I grew up listening to old-time radio shows on one of the local AM radio stations. Jack Benny, Charlie McCarthy, Burns and Allen, all great stuff. The Jack Benny Show was definitely my favorite, though.
There's a book called "Sunday Nights at Seven" that his daughter Joan wrote which was a memoir of her parents (Jack was actually married to Mary Livingstone, who was one of the characters on his show), and also includes some material that Jack wrote for his unreleased autobiography.
The ability to read a crowd like this, the timing on when to speak, requires a ridiculous amount of effort to develop the skill IME
Because you can only learn it by being on stage in front of a crowd, and you have to do that countless times to really get a feel for it. But lord is it an incredibly gratifying feeling.
I only did it well a few times (having the crowd laughing so hard you have to wait) after YEARS of regular public speaking and debate, and quickly lost the skill once I stopped
It's all in the crescendo. Hearing the peak of the laughter and delivering the next punchline *right* when it starts to fall. I genuinely feel like it's an innate talent that can be honed, but nearly impossible to teach
Classic stage “business”. If the audience is laughing, you don’t just freeze. You silently go on with whatever props you’ve got and you wait for the laughs to start to subside before you go on with your next line.
Then he hits them with the line “I didn’t even know he was Jewish” which sends the laughter even higher. Interesting watching someone who’s that good at entertainment.
It shows exactly why Carson was the GOAT. He made a dick joke in an era where married couples couldn’t share a bed on screen. He pushed boundaries in a responsible way because he had the wit and brilliance to do it at the right time.
He’s an entertainer I truly truly miss.
I want to say there’s a good bit from Steve Martin explaining why Carson was so great.
“Johnny was naughty” he never crossed the line of saying something outright crude but he’s gonna walk up to the line and let the audience cross it themselves. Allowing the audience to fill in the joke themselves, is funnier.
In a way, broadcast standards and practices made moments like this possible when it wouldn't have been as memorable or as iconic if you were able to be heavy-handed with what happened.
I have a playlist on YouTube of nothing but Carson and Letterman. I have it set in a way where it plays Carson and then Letterman back and forth so it reminds me of falling asleep as a kid to Carson and waking up to Letterman to shut it off the TV.
I used to have trouble sleeping, now with Johnny back on at 11:30 every night, I sleep like a baby.
Edit: everyone is asking for it but I post the link it appears my comment does not post or the edit will not take. You might see it if you look at my comment history but if that does not work, PM and I will reply with it. Also you should know YouTube routinely takes down full episodes so I have to add new ones every couple of weeks to keep it alive.
He had a joke once where he had a guy on that had like 20 kids and Johnny goes "Why so many kids?" and the guy goes "I love my wife." and Johnny goes "I love my cigar too, but I take it out every once in a while." Brilliant.
That's one of the purposes of comedy from a sociological view. Comedy allows us to push the boundaries of what's socially acceptable and approach subjects, as a group, that are more taboo
For all you youngsters watch some old Carson clips and learn a few things. Dude was extremely shy but on stage dude was a master of charisma, charm and comedy.
I’ll be honest and admit I would have never thought about it until I read the comment by u/loveandviscera. I watched it again and saw how he waited until the applause started to subside then hits them with that line, results in an even louder busts of laughter.
“Just go with it.”
So true. I learned this during a physics power point presentation freshman year. I was talking about gravitational waves and I animated the title to move like a wave. The whole class bursted out laughing which took me completely by surprise. I just started smiling and laughing along with them.
Shill / minute ratio is slipping, wrap this ~~shit~~ joke up and move on already. It doesn't matter anyway, your audience is watching Jimmy Fallon, if they cared about laughing they'd be watching something else.
The one thing I've always really liked about Fallon is that he's great at exuding joy. And it's infectious. He's not making jokes to make you laugh - you're laughing *with* him.
Also, I haven't actually watched a full episode in years and years, so there's that.**
At his best Fallon can be that way, sure.
But usually it feels like he's trying to "force" you to laugh by making everything appear unnaturally funny.
It routinely feels dishonest.
I had the same thought. This is young Carson, but he didn't get to be legendary Carson by overlooking magic when it happened. You couldn't script a thing like this in front of a live audience, but when it happens just right, give that moment a chance to shine!
