Word: laughed
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Like many variety shows, Laugh-In features new talent-except that the talent is deliberately askew: a virtuoso on the kazoo, a birdcall impressionist, or an all-thumbs juggler. It was in one such segment, for example, that the show inflicted on a helpless nation that hitherto unknown dingaling, Tiny...
Wacky, rapid-fire comedy is not new to TV. Indeed, Laugh-In's attack has touches of the late Ernie Kovacs, smatterings of early Sid Caesar and Steve Allen, and a-pie-in-the-face splat or two of Soupy Sales. But on Laugh-In, the calculated aim is to create a state of sensory overload, a condition that audiences nowadays seem to want or need. Blackouts, slapstick, instant skits pinwheel before the eyes; chatter and sound effects collide in the ear. Other TV variety shows can be dropped intact onto a theater or nightclub stage, but Laugh...
...almost subliminal. Ultimately, the viewer is totally involved, loses himself in a giddy, whirling world where the witty becomes indistinguishable from the wheezy. The show takes nothing seriously, least of all itself. When someone pops a hoary old vaudeville gag, the camera will cut to a wild-eyed Laugh-In writer shouting "Please! Stop me before I steal more...
...Dick Martin. Rowan, 46, is the smoothie, the fluent straight man who presides over the show as though it were a state dinner. Martin, also 46, is out to lunch. Hands stuffed in his pockets, rocking on his heels and giving out with a har-de-har-har laugh, he comes on like the original good-time Charlie. Their patter runs in quirky, who's-on-first circles like slightly modernized Abbott and Costello. Dan: "How does it feel to have a few shows under your belt?" Dick: "Something shows under my belt?" Dan: "Maybe I should try another...
Five years ago, such mildly risque lines would have been scissored by the censors. But today, a new try-anything spirit is upon the TV industry. The Smothers Brothers put the first dents in the censorship barrier early last season. Then Laugh-In crashed through and went about as far as it could go without being arrested. By the standards of movies, books, theater, or even late-night TV talk shows, Laugh-In's new blue cheer is decidedly inoffensive. Still, the program is only half kidding when it announces: "NBC brings you Laugh-In in a plain brown...