I remember Mason from other films like “North by Northwest” (not insipid), “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” His filmography is quite large, so there’s lots to choose from.

I suspect the SJWs would deplatform them all today, although Flip might get cut some slack because of “Geraldine”.

Believe it or Not, even ventriloquists made records!

“In the late 1950s, Jimmy Nelson [Danny O’Day & Farfel the Dog] released two LP records, One being “Pinocchio”, which involved his four major dummies, which was released on Cricket Records in 1959, and the other being “Jokes and Riddles”, which was done before a live audience of children, released on Rocking Horse Records.”

“I couldn’t decide watching the film if Sue Lyons was actually a 14 year old actress who sometimes looked like she was 20, or the reverse. She was 14. Another amazing performance. In the Nabokov book, she’s 12….”

I remember seeing parts of it on television around college age and while not paying that much attention:
1. Thinking that Sellers was brilliant
2. That, Mason [No! Not the Rommel guy!] was acting like a totally pathetic and irrational sap. I mean really, disgustingly unmanned.
3. Wondering what the deal was with Mason and this 17/18 year old high school girl.

If I understood what was going on, I probably would have turned it off sooner.

Perhaps I’ll pick up one of Nabokov’s books one of these days. He’s supposed to be one of the greatest prose stylists of the English language, ever.

“DNW – my folks had some of those records when I was a teen.
I can still recite some of Vaughn Meader’s schticks, and pretty much all of “Noah” by Cosby (so sad how he destroyed himself).”

Ok, I think I remember someone playing that, and wondering if it was not somehow blasphemous [haha], though none of the adults seemed disturbed and they were probably laughing.

I’m pretty sure I knew the difference between Noah and Moses. Cue the “How many animals of each kind did Moses bring onto the ark?”, joke.

Now that I think about it, years later I bought the Martin Mull “No Hits, four errors” album. And as other describe doing, it was something you might listen to at a gathering in the rented house or apartment of the oldest and first married in your circle.

The “Flexible” cut, …. I thought it was hilarious. And the “blues” line about waking up in the afternoon so low down deep inside “that I threw my drink across the lawn” still seems funny to me.

But like Python, if less so than with Python, that kind of humor has worn a little thin over the years.

Cynicism almost seems like an unaffordable luxury to me nowadays. Though bumptious earnestness remains, as ever, a deserving of a skewering.

AesopFan: Weren’t they though!

Recently I discovered that Firesign Theatre’s “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers” (their third comedy album — 1970) has been chosen for the National Recording Registry as among the recordings which “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.”

There are only 525 selections (so far) which puts Firesign Theatre up there with Martin Luther King, Frank Sinatra, Woody Guthrie, and Duke Ellington, to name but a few. You can hear the whole album here:

“Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers ~ The Firesign Theatre”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZOXm3zY1w

It’s been called the “greatest comedy album ever made” and the boys themselves as “the Beatles of comedy.” I suppose both claims are arguable, but I don’t see any competition.

Maria Bamford is my favorite comedian of the past ten years. She does a great range of voices. Her work is closest, I’d say, to Richard Pryor for how personal, edgy and surprising it is…not to mention funny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp2stpr-aGA

(Skip to 1:20 to miss the mud wrestling.)

Bill Cosby was fantastic on his early albums, mid-late 60s. My mother and sisters and I used to listen him often, drinking Black Cows (root beer & ice cream). (They don’t have root beer in Slovakia.) He also did Fat Albert skits. “The Chicken Heart that Ate New York City”. “When you get your tonsils out … you can have ALL the ICE CREAM in the WORLD you can eat!” (My guess of which comedian sold the most albums 65-70.)

Vaughn Meader’s JFK voice & sketch of Jackie pointing out the pictures in the White House is fantastic; also the American Businessman’s lunch with top International Leaders. “There is no Eastern Sandwich.” “Then I’ll have the Eastern portion of his Western Sandwich!”…

Richard Pryor meets the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) was pretty funny, “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin”, but often very obscene. Lenny Bruce and F-speech was “cool”; so was George Carlin & Lou Reed (& VU), Take a Walk on the Wild Side, Live.

Dr. Demento started in LA in early 70s, playing old novelty songs & comedy, including Alan Sherman, with Hello Mudda, tho I preferred, and sang to my kids when young, Old King Louie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohom8t0O-bg

In college in the 70s, I got an old double album of stand up comedy by Woody Allen — quite funny, often very Jewish but goy-friendly. And of course, Steve Martin “Let’s get Small”. One I’ve told my family and often recall ends thusly:
“Always carry a litter bag in your car.
It doesn’t take up much room,
and if it gets full, you can just
toss it out the window.”