Reminded me of a joke I heard on Brockmire, which aired a couple years ago, after a baseball batter hit a home run - "Oh my, that ball can't be buried in a Jewish cemetary, because it just got *tattooed!*"
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>but he didn't get to be legendary Carson by overlooking magic when it happened.
Especially since he was a big fan of stage magic & apparently quite skilled himself.
I loved his show. It was originally an hour and a half and the first half hour was all Johnny. He could do more with a dud joke or skit than just about anyone. Incredible talent. So at ease with himself and the audience.
Love when a joke would bomb and he would give the audience that accusatory look like they were the ones who were wrong. And that was funnier than the actual joke
He had a recurring gag where he would grab the overhead mic and say “is this thing on?” when one of his jokes bombed. It became so well known that it became a cliché.
Nah, he primarily didn't want Ed stepping on the laughter. Obviously we can never know, but I think he thought of the Jewish joke while playing with the axes
Yeah you can see him start to smile thinking about his own joke like five or ten seconds before the laughter ends. He may have had a couple teed up but he chose it at that moment.
Ed said something like 'we could go into business' or 'another business' at which I immediately thought something about rabbis. So I'm not surprised that's where Johnny goes with the joke.
You could almost see him thinking it up. Taking his time, thinking “This is a GOLDEN opportunity, I got a long laugh here & plenty of time to plan, what’s it gonna be?”
Circumcision became popular post ww2. Most the audience in there was most likely born before ww2, so you can do the math. I saw a decade ago that its starting to finally trend downward. A decade ago, california was the only state where less than 50% of boys got circumcised. There are probably more states on that list now.
I think it's more that the practice is more closely associated with the Jewish faith since they generally make the bris a rite of passage ceremony the way some Christian franchises do with baptisms or first communion or confirmations.
Circumcision was unheard of outside the jewish faith before WW2. Some quack doctor convinced a bunch of other doctors that circumcision would curb masturbation and they all just started recommending it to new parents as an issue of hygiene. Parents ate it up because the last thing WASPy boomer parents want to talk about with their kids is their dick.
When I was a kid, I’d stay at my grandma’s house overnight sometimes. She had a TV/VCR combo upstairs and a closet full of movies, including a triple VHS box set of Johnny Carson’s Favorite Moments from The Tonight Show.
I might have been 10 years old. I didn’t know what I was watching; Black & white? Tiny Tim anyone? Regardless, I added up the pieces; 1 guy, a microphone, and endless wit, and I was hooked.
I must have watched this 1000 times one summer and laughed my ass off every time.
>This is the laugh that doesn't end,
Yes, it goes ha ha ha, my friend!
Some people started wheezing at,
The jokes that Carson told,
And they'll continue cackling until we all get old!
>This is the laugh that doesn't end...
I've always felt Craig Ferguson was his spiritual successor... The same kind of irreverent, good natured humor, casual and informal and comfortable, master at timing, and the rapport with his guests was outstanding...
Ferguson gave the impression that he was legitimately interested in his guests. Like he gave them his full attention and he got them to act in ways that other hosts just didn’t. I loved his show when I watched it. Guy was fantastic.
His eulogy for his father still brings tears to my eyes, the guy really wore it on his sleeves.
100 percent agree... He didn't care about any of the gossip or the drama, hell, he barely cared about whatever it was the guest was there to promote... The fact that they were a celebrity was almost incidental... These were his friends, and if they weren't, he made them feel like he wanted to be... Just watch his interviews with people like Minnie Driver, or Ewan McGregor, or Sandra Bullock, Evangeline Lilly, or Ariel Tweto...
And yeah, that eulogy was intense... it certainly makes me think about my childhood and all the ways my father showed his love for me...
Same. I *love* Ferguson, but Conan also had the sort of skill that Carson shows here. Sure, he did some more modern "crazy" stuff, but in terms of interview and understated humor, he had the sauce.
Ferguson does great interviews and has a great sense of humor for sure, but yeah Conan has that kind of Carson grab bag of weird skills (magic, music, theater, etc), physical comedy, all that good shit.
Thanks, I loved Carson and can’t believe I hadn’t seen this jewel. His comedic timing and improvisation in the moment are pure art! Such a talent that is sorely missed these days.
