Those Old Comedy Records

I like old comedy albums. In the days of more limited technology, comics used to release their best bits on LP albums, the height of that popularity being in the 50's and 60's. And there were other styles of humor on record too. The records that replayed famous errors made on live broadcasts were extremely popular in the 50's and 60's.  One might think he or she would tire easily of listening to the same comedy cuts on a record that was played over and over, but just as in hearing a music record again and again, listening to good comedy is a pleasure even when you know what is coming. One begins to admire the skill of the artists or the weirdness of the comment as the record is played over and over.

Because I have an old "record player" and I seek out those I sometimes run across old comedy albums at thrift stores.  One I recently found is entitled, 'All Time Great Bloopers' (from radio programs in the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's). "A collection of unintended indiscretions made before microphone and camera" the record  introduction says. The bloopers were mistakes made by people who were on those live radio programs as host, announcers, news persons, guests etc.  Today we call those things "out-takes", but they are not shocking or as funny given the non limits on what one can say or do publicly in our age of excess. In the old days of live radio one's mistakes went out onto the air immediately as well as to recording tapes. There was no delay on what was said by the radio speaker in such primitive technological times (another reason I prefer the old technology to the pristine new).

I have heard blooper records before but not in some time, so this one made me think again about them. What surprises me about this one is how raw, some sexual innuendoes included, these bloopers were. We tend to think of those earlier days as being more controlled and less risqué, but when speaking accidentally they were not always so. Any profanity ot sexual misstatement said were mistakes that elicited instant embarrassment from the speaker, not gratuitous vulgarity for cheap laughs. That makes them all the more amusing to hear. The blunder was only acceptable and funny to listeners because they were given to the audience only mistakenly. In my view that is what "reality communication" is, not the contrived mess of reality TV shows that dull the brain for viewers today.

Something this record reminds me of is how a culture can be defined by the simplest elements of it, as in a comedy record that illustrates what people were thinking and saying 50 years or more ago. What we laugh at can tell us about what our attitudes and manners are. Most of the entries on this record are innocent ones, and surely that age was far more innocent than what our age is today. Too, one can learn the historic events of the time, even from the silliness of it, as in selections on the record of  British Royalty from an event in which the announcer made an embarrassing  but funny reference to a forbidden part of Queen's body, or some of the entries on the record that showed how politicians, performers and simple men on the street have thoughts then seen as inappropriately but now routinely expressed and uncensored.

As the record begins, an announcer in opening a National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio show says, "This is the Nation Broad castrating Company".  Another very serious host speaking of a very serious matter begins laughing hysterically and can't stop, even as he reads the obituary notice in hand. A contestant on a quiz program gives  what she thinks is the correct answer to the host's question, which is supposed to be "Alexander Dummies". Instead  she blurts, "Alexander Dumbness". Another woman guest in a morning show whose content is about bad rumors being unkindly spread or castigated  keeps saying the neighbor man "castrates" her husband.  A commercial advertisement about cigars breaks down when the speaker starts choking after a drag on the sponsor's product. 

When a lady is interviewed on a quiz show and the host finds out she has 7 brothers and 7 sisters, he asks her, "And how many children do you have?" She replies, "One. "Only one", says the host in surprised tone. "Damn! Give me some time, I have only been married one month", she answers.  When the laxative sponsor of a mystery hour, 'Phillip's Milk of Magnesia', says, "And now Philip's Milk of Magnesia presents 'Women on the Run', the audience becomes hysterical.  When a man on the street reporter attempts to interview a sweet looking lady on the street it breaks down instantly.

"Ma'am may we ask you a few questions,' the interviewer says. "Hell No!, replies the fleeing lady. A football player named Peters injuries his leg during a game broadcast and the announcer says, "Looks like the team will have to play with their peters out." A county fair show host says, "Ladies, today Mr. Robbers will have his nuts on display on aisle nine".  At a golf tournament broadcast the announcer presents U.S. Open Champion Arnold Palmer as,   "Arnold Palmer, U.S. Opium Champion."  "How large is your family", a quiz show hosts asks a lady. "Two boys, three girls, one adult and one adulteress" she says.

There's plenty more on the record but I am ending it here before I start writing like they sound. Enjoy a laugh today, intended or unintended.