Johnny Carson
Johnny Carson, pictured on the left with sidekicks Doc Severinson and Ed McMahon, was my favorite comedian growing up, although it was tough to stay up through the 11:00 news for the Tonight Show at 11:30, then make it to school or work the next day. Johnny took a lot of ribbing about his many divorces; ironically all his ex-wives had the same first name Joanne. He’d often get kidded about his marital issues by guests like Don Rickles, plus Johnny would perform self deprecating jokes during his nightly monologue. Speaking of jokes, I heard one recently that reminded me of the kind Johnny would tell. If he were still alive, it would go something like this:
My young daughter asks my ex-wife Joanne one day, "how much do you weigh?". Joanne replied, “It’s not proper for a lady to ask another lady her weight.” The daughter then asked her mother how old she was. And again, she was told that it’s not right to ask about another lady's age.” Then finally, the daughter quizzed her mother on why she had divorced her father. Joanne sternly replied that's another unacceptable question to ask a lady. Feeling really frustrated, the daughter goes to school the next day and asks a friend how she can find out the information about her mother. Her classmate suggests she check her mother’s drivers license in her purse sometime when she was not looking. So the little girl did exactly that, finding the information on her mother’s drivers license. She then told her mother, “Mom, you weigh 128 pounds and are 32 years old; plus I know why you divorced dad. The mother acknowledged the daughter was right about her weight and age, but asked how she knew the reason for the divorce? The little girl responded, "It shows right on your drivers license that you got an 'F' in sex!”
That’s all unlikely conjecture on my part, since Johnny never had a daughter, just three boys pictured with their dad on the right! By the way, today, drivers from Oregon would not get the joke per this article!
Johnny was raised in Nebraska, near the home town of a fraternity brother of mine. I travelled with him back to Nebraska over New Years one year while in college. This previous blog tells about that trip and the infamous blind date with his sister. Literally, every building in the small town of Gibbon had some sort of Johnny Carson memorabilia emblazoned on its walls. Everyone in town was proud of their famous celebrity. Interestingly, Johnny hired a joke writer from the same area in Nebraska by the name of Dick Cavitt, pictured below. Dick eventually went on to host his own late night show.
A little known fact about Johnny’s sidekick Ed McMahon came about after Johnny’s death in 2005, Ed fell upon hard times and was about to default on the mortgage of his Beverly Hills home. At the time, real estate mogul, and now President, Donald Trump, announced that he would purchase the home from the mortgage company and lease it back to McMahon so the home would not be foreclosed. Trump’s spokesperson stated, "For Mr. Trump, this acquisition was not business-related, but was meant to help out an American icon.” Here’s a video from that period.
Back to Johnny, he loved doing various skits playing favorite characters like Carnac, Aunt Blabby, Art Fern and Floyd R. Turbo. Carnac the Magnificent was my favorite, as he was given the answer to an unknown question by McMahon and had to guess the question. Here’s a funny Carnac skit from YouTube.
But the most famous Carson bit of all time occurred when Johnny was just being himself with guest Ed Ames, who played the American Indian Mingo on the Daniel Boone TV show back in the ’60’s. Check it out by clicking here.
Late night TV is ok today, but Johnny was the best in my view! As proof, every night Carson would be watched by 15 million viewers on NBC, more than double the combined total for his replacement Jay Leno and CBS late night host David Letterman.
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