By Daniel Rigney
Today’s column introduces Rimshot the Sitdown Comic. Rimshot is a guy I know from, uh, college who has long dreamed of writing monologue material for standup comedians, but whose serious academic job has deterred him from doing anything so frivolous and laughable. Until now.
Lately Rimshot has been quietly tracking the history of standup humor, as practiced in the United States since vaudeville, in an effort to help preserve and extend our precious comedy heritage. Rimshot firmly and sincerely believes that the styles and varieties of comedy in a society through time tell us more than we really want to know about its cultural undercurrents and its collectively-unconscious life.
So if wrestlers and country singers and robots and toys, and even school mascots, can have their halls of fame, then jokes and their creators deserve one too.
Rimshot is talking about a hall that honors not just the famous jokes and jokers, but also our unknown heroes -- those faceless comedy script-writers and gag merchants who work ceaselessly and tirelessly that others might have laughs and have them uncontrollably.
Our inaugural induction into the Rimshot Hall of Fame is the late Henny Youngman (1906-1998), whom gossip columnist Walter Winchell once called the King of the One-liner. (There were few prominent woman-comedians when Youngman was young, but nominations are in order for his rightful Queen. Grace Allen? Lucille Ball in a somewhat later era? )
Henny Youngman took the national spotlight in the mid-1930s as a regular on Kate Smith’s radio variety show. Well, not the spotlight, exactly. Not on radio. Anyway, it was around that time that Youngman developed what would later become his signature catch phrase, for better or worse. (Better for him. Worse for whom?)
“Take my wife. Please!”
Comedians would (and probably do) now say “Take my husband. “ Or my partner, or my significant other, or my hookup. Please.
If Youngman’s original line were uttered for the first time today – on Letterman or Leno, for instance -- it would sound wincingly sexist and misogynist to even the most modestly progressive ear. But in the cultural context of its time and place, it was (and still is in some male enclaves) a traditionally acceptable, if not outright conservatively correct, expression of marital aggression .
Even in recent times, Letterman has been heard to mutter grumbling asides to his audience of millions -- offhand remarks that seem more than a little disrespectful toward his own marital partner. For all I know it’s some sort of inside joke between them, as Youngman’s apparently was. (Read on).
Story has it that Youngman’s signature line was not really about his wife Sadie at all. It was a comedy gimmick from which he and Sadie seem to have prospered together until death did them part. One version of the story has it that Youngman invented this bit of shtick unintentionally when, helping his wife find her place in a theater one evening, he politely asked an usher to “take my wife, please” to her seat. The usher thought he was cracking wise, and Youngman then realized the line’s comic potential. At least that’s one way I heard it.
Youngman soon began using the line in an entirely different frame, as one in a series of a rata-tat-tat one-liners delivered between his quick, screeching violin interludes of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” Younger audiences came to know him through comedy-variety programs like “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” and Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” “Take my wife, please” was one of a multitude of wife jokes he told, seemingly at Sadie’s expense, as a matter of comic routine. Yet their marriage lasted more than sixty years, until death took Sadie in 1987. No rimshot, please.
In real life, Mrs. Youngman was not “Henny-pecked,” as Rich Rein quips in a profile of her in People (Oct. 18, 1976). Mr. Youngman called her “My Fair Sadie.”
The basic joke-form “Take my wife. Please,” variously punctuated, has spawned countless knock-offs. According to no less an authority than Google, Youngman gave this title to his autobiography, and he called one of his many comedy records “Take My Album. Please!” The British sitcom “Take My Wife” (1979) and episodes of “Night Court” (1984) and “Married With Children” (1993) bore this title. Two episodes of the Simpsons, “Take My Wife, Sleaze” (1999) and “Take My Life, Please” (2009), paid tribute to the classic formula. The almost-Shakespearian “Take My Life, Please” was likewise the title of episodes of "Twilight Zone” (1985) and “ CSI” (2010).
