Bob Newhart CLASSIC: “The Driving Instructor” (1960)

In my humble opinion, this is still one of the all-time best comedy bits, ever.

Growing up, we kept our LPs*** stored in a new (at the time) GE Stereophonic Console in the living room, and as a kid I went through them all: Henry Mancini, Sing Along with Mitch Miller!, dozens of sundry Christmas albums, Bill Cosby, ….and Bob Newhart.

Below is probably the very first comedy routine I ever heard, and the parent album won a Grammy Award back in 1961. Yet it’s a testament to its simple brilliance that it still works perfectly 50+ years later.

Enjoy:

If #Obamacare’s NOT a laughing matter, why is its spokesman such a clown?

Early in Barack Obama’s presidency, I remember seeing a creepy picture someone had photo-shopped to make him look like the Joker from The Dark Knight, portending sinister things to come. Fast-forward five years. I’m afraid they were giving the president way too much credit.

Rather than appearing as some conniving genius mad for power, Obama looks like a fool frantically trying to keep his whole façade of power from crumbling.

Between Barack and a Hard Place

Our POTUS still doesn’t seem to grasp how image shapes perception, especially in the media. For example, he recently appeared on Zach Galifianakis’ Web comedy show, “Between Two Ferns.”  Galifianakis’ purpose in this show is to get laughs by asking extremely awkward questions and putting his guests in the worst light possible. That’s the joke: everyone gets to look either rude or foolish.

Obama managed to look both.

Fun with Graphs…

This is a VERY old ‘fun’ post, from waaaay back when we only had about a dozen followers. And since I’ll be with my youngest son at an archery tournament all day, this is as good a day as any to re-post it. 

Have a great weekend, folks!

–JTR

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We’ve been hitting politics all week, and I’m calling “time-out” for the day. There’ll be time for politics tomorrow.

Instead, we thought you’d enjoy some of these graphs that we found on the site GraphJam.com (…which now appears to have been absorbed into another website?). Regardless, we thought these were pretty funny, and possess more than just a “little” truth.

Enjoy:

If the President COULDN’T Lie, …What Would You Ask Him?

Today we’re honored to have another offering from our friend, the Deja Reviewer! And given the upcoming State Of The Union Speech, this post is particularly timely. 

-JTR

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In the 1997 comedy Liar Liar, Jim Carrey plays a dishonest lawyer named Fletcher who is dismayed when he finds himself unable to lie about even the smallest thing one day. This setup results in numerous memorable gags and funny jokes.

One of my favorites is when he drives like a maniac and gets pulled over by a police officer. He’s forced to relate every little misdeed he had just done, such as speeding, changing lanes without signaling, nearly hitting pedestrians, and more. But that’s not all.

The cop then asks if there’s “anything else?”, and Fletcher grudgingly admits that he’s accumulated dozens of unpaid parking tickets, and they’re hidden in the glove compartment.

After this deluge of painful confessions, he sinks into his seat and quietly says, “Be gentle.”

If you’re a #parent, then you’ll understand: The “Parent Rap” (VIDEO)

My beautiful wife was homeschooling our two sons when I left for work this morning and she was doing a wonderful job, as always. For whatever reason, this video then jumped into my mind, …and made me chuckle.

Our boys are older than the ones in the clip, but I can still relate to every word. We posted this a couple years back and, after watching it again, it seems to hold up nicely.

I’ll reiterate here what I said back then: “…if ALL hip-hop was this entertaining, I’d listen to it waaaay more often…”

In honor of the #NFLPlayoffs: “Football vs Baseball” by George Carlin

One of my all-time favorite comedy routines.

This bit by George Carlin is a remarkably insightful and humorous take on the differences between our National Pastime (baseball) and the Country’s Greatest Sport (football).

But here’s a hint: football wins.

If you haven’t seen it before, this is classic Carlin. Of particular note is the lack of any “language warning”: there’s none necessary, I promise.

Which is just one more reason I love it.

Carol Burnett: TV humor today sounds like it was “written by teenage boys in a locker room”

Can’t argue with anything Carol and Tim say here:

First, let me give credit to Piers Morgan, of whom I’m usually highly critical. He conducted a solid interview, and let his guests respond without arguing with them, in and of itself an exceedingly rare occurrence.

But the primary takeaway I had after watching the entire interview was how far modern television has fallen from my youth. As a member of the generation which grew up watching Dick Van Dyke, Carol Burnett, Bob Newhart, et al on TV with my entire family, those shows not only were clever then, they are still clever now.

Thanksgiving Comedy CLASSIC: Louie Anderson on the ‘Tonight Show’

Comedian Louie Anderson just makes me laugh.

His routines were (usually) perfectly clean, and his animated kid’s show “Life With Louie” was extremely funny, yet sweet. Still can’t understand why they don’t formally release it on DVD: it won two Emmy’s, after all.

Anyway, the following clip is from the ‘Tonight Show’ on Thanksgiving Day, 1987…, and it’s just as funny now as it was then.

Happy Thanksgiving, gang.