Word: morte
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Parents like Mort Sahl. My mom really likes Mort Sahl. At first glance, the number of balding heads and hearing aids in Mort Sahl's audience is daunting. One wonders what kind of night one is in for. But he comes with good recommendations--Morn's got taste, she married Dad, after all. Sahl was host of the Academy Awards, the world's most watched television program. He was our parents' Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams. It'll be great to get a cross-generational perspective on humor, right...
...Mort Sahl walks on stage, you are overcome with a mixture of dread and fascination. You realize you know who he is--he's loud Uncle Mort whom you only see on Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. He knows everything, he knows he's funny and successful, and he tells you all about it. Until he's had a few drinks in him, he will insist on displaying his wit, connections, and catalogue of anecdotes, while you wonder how long the holiday will take. Ultimately, you begin sneaking illicit shots to make him tolerable. Too bad they...
...first five minutes shows that exactly one joke was funny. To look at all the gray-haired ladies splitting their sides with laughter, however, makes one wonder if maybe his humor is an adult thing, like knowing how to fill out a tax form. Mort Sahl's audience loves...
Every once in a while Mort pulls one out that is moderately amusing. "Hail to the Chief, President Bill Clinton. Long may he waiver." But the points he scores are withdrawn when he attributes to his wife the apocryphal remark about Pat Buchanan's speech at the 1992 Republican Convention sounding better in the original German. It's funny--too bad we've heard it before. Meanwhile, that elderly audience keeps on laughing...
Thus, Darwin was wrong, or so political humorist Mort Sahl would have you believe...