Example: Recently on JEOPARDY I laughed out loud (if only current sitcoms could make me laugh). It was Final Jeopardy and the category was SINGERS. The clue was something like (I’m paraphrasing) “This 95 year-old-singer recorded an album of new material in 2021.”
The answer is obviously Tony Bennett.
Only one of the three contestants got the right answer.
One said Diana Ross. Okay, that was audible guffaw number one. For the record, Ms Ross is 77, but knowing how vain she is and what a diva she is, to think that anyone would assume she was 95 was, to me, absolutely hysterical.
And then the topper: The next contestant also wrote down Diana Ross. I was on the floor. TWO out of three people thought Diana Ross was 95.
I would have given anything to see Ms Ross' reaction when she learned of this. I know that’s mean, but I’m just being honest with ya. And do understand I am a fan of her music. Even saw her once in concert. She’s a major talent.
But Diana Ross goes to extraordinary lengths to look glamorous and young. And she has that huge mop of hair, all designed to bring attention to herself. She's Motown's Norma Desmond.
I think if they would have said Cher my laugh would have been just as big. Context. If one had said Joni Mitchell — well, with all her health problems she’s aged considerably and it would be conceivable someone might (very incorrectly) think she’s 95. So way more sad than funny.
Same with Keith Richards -- although everyone has thought he was 95 since 1995.
So for me — the right person, the right joke, and then the perfect topper. Two great laughs in one night. Oh.. I also got the answer right. It had to be Tony Bennett. Keith Richards didn’t record new material last year.
42 comments :
Would you have laughed as loud if there was a guess for Bob Dylan?
I had one of those moments years ago. A radio station here in Lexington, Kentucky asked a caller, "Who has blue eyes, synthetic hair, and was born nine 'bleams' ago"?
The answer was Mork from Ork, but the caller guessed Ed McMahon.
Just to be fair . . . Diana Ross did release a new album in '21
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thank_You_(Diana_Ross_album)
I love when I know the final Jeopardy question and all the contestants get it wrong.
Thank you, Lady Gaga.
I can perfectly understand why someone younger would not know how old Diana Ross is. I have not seen a picture of her in many years, so I'm sure she is pretty much an abstract subject to many. But Chris Hayes of MSNBC is a journalist! He should have got this one right.
Not sure that I "get" the Bob Dylan jape. Can someone please 'splain it ? I just woke up.
Guy Peellaert's Diana Ross: https://www.flickr.com/photos/82436511@N00/5460958890/
Obviously, some people slipped through the cracks.
I'm reminded of something that Pat Sajak said--and he's a bright guy, despite his politics. He said that the puzzle on Wheel of Fortune once came down to -ettysbur- Address. The contested said, "The Bettysburg Address." Of course the next contestant got it. Sajak walked over and said, "A lot of people are familiar with that great speech by Abraham Bincoln." He got a pretty good laugh, but he said he felt terrible because he realized that he was getting the laugh at the expense of someone who clearly wasn't that dumb and clearly knew the answer, and clearly wasn't a TV professional, but got too nervous on national TV to get it right.
That isn't the case here.
We also laughed heartily at those Final Jeopardy answers -- I hope Miss Ross' feelings weren't too badly hurt.
By the way, Variety just posted an excellent interview with David Hyde Pierce and Bebe Neuwirth discussing their supporting roles in the new HBO Max series, JULIA. Charming and well worth reading -- yes, they inevitably talk about FRASIER and CHEERS -- with some quite interesting personal perspectives on their work.
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/david-hyde-pierce-bebe-neuwirth-julia-frasier-1235222354/
Sadly, there is not one but two generations between today's 20-somethings and baby boomer era stars and celebs.
Imagine 23 year Ken being on Jeopardy -- and a similar question was asked. Could someone not in the entertainment business in 1975 have identified 90-something playwright George Abbott or actor Burt Mustin from a clue?
Diana Ross to that Jeopardy contestant is as distant as Abbott, Mustin or Adolph Zukor were to us.