What other incarnations has this one-liner had? Tom and Ray Magliozzi, comic hosts of NPR’s “Car Talk,” have publicly talked up “Take My Car,” public radio’s vehicle donation program. A quick search reveals that other Please-Takes invite readers or listeners to take, in no particular order, my hard drive, my pickup, my congressman, my mansion, my money, my tax cut, my financial reform plan, my Bar Mitzvah, my stem cells, and my Easter candy -- the latter a reference to the perils of dieting during holidays.
Variations on “Take my wife” (e.g., “Take my alewife”) abound, including cutting references to “my mother,” “my father,” “my mother-in-law,“ and my husband's brain."
But as always, some of the most revealing jokes are those that don’t bark in the night -- the ones that could have been told but weren’t. I am unable to find, so far, references to “my children” “my child,” “my son,” “my daughter,” and “my grandchild” or “grandchildren.” There’s something not funny about inviting others to take your own offspring.
I am also unable to find reference, in these hard economic times, to “Take my job.” More surprisingly, perhaps, I’m not finding “Take my boss, please.” Maybe people say it under their breath, with teeth clenched. But not many comedians say it publicly on stage for some reason.
You may have heard (or not heard) other barking one-liners created from Youngman’s simple formula. Or you may have one or two of your own to suggest. In retrospect, the content of Youngman’s original joke is offensive to many of us in the 21st century. But Youngman had thousands of other one liners, sometimes delivered at a rate of 150-200 per half-hour according to legend, which were not about his wife, including many that were self-deprecating. And many of them are, I think, still very funny. We report. You decide. Search and read.
However offensive we may find the content of “Take my wife” today, the essential form of the joke remains classic. In just little four words, “Take,” for short, can carry content of almost infinite variety, and can accommodate messages of almost any cultural or ideological stripe. It can be used by or against both progressives and traditionalists.
Take Governor Rick Perry of Texas. Finish the joke yourself and go to instantrimshot.com for a closing sound effect.
Rimshot, the Sitdown Comic
Brought to you by Danagram. Curating our precious comedy heritage since 2011.
Today’s column introduces Rimshot the Sitdown Comic. Rimshot is a guy I know from, uh, college who has long dreamed of writing monologue material for standup comedians, but whose serious academic job has deterred him from doing anything so frivolous and laughable. Until now.
Lately Rimshot has been quietly tracking the history of standup humor, as practiced in the United States since vaudeville, in an effort to help preserve and extend our precious comedy heritage. Rimshot firmly and sincerely believes that the styles and varieties of comedy in a society through time tell us more than we really want to know about its cultural undercurrents and its collectively-unconscious life.
So if wrestlers and country singers and robots and toys, and even school mascots, can have their halls of fame, then jokes and their creators deserve one too.
Rimshot is talking about a hall that honors not just the famous jokes and jokers, but also our unknown heroes -- those faceless comedy script-writers and gag merchants who work ceaselessly and tirelessly that others might have laughs and have them uncontrollably.
Our inaugural induction into the Rimshot Hall of Fame is the late Henny Youngman (1906-1998), whom gossip columnist Walter Winchell once called the King of the One-liner. (There were few prominent woman-comedians when Youngman was young, but nominations are in order for his rightful Queen. Grace Allen? Lucille Ball in a somewhat later era? )
Henny Youngman took the national spotlight in the mid-1930s as a regular on Kate Smith’s radio variety show. Well, not the spotlight, exactly. Not on radio. Anyway, it was around that time that Youngman developed what would later become his signature catch phrase, for better or worse. (Better for him. Worse for whom?)
“Take my wife. Please!”
Comedians would (and probably do) now say “Take my husband. “ Or my partner, or my significant other, or my hookup. Please.
If Youngman’s original line were uttered for the first time today – on Letterman or Leno, for instance -- it would sound wincingly sexist and misogynist to even the most modestly progressive ear. But in the cultural context of its time and place, it was (and still is in some male enclaves) a traditionally acceptable, if not outright conservatively correct, expression of marital aggression .
