Category Archives: Comedy

“Mongo” – Alex Karras NFL Star Dies At 77

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Karras, Famous For Stellar NFL Career, Will Always Have A Place in Movie Comedy History

Alex Karras died in Los Angeles at the age of 77 on October 10, 2012 due to kidney failure and other health complications.

The Detroit Lions All-Pro defensive tackle will be remembered by many as a great football player who played from 1958-1970. But I, along with many other people, will remember his acting career which stretched from 1968 -1998. Mel Brooks comedy fans especially loved Karras’ portrayal as the monosyllabic ruffian cowboy, Mongo, in Brooks brilliant 1974 western satire Blazing Saddles.

Karras did not have many scenes in the movie, but they were all very funny.

This scene below is the one that shocked audiences: Karras’ one punch knockout of a horse.  As an fyi -Karras did not actually hurt the horse and people would later come up to him and ask how he could do such a horrible thing.  “I thought it was hilarious, but I didn’t want to hurt that horse at all, believe me,” Karras said in a 2011 interview with the “Sports and Torts” Internet radio show. “I’m not the type of person to do that.”

 

The Best Baseball Card Error – EVER

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Something Even Babe Ruth Couldn’t Do

I stopped collecting baseball cards in 1981 after it became speculative and was more about card values rather than flipping, trading and completing sets.

This was one of my favorite baseball cards simply because of the obviousness of the mistake and the fact that it was never corrected.

The Dave Bennett – Rick Wise rookie card from the 1964 Topps set is nothing extraordinary on the front. But on the back of Dave Bennett’s very short biography is this astounding piece of information:

“Dave is the younger brother of the Phils’ ace, Dennis Bennett. The 19-year-old righthanded curveballer is just 18 years old!”

Now that is some feat!

The “Artwork” Of The 110 Harbor Freeway Los Angeles

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Why Go To The Museum of Contemporary Art or The Getty?

If you live around Los Angeles you may be too busy to go to a museum to see paintings. Luckily or unfortunately depending on your point of view, you can always get your fill of “art” while driving to work.

On the constantly congested 110 Freeway, one can take in up close the utter decay of the city every 6 to 30 feet. That is the range of distance between the supporting pillars of the freeway on the median. There you can admire the ugly, illegible scrawls of grade school drop-outs.

The “Lovely Artwork”

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The Best Woman Presidential Candidate Ever

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Comedienne Gracie Allen Enters The 1940 Presidential Race

In this newswire photograph, Gracie Allen, the zany half of the Burns & Allen comedy team “tosses her hat into the ring” to run for President in 1940.

Gracie put out a very funny book after her tongue-in-cheek Presidential run entitled How To Become President (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1940) which has enlightening chapters such as:

Government Jobs Pay Big Money

How Not To Offend Anybody

Buying A Good Used Platform

Secrets of Unsuccessful Speechmaking

Even though the candidacy was a plot line for the Burns & Allen weekly comedy radio show, Gracie did a whistlestop tour by train and over 300,000 Americans came out to hear her make campaign speeches in cities along the route.

After “dropping out” of the race in the middle of 1940, Gracie still ended up receiving over 42,000 write-in votes in the November election.

The forgotten story of her candidacy was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. Click here to listen.

Unbelievable Looney Tunes Cartoon From 1933

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You’ll Never See This Cartoon On Saturday Morning

Decades before South Park, Warner Bros. put this cartoon out in theaters. Bosko’s Picture Show, from 1933 features this incredible scene.

Here is the entire original cartoon and at about 5:50 in, is the offensive portion. Or just watch the 3 second clip below.

Language warning here – play in front of children at your discretion: Continue reading →

50th Anniversary Of the Death Of Ernie Kovacs

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Ernie Kovacs Is Killed In A Car Accident January 13, 1962

Ernie Kovacs would have turned 93 on January 23 and today I’ll be remembering him.

Kovacs was a brilliant comedian who was killed in a car crash 50 years ago today on January 13, 1962 at the age of 42.

Kovacs was an author, radio, television and movie star.  Most of all he was a true genius in an industry that bandies about that word rather loosely. Had Kovacs lived he would have surely gone on to greater heights.

Because he died at a relatively young age and most of his TV work is gone forever, many people unfortunately have never heard of, or seen Ernie Kovacs. Continue reading →

The Best Presidential Candidate In The 2012 Election

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Vermin Supreme – Would Make A Better President Than Obama, Romney, Paul, Huntsman, Gingrich, Perry and Santorum

vermin supremeIf you have never heard of Vermin Supreme or that he is running for President you are not alone. He has not taken out any advertising and the mainstream media ignores him. But through youtube and other web sites, Vermin Supreme is making his candidacy known.

The only Presidential candidate who wears a boot on his head, Vermin Supreme has a simple platform:

  • Dental Hygiene Law
  • Flying Monkey Public Safety Assurance Program
  • Time Travel Research Funding
  • An Energy Program Which Harnesses the Awesome Power of The Zombies
  • Free Pony’s For All Americans

Vermin Supreme really is running for President. The satirist was invited to share the dais with the other Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum which was held December 19, 2011 and hosted by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. The forum shows Mr Supreme at his best.

Randall Terry, the notorious anti-abortion activist, is the candidate who gets Mr. Supreme’s attention at the end of the video.

In a previous interview with the Washington Times, Mr. Supreme was asked whether he plans to send troops back into Iraq, Mr. Supreme said he wants to send troops “everywhere.”

“I propose we will invade and we will make that country a state,” he said. “So Iraq would be our 51st state, Afghanistan would be 52nd state. and on and on. Once we change these foreigners to Americans, they will certainly love America and we’ll will be able to tax them and it will be a wonderful unified United States of the Earth. Thank you.”

The United States needs Mr. Supreme if only for relief from all the empty words emanating from our politicians mouths.

7 Billion People, That’s 6 Billion Too Many

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Celebrating Rising World Poverty, Hunger and Lots of People

The news yesterday was not earth shattering. The estimated number of people living on the earth is now seven billion. But that is a number that can shatter the earth and its resources.

What all the world’s cities can look like in 20 years – hooray!

News venues are touting this historic event as if it is something to be proud of. ABC television was showing babies from around the world born October 31, 2011 speculating that any of these children could have been the seven billionth living human.  It was then remarked by anchor Diane Sawyer that when these children turn fourteen, there will likely be eight billion people on the earth. Great. Overpopulation being glorified. Continue reading →