Don Rickles' last words were not an insult...

62vauxhall

Veteran and General Yakker
Joined
May 14, 2014
Messages
2,323
Location
Southwest Kootenays BC
Tagline
No such things as bad days, just bad moments
#3
Ahh yes, somewhere I can express my thoughts on Don Rickles.

I'm old enough to remember the so called "Golden Age of Television". So old in fact, I watched The Tonight Show when Jack Parr hosted it. That is If and when I was allowed to stay up that late. Once there was a man and a woman guest dressed for some sort of costume party. Jack asked the woman to turn around and her costume was her bare butt at the back. Might have been a fake plastic ass (hard to tell on b&w TV) but pretty risqué for the early 60's.

But I digress.

Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Bill Dana, Bob Newhart....those guys were funny. There were lots more I can't remember off the top of my head but Don Rickles? No, not funny.

Insulting people was scraping the bottom of the barrel in a desperately lame attempt at humor. He was not witty or clever so took cheap shots about anything and anyone in hopes of generating a laugh. Can't believe people actually thought him calling people a hockey puck was funny. As far as I'm concerned, he should have given stand up a miss and become a character actor. He had the face for it. As a matter of fact, I think I did see him act in something. I also think he was not bad in the role whatever it was because he wasn't trying to crack jokes - thank God.
 

Fast Forward

Forum Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
6,315
Location
Chaska Minnesota
#4
Ahh yes, somewhere I can express my thoughts on Don Rickles.

I'm old enough to remember the so called "Golden Age of Television". So old in fact, I watched The Tonight Show when Jack Parr hosted it. That is If and when I was allowed to stay up that late. Once there was a man and a woman guest dressed for some sort of costume party. Jack asked the woman to turn around and her costume was her bare butt at the back. Might have been a fake plastic ass (hard to tell on b&w TV) but pretty risqué for the early 60's.

But I digress.

Danny Kaye, Red Skelton, Milton Berle, Jonathan Winters, Bill Dana, Bob Newhart....those guys were funny. There were lots more I can't remember off the top of my head but Don Rickles? No, not funny.

Insulting people was scraping the bottom of the barrel in a desperately lame attempt at humor. He was not witty or clever so took cheap shots about anything and anyone in hopes of generating a laugh. Can't believe people actually thought him calling people a hockey puck was funny. As far as I'm concerned, he should have given stand up a miss and become a character actor. He had the face for it. As a matter of fact, I think I did see him act in something. I also think he was not bad in the role whatever it was because he wasn't trying to crack jokes - thank God.
Did you think that Richard Pryor was Funny?
 

62vauxhall

Veteran and General Yakker
Joined
May 14, 2014
Messages
2,323
Location
Southwest Kootenays BC
Tagline
No such things as bad days, just bad moments
#5
Bits of Richard Pryor's stuff was funny but not all. Same for Eddie Murphy. George Carlin was crude but didn't rely on it. Could not stand Sam Kinison but did start listening to Lenny Bruce recordings in the early 1970's. Not trying to seem puritanical but I fail to see the attraction of humour dependant on vulgarity, belittlement and slander. I don't get where consistent use of the word f*ck as a noun, verb (or it's conjugations) adjective, adverb or expletive is funny. But that's just me. I'm inclined more towards British humour. For instance Dick Emery, Dave Allen, Rowen Atkinson, the collective members of Monty Python. Notice I did not mention Benny Hill.
 
Last edited:

Fast Forward

Forum Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
6,315
Location
Chaska Minnesota
#6
Bits of Richard Pryor's stuff was funny but not all. Same for Eddie Murphy. George Carlin was crude but didn't rely on it. Could not stand Sam Kinison but did start listening to Lenny Bruce recordings in the early 1970's. Not trying to seem puritanical but I fail to see the attraction of humour dependant on vulgarity, belittlement and slander. I don't get where consistent use of the word f*ck as a noun, verb (or it's conjugations) adjective, adverb or expletive is funny. But that's just me. I'm inclined more towards British humour. For instance Dick Emery, Dave Allen, Rowen Atkinson, the collective members of Monty Python. Notice I did not mention Benny Hill.
It's easy to see our Idea of humor are 180, I thought the Rodney Dangerfields, Sam Kinisons and the George Carlins etc were Genius, and with the exception of Peter Sellers I never saw British Humor, We have a problem in this country, we are easily offended and politicaly correctness is killing us
 

orange

Veteran and General Yakker
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
17,704
Tagline
Broken beyond repair but highly affable
#7
Don is on tonight's episode of Johnny Carson on Antenna TV, with Glen Campbell and Dom DeLuise.
 
Top