Even in recent times, Letterman has been heard to mutter grumbling asides to his audience of millions -- offhand remarks that seem more than a little disrespectful toward his own marital partner. For all I know it’s some sort of inside joke between them, as Youngman’s apparently was. (Read on).
Story has it that Youngman’s signature line was not really about his wife Sadie at all. It was a comedy gimmick from which he and Sadie seem to have prospered together until death did them part. One version of the story has it that Youngman invented this bit of shtick unintentionally when, helping his wife find her place in a theater one evening, he politely asked an usher to “take my wife, please” to her seat. The usher thought he was cracking wise, and Youngman then realized the line’s comic potential. At least that’s one way I heard it.
Youngman soon began using the line in an entirely different frame, as one in a series of a rata-tat-tat one-liners delivered between his quick, screeching violin interludes of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes.” Younger audiences came to know him through comedy-variety programs like “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” and Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show.” “Take my wife, please” was one of a multitude of wife jokes he told, seemingly at Sadie’s expense, as a matter of comic routine. Yet their marriage lasted more than sixty years, until death took Sadie in 1987. No rimshot, please.
In real life, Mrs. Youngman was not “Henny-pecked,” as Rich Rein quips in a profile of her in People (Oct. 18, 1976). Mr. Youngman called her “My Fair Sadie.”
The basic joke-form “Take my wife. Please,” variously punctuated, has spawned countless knock-offs. According to no less an authority than Google, Youngman gave this title to his autobiography, and he called one of his many comedy records “Take My Album. Please!” The British sitcom “Take My Wife” (1979) and episodes of “Night Court” (1984) and “Married With Children” (1993) bore this title. Two episodes of the Simpsons, “Take My Wife, Sleaze” (1999) and “Take My Life, Please” (2009), paid tribute to the classic formula. The almost-Shakespearian “Take My Life, Please” was likewise the title of episodes of "Twilight Zone” (1985) and “ CSI” (2010).
What other incarnations has this one-liner had? Tom and Ray Magliozzi, comic hosts of NPR’s “Car Talk,” have publicly talked up “Take My Car,” public radio’s vehicle donation program. A quick search reveals that other Please-Takes invite readers or listeners to take, in no particular order, my hard drive, my pickup, my congressman, my mansion, my money, my tax cut, my financial reform plan, my Bar Mitzvah, my stem cells, and my Easter candy -- the latter a reference to the perils of dieting during holidays.
Variations on “Take my wife” (e.g., “Take my alewife”) abound, including cutting references to “my mother,” “my father,” “my mother-in-law,“ and my husband's brain."
But as always, some of the most revealing jokes are those that don’t bark in the night -- the ones that could have been told but weren’t. I am unable to find, so far, references to “my children” “my child,” “my son,” “my daughter,” and “my grandchild” or “grandchildren.” There’s something not funny about inviting others to take your own offspring.
I am also unable to find reference, in these hard economic times, to “Take my job.” More surprisingly, perhaps, I’m not finding “Take my boss, please.” Maybe people say it under their breath, with teeth clenched. But not many comedians say it publicly on stage for some reason.
You may have heard (or not heard) other barking one-liners created from Youngman’s simple formula. Or you may have one or two of your own to suggest. In retrospect, the content of Youngman’s original joke is offensive to many of us in the 21st century. But Youngman had thousands of other one liners, sometimes delivered at a rate of 150-200 per half-hour according to legend, which were not about his wife, including many that were self-deprecating. And many of them are, I think, still very funny. We report. You decide. Search and read.
However offensive we may find the content of “Take my wife” today, the essential form of the joke remains classic. In just little four words, “Take,” for short, can carry content of almost infinite variety, and can accommodate messages of almost any cultural or ideological stripe. It can be used by or against both progressives and traditionalists.
Take Governor Rick Perry of Texas. Finish the joke yourself and go to instantrimshot.com for a closing sound effect.
Rimshot, the Sitdown Comic
Brought to you by Danagram. Curating our precious comedy heritage since 2011.
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