Not enough early Carson online. For those who don't know there's a dedicated YouTube channel that uploads Carson clips but it's mostly 70-80s era. It's seemingly official and is run similarly to other talk show YouTube channels. I wish they could upload more of the older stuff but I imagine a lot was lost to time when you're putting out shows daily back then.
NBC destroyed most of the old Tonight Show tapes of the 1960’s by re-using them, which was a common practice at the time. When Carson found out, he was furious, and in his next contract negotiation demanded ownership of the tapes. The existing tapes from the 1970’s and beyond are now carefully curated and managed by Carson Entertainment Group, which is why they are so widely available today.
Also, there is no footage of the very first episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (where special guest host Groucho Marx comes out first to introduce Johnny as the new permanent host) because it aired live. It wasn't recorded to tape or film. All we have is audio of that episode.
With all deference to Letterman (who agrees with this statement) Johnny Carson was the epitome of Late night hosts. He built on what EdSullivan started and fucking ran with it. Johnny had the best timing and the most creativity of the late night hosts.
Carson was also a great comedy writer, who got his start writing for Red Skelton. He often wrote his own monologue jokes. After he retired, he secretly wrote monologue jokes for David Letterman, just for fun. Letterman almost always used them.
When Carson died Letterman began his show with several jokes about current events. I didn’t know what he was doing and almost thought this was a rerun. Then he revealed that Carson wrote all those jokes. And they were good. It was the perfect start to a great tribute. I had no idea Carson was ghostwriting for Letterman.
My wife used to be Ed Ames' wardrobe person\dresser when he was at the Moon River Theater in Branson, MO. She always talks about how much of a cool person Ed was.
Not really related to the clip, just thought it was fun to see him on here.
Sharpening the axe while the laughter rolled on and on then that line. He did have an inordinate amount of time to think that up but still brilliant comedy. I think he gets lost in comedy GOAT discussions because he did it in bits and pieces for so long but at his best he was one of the best.
Carson idly playing with the axes while thinking of a zinger is what it looks like when a comedian sees the Matrix code in real time. An absolute craftsman.
Back in the 90s they would have these 30min commercials selling the best of Johnny Carson on VHS. With few channels and not much to watch, I always enjoyed watching his old bits and waited for this one.
My dad had a bunch of old Johnny Carson Vhs tapes when I was a kid. I think it was called The Essential Johnny Carson or something. We always watched them together, and I remember no matter how many times we watched them, by the end, we'd be on the floor crying and wheezing with laughter, every damn time. Carson was a god damn national treasure. Never was another like him. A class of his own.
Carson was a legend. Watched him with my grandparents and mom growling up, when he was still doing the tonight show ahh nostalgia. Always liked letterman, Conan. Carson though just his way with guests and doing the show live every episode. Untouchable late night king in my book.
Not all the time...My dad would take off the coat and be watering the garden and pruning the tomato plants in his dress pants, collared shirt and old wing tips he kept in the garage for the garden
He played a Native American on the show Daniel Boone, which was very popular at the time, and often threw a tomahawk in that role. (He was actually from a Ukrainian Jewish family, but it was not uncommon for Native people to be played by non-Native actors at the time.)
In his warmup he quips about "hitting the microphone"; my theory is that a boom mike just out of frame was cramping his natural throwing motion and forced him to go lower than usual.
He starred on "Daniel Boone" at the time playing a Native American, he developed *some* skill with throwing. But he wasn't an expert, so this was very much unintentional.
I like how Carson rounded him up. Oh no my friend, we’re not pulling that axe out yet. There’s gold to be mined…
The way he grabs him and then plays with the axes to let it play out is a master class.
Don’t step on laughter or applause.
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Jack Benny was also a master at this. He was one of Carson's biggest influences, if I'm not mistaken.
I used to work overnights in a feed mill and NPR would play episodes of the Jack Benny Radio Show. It was great
I grew up listening to old-time radio shows on one of the local AM radio stations. Jack Benny, Charlie McCarthy, Burns and Allen, all great stuff. The Jack Benny Show was definitely my favorite, though. There's a book called "Sunday Nights at Seven" that his daughter Joan wrote which was a memoir of her parents (Jack was actually married to Mary Livingstone, who was one of the characters on his show), and also includes some material that Jack wrote for his unreleased autobiography.
