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Okay - let's get something going here. Think very hard and let us know what "single bit" of Television/movies/radio was the funniest. The rules are simple - it has to be a single bit or a single episode. You cannot say, for instance, the Dick VanDyke show as a whole but you must narrow it down to a single episode (or better yet a single 5 minute portion of an episode)
And it must be TV/Movie/radio, not theater. This is to give us all a chance to have seen/heard and we can evaluate your response. (and maybe find it on YouTube) I'm going to start this by saying that the "The Nairobi Trio" from the Ernie Kovacs Show is the funniest single bit ever to appear on Television. Now let's hear what you think is funnier.
Dennis
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There's a three-way tie for the funniest thing ever on TV. Sketches that are funny no matter how many times you see them. I'll take them in chronological order:
1. "This Is Your Story" - the "This Is Your Life" parody on "Your Show of Shows", with Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner and Howard Morris. There is nothing anywhere funnier than this sketch. Couldn't find it on You Tube, but it's on DVD.
2. YouTube - Carol Burnett Show Tim Conway German Accent - from "The Carol Burnett Show".
3. "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAjP86tWypQ" - from "Taxi".
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 20, 2007 01:51 AM: Message edited by: Sgt. Bilko ]</font>
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Good choices Sgt. Bilko - I can find no argument with any of them being in contention for funniest moment. And the "This is you story" skit is available on-line on the LIKE--TV site if anyone wishes to watch it. key in sid Caesar "this is your story" in Google - but you need Real Player installed to view it.
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The funniest parts of TV episodes I found were:
1. "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" The British version: A skit involving Greg Proops imitating Woody Allen, Phil Lamarr imitating Jack Nicholson, and Ryan Stiles doing the most caricatured version of John Wayne that I ever saw. All three were supposed to be roommates sharing a flat, and seeing skinny, black man doing a dead-on impersonation of Jack was one of the funniest things I've ever seen!
2. "Mad About You" Season 3 Episode 11; "Our Fifteen Minutes" involved Paul as one of six documentary filmakers selected to turn the cameras on themselves for a fifteen minutes reality movie about their everyday life. The funny part came when Jamie's sister Lisa (Anne Ramsay) comes barging into the apartment, ranting about her latest boyfriends, reenacting the mediocre oral sex she received earlier, "That's it baby right there you're the god you're the king oh my god here I go eeehhhhhhhh...." all the while ignoring Jamie's attempts to warn her about the cameras. Lisa marches into the bedroom with Jamie and Paul following, and whips off her long coat revealing her naked back to the audience, but her naked chest to Paul's camera, prompting Paul's kneejerk reaction to whip his head away, and throw himself against the door while Lisa, still topless, helps herself to one of Jamie's shirts! By now, Jamie has given up and lets Lisa rant, slapping Paul when he gives Jamie the thumbs up in approval of Lisa's performance. Lisa left the scene to applause from the live studio audience.
3. The Carol Burnett Show: I think this was when Carol as Scarlett O'Hara put on the curtains as a dress, WITH the six-foot curtain rod still attatched.
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"The Contest" episode of Seinfeld. I shan't do the setup as everyone probably knows it.
The moment was when George, Kramer, and Jerry look at the neighbor across the way who is wandering around her apartment naked. Kramer, without saying a word, exits Jerry's apartment. He then appears again in about 15 seconds REAL TIME and slams money on Jerry's counter and announces "I'm out!" I don't care how many times I see it, that still makes me laugh out loud, And I don't laugh out loud much.
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I'm using this one as my candidate for Funniest Unscripted Scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjrhzSHiEB4
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Thanks a lot, Dennis. I had my YouTube addiction cured, then you came along with this topic...
What's really cool about seeing Spike Jones as opposed to just hearing the records is getting to see the showmanship and musicianship that went into what he did. Everybody in that band had to be top notch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBlOyTBhwDU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d48JXducIks
Then there's the Donald Duck cartoon which gave Spike Jones his first hit when he covered the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiHG9Rb5ru8
And on another topic == 45th Law of Comedy:
If a Comedian Hires the Writers, He Gets to Smooch the Hottie.
YouTube - Marilyn Monroe on Jack Benny Show 1953
YouTube - Gleason with Audrey Meadows
MORE CLASSIC ROUTINES:
YouTube - Bob and Ray "Most Beautiful Face Winner"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjeVrIFhcf0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJyp3DvSV_8
And for those of you who long for the Clean Old Days of Comedy, here's a rehearsal with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDZYhawIQT0
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I took a few days to consider this weighty topic, and will now nominate Barney Fife's magnificent convolution of logic in which he explains to Opie why stray dogs left in the country will be OK during a gathering storm, because they are low to the ground and look after one another, unlike giraffes(!) As his analogy builds and his own doubts betray his argument, he concludes with something like, "boy those giraffes are selfish, just looking out for number one and getting hit by lightning."
The Andy Griffith Show was the true situation comedy, in which the situation WAS the comedy.
