RIP, Tom Magliozzi
The name may not ring a bell for you, but how about Click? Or Clack?
Tom Magliozzi and his younger brother Ray entertained millions—including me—with their NPR show “Car Talk.” Cars bore me, and I really couldn’t care less about their innards as long as they work. But Tom and Ray were funny, in an effervescent, zany, irrepressible, completely unique way.
Strangely enough, they came from Cambridge, Mass—East Cambridge, that is, which is a whole ‘nother ball game from regular old Hahhhvahd-Cambridge. And they had the East Cambridge accents to prove it. Cambridge isn’t quite what people from away think it is; there’s a massive town vs. gown thing going on. But Tom and Ray were of both worlds; they were actually MIT graduates.
It was Tom’s laughter that got you:
If there was one thing that defined Tom Magliozzi, it was his laugh. It was loud, it was constant, it was infectious.
“His laugh is the working definition of infectious laughter,” says Doug Berman, the longtime producer of Car Talk. He remembers the first time he ever encountered Magliozzi.
“Before I ever met him, I heard him, and it wasn’t on the air,” he recalls.
Berman was the news director of WBUR at the time.
“I’d just hear this laughter,” he says. “And then there’d be more of it, and people would sort of gather around him. He was just kind of a magnet.”
Even if I didn’t know quite what he was laughing about, he could still make me laugh along with him.
I had stopped listening to Car Talk about ten years ago when I started blogging. So I had no idea the brothers Magliozzi were no longer doing live shows because Tom was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Incredibly sad.
Here’s that voice and that laugh. RIP.
I really enjoyed their show. They were very, very good together. They were very intelligent and played off each other expertly.
I am sorry to hear of his passing and was surprised to learn there is a 12 year age difference between them.
To do comedy well requires a superior intellect, although not everyone with a superior intellect can do comedy well. The Magliozzi brothers could, and did.
I could care less about cars also…I just want them to get me from A to B, reliably. But “Car Talk” was incredibly funny. By far, the best radio program on NPR and maybe ALL radio stations.
Tom earned a degree in Chemical Engineering from MIT. I like that because my degree is Chemical Engineering.
I’m going to miss the “stump the chump” segments. And the brain teasers.
Great, great show, especially if you own and maintain an older car.
RIP
Another thing I really liked about the brothers’ humor was that you really could tell they were brothers. Brother-on-brother humor is often very special, where they share a certain sensibility and can riff off each other seamlessly.
Loved those guys.
In addition to that special brothers’ humor you mention, Neo, it was the true delight the two of them took in each other’s company. A fairly rare thing.
I still listen to car talk if I am in the car at the right time. And even though every episode is now a rerun, they continue to make me chuckle. RIP Tommy.
MIT is definitely not the gown part of Cambridge either in location or spirit. Not with all those geeky engineers and grubby entrepeneurs trying to get rich by making stuff. Plus it (at least used to be) is in the grubby part of town.
Paul in Boston:
MIT is in a part of town less grubby than it once was.
Central Square is still pretty grubby, but Kendall Square is a bit like Brazilia.
MIT students may be geeks, but they ain’t townies.
So sad the hear this. Those guys were true originals, and could instantly brighten your day just by spending a few minutes listening to them.
I remember how shocked I was when I learned about their MIT degrees. They sounded just like my working class Boston relatives, who hailed from the Irish ghetto of South Boston. Not that there weren’t brainy people in my working class family, but MIT degrees are rare indeed.
I especially liked some of the early programs in which their mother
?..their mother bantered with them on the air. Family dinners must have been a blast in their house.
RIP. And thanks to WBUR for discovering them and sharing them with the rest of us.
I moved to Cambridge (Porter Square) in 1993 from out of state. ne day, as I was driving around to get to know the area, I came across the Good News Garage (E. Cambridge)! It actually existed!
I bought my truck based on their recommendation.
It’s worked out very well.
Out my way, Car Talk was broadcast at weird hours — sort of a throw-away. (Honolulu.)
So, I only picked them up from time to time.
That laugh… it’s too much.
He will be missed.