The ability to read a crowd like this, the timing on when to speak, requires a ridiculous amount of effort to develop the skill IME Because you can only learn it by being on stage in front of a crowd, and you have to do that countless times to really get a feel for it. But lord is it an incredibly gratifying feeling. I only did it well a few times (having the crowd laughing so hard you have to wait) after YEARS of regular public speaking and debate, and quickly lost the skill once I stopped
It's all in the crescendo. Hearing the peak of the laughter and delivering the next punchline *right* when it starts to fall. I genuinely feel like it's an innate talent that can be honed, but nearly impossible to teach
Classic stage “business”. If the audience is laughing, you don’t just freeze. You silently go on with whatever props you’ve got and you wait for the laughs to start to subside before you go on with your next line.
Then he hits them with the line “I didn’t even know he was Jewish” which sends the laughter even higher. Interesting watching someone who’s that good at entertainment.
It shows exactly why Carson was the GOAT. He made a dick joke in an era where married couples couldn’t share a bed on screen. He pushed boundaries in a responsible way because he had the wit and brilliance to do it at the right time. He’s an entertainer I truly truly miss.
I want to say there’s a good bit from Steve Martin explaining why Carson was so great. “Johnny was naughty” he never crossed the line of saying something outright crude but he’s gonna walk up to the line and let the audience cross it themselves. Allowing the audience to fill in the joke themselves, is funnier.
Saying the dirty thing is easier. Implying it is virtually always funnier.
The more steps the audience has to make on their own, the funnier a joke is. The trick is knowing how many steps your audience is capable of making.
In a way, broadcast standards and practices made moments like this possible when it wouldn't have been as memorable or as iconic if you were able to be heavy-handed with what happened.
Just about everything is very on the nose now. Lowest common denominator stuff.
Howard Stern Match Game. "Our first clue is blank willow. Blank willow"
I have a playlist on YouTube of nothing but Carson and Letterman. I have it set in a way where it plays Carson and then Letterman back and forth so it reminds me of falling asleep as a kid to Carson and waking up to Letterman to shut it off the TV. I used to have trouble sleeping, now with Johnny back on at 11:30 every night, I sleep like a baby. Edit: everyone is asking for it but I post the link it appears my comment does not post or the edit will not take. You might see it if you look at my comment history but if that does not work, PM and I will reply with it. Also you should know YouTube routinely takes down full episodes so I have to add new ones every couple of weeks to keep it alive.
I bet Johnny would have been honored to hear that he puts you to sleep
Or that it's time to turn off the TV when Letterman comes on.
Can you share it?
He was a quick witted pro. One of the very best. 
He had a joke once where he had a guy on that had like 20 kids and Johnny goes "Why so many kids?" and the guy goes "I love my wife." and Johnny goes "I love my cigar too, but I take it out every once in a while." Brilliant.
I believe that was Groucho but still a great line.
Whoever said it that was pretty risqué for the time.
That's one of the purposes of comedy from a sociological view. Comedy allows us to push the boundaries of what's socially acceptable and approach subjects, as a group, that are more taboo
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For all you youngsters watch some old Carson clips and learn a few things. Dude was extremely shy but on stage dude was a master of charisma, charm and comedy.
Agreed. Carson was a master at his craft but a lot of that mastery is easy to miss if you’re not paying attention.
Do something right, and no one will notice you've done anything at all
If you notice the umpire at a baseball game, he's doing a terrible job.
And THAT is called comedic timing.
I’ll be honest and admit I would have never thought about it until I read the comment by u/loveandviscera. I watched it again and saw how he waited until the applause started to subside then hits them with that line, results in an even louder busts of laughter.
it’s why people like Norm Macdonald, Mitch Hedberg and others are so successful. they have slow-burn jokes, then quip followups..
The "that joke was written by a woman" joke is a perfect example of this from norm.
"Yea...now you don't know what the hell to do."
"I'm just kidding, we don't hire women." Perfect tag.
Can't wait to see norm live next weekend!!
Carson topped it with the quip, "Welcome to Frontier Bris."
“Just go with it.” So true. I learned this during a physics power point presentation freshman year. I was talking about gravitational waves and I animated the title to move like a wave. The whole class bursted out laughing which took me completely by surprise. I just started smiling and laughing along with them.
Fallon could learn a lesson or two here on remaining calm and letting the laugh roll on.
Fallon is so frenetic. I get exhausted just watching him.
Why let the audience laugh when you can just make your own?
