When Comedy Attacks!

[krashkart]

How many of you remember Tim Conway's elephant story? I was too young at the time - now I can truly appreciate it.

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...+elephant&aq=6

I don't know how any of them managed to keep it together through that skit.


If'n yer has more clips like these to share please post away.

[AVGWarhawk]

The Carol Burnett Show was awesome. I watched when I was a kid. They broke the mold after Carol was born. What a funny lady.

[Sailor Steve]

"I will not laugh on stage...I will NOT laugh on stage...I will not LAUGH on stage..."

One of my favorite Carol Burnett moments was the season Tim Conway joined the cast. The Commercial I saw had them all standing there as Carol pitched the new cast: "So join us with Harvey Corman, Vicki Lawrence, and our newest member, a man who needs no introduction. So be here with us tomorrow night..."

And when she didn't introduce him, the look on Conway's face was priceless.

[TheBrauerHour]

I agree. I watch old shows like this and even classic episodes of Johnny Carson and just think about how much funnier it was back then. Comedians didn't get vulger or cuss all over the place to gt a laugh, they actually had to have talent.

Love Carol Burnett.

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by krashkart

How many of you remember Tim Conway's elephant story?

I don't even have to watch the clip, that's how well I remember it. But I will anyway, because it's awesome.

"...and the other one's eyes would get real big!"

I remember hearing or reading somewhere that Conway actually flubbed his lines, leading to one of the greatest extended ad libs ever. He was supposed to say he'd seen Siamese twins at the freak show but it came out "Siamese elephants" instead and then he just kept going to see how far he could take it.

Burnett's facepalm as soon as she hears "Siamese elephants" is priceless... she knows what they're in for and she's already about to lose it.

[UnderseaLcpl]

I must be missing something because I don't get it. I figure it comes from specializing in really bad jokes or preferring jokes with cuss words in them. There's an elephant with a dwarf trainer who are rumoured to be lovers and then buried together after the elephant squashes the dwarf? What!?
Then we have Siamese elehpants and some admittedly good elephant impressions. At what point does that become anything other than straight-up silly?

I'm not trying to knock anyone else's sense of humor or anything, but can someone please explain this to me? I think I'm missing some context or something.

edit-okay, Frau explained a little of it before I finished posting this.

[frau kaleun]

Yeah, I think a lot of it was the fact that Conway would go off-script, sometimes even by accident, and then just run with it. Or he'd toss in one great ad-lib that no one else on stage knew was coming (and he probably didn't either until the moment presented itself). And, for the most part, he'd stay in character while everyone around him had no idea what he might do or say next and would be trying desperately to keep up without cracking up.

He was legendary for breaking up Harvey Korman. Just a small ad-lib in the right place, a look, a bit of unscripted physical humor - and Korman was putty in his hands. Rumor has it the rest of the cast used to take bets on how long Korman could last onstage with Conway without losing it. And that was part of the fun of watching them every week, because you knew it could happen at any moment.

[Sailor Steve]

I'm not trying to knock anyone else's sense of humor or anything, but can someone please explain this to me? I think I'm missing some context or something.

Watch some of the other skits. It will come to you.

I always found it amazing that Vicki Lawrence got the part when she won a Carol Burnett look-alike contest, and went from being nobody to being one of the best comedians around. I don't remember ever seeing the elephant skit, and watching her keep it together and then come up with that line is fantastic.