ED SMYTH

COMEDIAN

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influences

It all started...

 ...reading bad jokes in Reader's Digest and Mad magazine. In the mid-70's. CBS featured a midnight movie every Saturday night after the local news. I read the TV guide posting of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", and it sounded kind of weird but interesting. By the time the plot line reached "The Black Knight" sequence, I was hooked.  

Here are the 21, no 22 influences eventually leading to Wally the Happy Talking Neutrino, Sock Puppet Theater, hard rock kazoo, and all the rest. 

The links are not embedded. Just copy and paste them onto YouTube to see 'em. 

#1  Monty Python's Flying Circus (original PBS premiere 1975-78) - A "gimme" on anyone's list. PBS first began broadcasting the British import around September 1975. The "Fishslap Dance" is typical of the skits that brought me to tears - I fully hyperventilated in laughter the first time I saw it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XeDvKqI4E 

#2  Saturday Night Live (original cast 1975-79) - Another "gimme". Mr. Bill is my fondest memory. Likewise, more hyperventilation from laughter. I had to see reruns during the summer to actually see the whole thing. It was such a twisted take on the wimpy kiddy shows back in the day.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgpEVzCUr3s 

#3  Early Second City TV (1976-80) - One more "gimme", although less quoted in nerd circles like Monty Python and SNL. It was a bit more brainy with deeper satire - Count Floyd and his dreadful midnight monster horror thriller movies; Farm Report with things "that blow up real good"; Bobby Maudlin Show, a cheeky send up of the ubiquitous daytime talk/variety shows. One of my fond favorites is "Philosophy Street": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LX9NPR9lWU

#4  Doonesbury - I started collecting and reading these when I was 14. My parents thought it was a dumb cartoon strip (but then, they thought a lot of things at the time were dumb. They huffed and scoffed about the "stupid movie that doesn't make any sense" while I was entranced the first time watching "2001: Space Odessey", so there you go) but I just loved the wicked, scathing satire and wit about Nixon, Watergate, hippies, and football jocks with dense muscles and denser heads.  

#5  Far Side - When it first arrived in our local paper in fall 1980, it was just confusing and weird. I can appreciate that reaction nowadays. 

#6  Mad magazine - My mom would buy me a copy once a month or so, and I tore through them cover to cover. The movie send ups were always my favorite - like "Billy Jack" beating people up with his smelly feet. 

#7  Reader's Digest "Laughter Is The Best Medicine" - My parents subscribed to RD during my childhood. This section was filled with - now looking back - the world's corniest puns and dopey double-entrendes, but they were cute and clever. I still recall this one from, oh let's say, 1971: 

"A Russian couple was walking down the street in St. Petersburg the other night, when the man felt a drop hit his nose. "I think it's raining," he said to his wife.

"No, that felt more like snow to me," she replied. "No, I'm sure it was just rain, he said." Well, as these things go, they were about to have a major argument about whether it was raining or snowing. Just then they saw a minor communist party official walking toward them. "Let's not fight about it," the man said, "let's ask Comrade Rudolph whether it's officially raining or snowing."

As the official approached, the man said, "Tell us, Comrade Rudolph, is it officially raining or snowing?" 

"It's raining, of course," he answered and walked on. But the woman insisted: "I know that felt like snow!" To which the man quietly replied: "Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear!"

#8  Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Goodtime Show (1974) - A strange, quirky variety show in the Saturday morning kids show line up.  The Hudson Brothers were a minor teen pop group, but the oddball sketches - the Frankensteins who create doctors, firemen, scientists, etc.; the castaways of Piggy-Piggy ("oh hum, another bor__ing day on the island of Pi___ggy-Piggy"), Fabulous Freddy the 8-year-old network executive, always turned down at the very end by the Brothers ("no thanks [finger snap]...tryin' to cut down"). The theme song still is kickin' after all these years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqCKVpIZxC4

#9  Airplane! (1980) - Another "gimme".  Still my favorite of all time. Too many great moments to list, but certainly "get into crash positions" is pure comic genius:  

#10  Dickie Goodman, "Mr. Jaws", 1975 - Dickie Goodman was a DJ in LA who compiled and released a long series of mock interviews using snippets of current songs as the gag response from the early 60's through the late 70's. "Mr. Jaws" was a typical silly humor record preteens like myself enjoyed.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDNlSpKLEEo 

#11  Judy Tenuta - The Petite Flower. I first saw her in the early 80's on USA Network "Night Flights" comedy club show, and - like Far Side - her act was confusing and weird. (So naturally I was curious). A full decade later watching older clips I finally "got it".  Her set from the HBO "Ladies of the Night" is still a rip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8YTXQgYaX8

#12  Calvin and Hobbes. There will always a hole in my heart for Calvin and Hobbes after the strip ended in the late 90's. So rich in creativity and humor. Sigh. 

#13  Weird Al Yankovic. A guilty pleasure since 1981' with "Another One Rides the Bus". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZkouut-9RQ 

#14  Dave Barry.  I started reading his column around 1985, and I just dug his flippant, thumb-to-nose twist on what ostensibly was a personal observation column (for you millenials out there, a "blog" but inserted in a newspaper): 

#15  Pat Oliphant. Political cartoons in the 70's were blunt, crusty, and made the point like dropping an anvil on your head. Pat Oliphant had a sharp, witty, clever take on things - typically making the intended point in the larger cartoon, while the teeny penquin in the corner made a zinger to complete the cartoon: 

#16  Gilbert Gottfried.  My comedy friend Bob Lamatie introduced me to Gilbert's twisted humor. In the late 80's, Bob and I got see him live in Saratoga Springs - we were falling over each other while the audience just looked dumbfounded, so Gilbert did a satire dig about the crowd: "Oh, well maybe I should do more jokes about cats and dogs. Yes. Yes. I'll just do some crazy zingers about cats and dogs, and then you'll be driving home later (imitates holding a giant steering wheel) saying 'oh, honey - that was SO hilarious. There really IS a difference between cats and dogs."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI17IBOZGBk 

#17  John Lovitz. Always had an uncanny ability to throw himself into a comic character. I especially loved Annoying Man, who has absolutely no other purpose in life except...to be annoying.  http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/weekend-update-segment---the-annoying-man/n9827?snl=1 

#18 The Muppet Show (1976-1980) - I know, I know - it continued as a syndicated show well beyond that, but this was an early influence with wry, clever humor. "Pigs In Space" was great, but I loved the absolutely-unshamed horrible puns and jokes of "Veterinarian's Hospital" and "Dr. Bob, the con-tin-uing stor-y of a quack who's gone to the dogs".  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUDxhz_jYxc 

#19 Emo Phillips. Proof that style, persona, delivery, timing etc. etc. beats all. You listen closely, and you realize half of his bits are just quips and two-liner wordplays. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbk6j3sOX1Y

#20 Hee Haw. Another guilty pleasure. It was so blazingly and consciously corny. That's the charm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJZY__j0Tyk