-known people or things.
The fact that Roy Cohn was disliked is not surprising.
That's the joke.
"Scott Munro" wrote in message news:[email]...
OK, thanks. :(
Unfortunately, I accidentally erased the ep.