Last week a man identified a picture of Jackie Mason as Jackie Gleason. Is it wrong that I laughed? He was quite young. I don't think I'd know John Gilbert from Conrad Nagel.
Ha! I laughed out loud when I read it just now. Don't give Andrew Lloyd Webber any ideas.
After like, age 65 old singers are just old and can be anywhere between 65 and 147
One of my last conversations with my mom before she died five years ago was whether she liked Tony Bennett enough for me to buy her a CD as a gift. Bennett is my dad's age and just older than mom. So of course I knew the answer. But I'd remind you all that having been up on that stage, it ain't as easy after you've been playing the game under real pressure. Still, Diana Ross is closer to my age than my parents'.
Honestly, I love Jeopardy, and have also been laughing quite often. But watching the contestants not know certain answers has made me feel very old. Many of the answers are obvious to anyone 50 or older. Hearing crickets chirp so often, or seeing absurd answers, is a reality check.
I've watched the first three episodes of Julia, fourth one (of eight) up tomorrow. I really love the series so far. I despised Julie & Julia and Streep's portrayal of Julia left me cold. I'm not familiar with Sarah Lancashire though she has been prolific on British TV but I think she's marvelous, touching, with all the charm of the real Julia. It's written and produced by playwrights and does a great job with working in key aspects of Julia's life and backstory.
Someone with the high school social life I had in the early 70s could have identified Burt Mustin. To paraphrase (and clean up) something Gilbert Gottfried said on his podcast a while back, if I had known the first thing about girls in high school, I wouldn't know half the stuff about TV and movies that I know now....
"Could someone not in the entertainment business in 1975 have identified 90-something playwright George Abbott or actor Burt Mustin from a clue?"
Burt Mustin had played Gus, the elderly fireman, on Leave It to Beaver so ... maybe?
There was a nice moment late in that series' run. Beaver is being pushed by his aunt to go away to some out-of-town ritzy high school, but all he wants to do is go to Mayfield High and stay with his friends. We see the Beaver walking around town, thinking about things. In the course of this he passes the firehouse, looks up to the window of the office where Gus used to sit, and he looks sad. We're to understand from this that Gus is gone and, likely, deceased. It's probably the saddest thing in the series.
If Ms. Ross had been in the audience would she have jumped up and slapped them?
M.B.
Mike McCann 4/06/2022 10:51 AM
“Imagine 23 year Ken being on Jeopardy -- and a similar question was asked. Could someone not in the entertainment business in 1975 have identified 90-something playwright George Abbott...”
In 1975, Abbott — 88 — was
1. enjoying an affair — begun in 1968 — with Maureen Stapleton, 50
2. signing — via mail —his collected written/directed unpublished/published plays for me, age 20
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Abbott#Work)
Abbott died at age 107, still working, and reportedly outliving — I’m told — me, by a decade.
We’re often surprised how many today, even those in Show Biz —are unfamiliar
with past entertainers and their work, as it all seems so inescapable with the Internet.
Prior generations of stage folk — as part of their craft — knew the history.
Maybe there’s just too much of it.
Still, “Diana Ross” was not such a bad guess for those not yet
breathing during Ross’s heyday. After all, Petula Clark — another pop giant
and Ed Sullivan regular in the 1960s, turns 90 this November,
thereby , by a decade, outliving me.
One thing I read into your mentioning LOL, my wife has a loud laugh. We were in a theatre watching Something About Mary, and the hair gel scene came on, and the crowd chuckled. My wife did her loud laughing, which then encouraged everyone else to laugh more and more and louder, which caused it to be so loud, couldn't hear the movie. They were laughing at the movie, not my wife.
So laughing is like yawning, once one starts, it gets contagious in many cases.
Just like award shows, there should be more, they are contagious....
At least nobody guessed Paul McCartney!
@Spike - Sarah Lancashire is a splendid actress. You should try to watch her magnificent police procedural called "Happy Valley," which clearly inspired the HBOmax series "Mare of Easttown".
When I was a teenager, I not only knew Burt Mustin, I could do a pretty fair Burt Mustin impression.
As someone who was a silent movie and old radio buff at 12 and a World War II history nut and W.C. Fields/Marx Brothers fanatic at 16, I have no patience with young people who claim they can't be expected to know something because it happened before they were born. News flash, kids: a whole LOT of sh*t did. And most of it is more interesting than what's happened since you came along.
I like to quote the Credibility Gap (a comedy group that started before my time) to them: "Ignorance of your culture is not considered cool."
Years ago a Wheel of Fortune puzzle had these letters up: _AR CORRESPONDENT. An older man took a shot at guessing it: BAR CORRESPONDENT, he said. All I could think of was that they chose him for the show and not me.
I had a similar reaction to that final Jeopardy situation.
"Diana Ross? She isn't THAT old."
I did go with Tony Bennett, but with one reservation because of the wording of the question.
Bennett and Lady Gaga's 2021 release was new recordings of OLD material, since Mr. Bennett is unable to learn new songs now, so I wasn't completely sure of my answer until it was verified.
To paraphrase an earlier blog post, "Who's Tony Bennett?"
Gotta agree Ken, funny moment. Especially given that according to numerous sources, Ms. Ross has never quite been known as humble about her talent and looks. (At least a few of her claimed accomplishments, such as 'discovering' Michael Jackson and his family, were actually performed by Gladys Knight.)
But I do enjoy her music, although it's given me a horrible tic: to this day, no matter the context, if I hear of the wood known as mahogany, I think of the lyrics in that so-bad-it's-good movie theme Ross recorded. "Do you know where you're going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you? Where are you going to? Do you know?" :-P
@maxdebryn
> Not sure that I "get" the Bob Dylan jape.
What's to get? He's another famous singer who a younger person might plausibly think is 95. He is currently 80, three years older than Diana Ross. FWIW Keith Richards is 78.
Regarding Burt Mustin, while his Gus character may have passed, he didn't; in fact, he occasionally appeared on "All in the Family" and other 1970s sitcoms. Always a welcome presence.
@ScarletNumber -
Thanks for the clarification. You've made this 62 year old (who looks 50-ish to several of the younger folk that I work with) feel well-informed.
Burt Mustin on The Brady Bunch: “Jesse James was a mean, dirty killer. A mean ,dirty killer. A mean, dirty killer…”
I can’t summon up much compassion for Diana Ross. She isn’t a particularly nice person from everything I’ve read.
Tony Bennett was a guest voice on the baseball episode of THE SIMPSONS that you co-wrote (and I believe you were also the voice of the ballpark announcer). Did you ever get to meet Tony?
Also, who wrote the epic "Capital City" song?
@max
I love "Julia," and didn't even realize that it is the same actress from "Happy Valley"! That makes her an EXCELLENT actress
Ketanji Brown Jackson has been confirmed for the Supreme Court.
I'm off to swim in conservative tears.
"She's Motown's Norma Desmond." Perfect! Thank-you for the laugh!
Clever!
@maxdebryn
Re Sarah Lancashire, I just found Happy Valley streaming free on Crackle, thanks for the recommendation!
Dionne Warwick is 81, I don't know if she's released a new album but she was very funny in her recent cameo on SNL. And it seems she's active on Twitter with witty jabs at younger rap artists and they love it.
At least no one answered Dean Martin...
I saw that show and I laughed just as loud as you did when Diana Ross was mentioned.
Friday question for you, Ken: Trapper left MASH off-camera because when Season 3 ended, the producers expected Wayne Rogers to be back. Was the same true of Larry Linville? His contract was up, and the character was not the same once Hot Lips got engaged. Were the power that be expecting him back, or was Frank Burns not deemed worthy of an on-camera exit?
As someone roughly Ken's age, I'm missing the humor. Maybe because I've been on the show, and in FJ, there's no difference between guessing wrong and not guessing at all.
Moreover, I am TERRIBLE at music of the 2010s. I was actually pleased when I got a reference to Machine Gun Kelly, not the gangster.
In general, when you're young, almost EVERYTHING is old. WWI is right after the Spanish-American War, which is right after the American Civil War.
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