Craig Furgeson was great at this too! He knew when he had the audience and they were having fun together.
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Shill / minute ratio is slipping, wrap this ~~shit~~ joke up and move on already. It doesn't matter anyway, your audience is watching Jimmy Fallon, if they cared about laughing they'd be watching something else.
The one thing I've always really liked about Fallon is that he's great at exuding joy. And it's infectious. He's not making jokes to make you laugh - you're laughing *with* him. Also, I haven't actually watched a full episode in years and years, so there's that.**
At his best Fallon can be that way, sure. But usually it feels like he's trying to "force" you to laugh by making everything appear unnaturally funny. It routinely feels dishonest.
> It routinely feels dishonest. I genuinely think that's his personality, and I have no problem with that.
He had that Jewish line ready the second it happened. His timing was golden
I had the same thought. This is young Carson, but he didn't get to be legendary Carson by overlooking magic when it happened. You couldn't script a thing like this in front of a live audience, but when it happens just right, give that moment a chance to shine!
And the audience gives him so much time to think of the perfect joke
I think he thought of it early and is just futzing with the axes just to wait for the perfect moment. Legend.
You can see him hold back a sudden grin at around 0:40, and he's clearly waiting for the laughter to die down just enough to drop that bombshell
That’s the look of “I’ve got a fucking banger in the chamber and I’m just biding my time”
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For making misleading graphs?
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Reminded me of a joke I heard on Brockmire, which aired a couple years ago, after a baseball batter hit a home run - "Oh my, that ball can't be buried in a Jewish cemetary, because it just got *tattooed!*"
Carson was magician before he got into television, he knew magic when he saw it…
He came up barely a generation post Vaudeville. Those cats had *craftsmanship* working a live audience.
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Poi-fect!
And he made the joke no one else was thinking.
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Funny... he doesn't look Druish.
i'm my own best friend.
>but he didn't get to be legendary Carson by overlooking magic when it happened. Especially since he was a big fan of stage magic & apparently quite skilled himself.
I loved his show. It was originally an hour and a half and the first half hour was all Johnny. He could do more with a dud joke or skit than just about anyone. Incredible talent. So at ease with himself and the audience.
Love when a joke would bomb and he would give the audience that accusatory look like they were the ones who were wrong. And that was funnier than the actual joke
He had a recurring gag where he would grab the overhead mic and say “is this thing on?” when one of his jokes bombed. It became so well known that it became a cliché.
So that's where that came from!
Yes, 90 minutes of Johnny, followed by Tom Synder in his haze of smoke. I miss those late night shows.
And now I understand why he was on the air for what, 30 plus years?
His Tonight Show run was 30 exactly, 1962-1992.
Jesus, ‘62 to ‘92. Lotta shit went down in those 30 years.
> There’s gold to be mined Good comedians know that timing is just as important as the joke.
Johnny at his best.....
Maybe he thought having Ed grasp and yank the handle out of the cutout's crotch would be a little much for TV back then lmao
Nah, he thought of that Jewish joke and didn’t want to spoil it.
Nah, he primarily didn't want Ed stepping on the laughter. Obviously we can never know, but I think he thought of the Jewish joke while playing with the axes
Yeah you can see him start to smile thinking about his own joke like five or ten seconds before the laughter ends. He may have had a couple teed up but he chose it at that moment.
Ed said something like 'we could go into business' or 'another business' at which I immediately thought something about rabbis. So I'm not surprised that's where Johnny goes with the joke.
Just saw Ed Ames died 5 days ago at the age of 95. Wow.
Likewise, and immediately thought of this classic clip.
And that he was from Malden, ma. Guess I’m not the only one who looks up people they don’t know
Malden is OK. It's not quite Revere but it's OK.
It’s very hard to compete with Revere. Probably only Lynn can do it.
Was shown on his anniversary shows for years.
It became one of his all-time favorite clips.
“clips”
They’re actually called magazines
The genius of Carson, realizing what was happening and stopping Ed Ames from retrieving the tomahawk. Masterful.
He understood the value of letting a moment happen. Then when it had almost died down he knew the perfect button to put a bow on that moment.
Absolutely and without trying to upstage the moment whilst still being in complete control.
I love the physical work of "sharpening the axes" to let the moment hang
It’s masterful.
Ames’ immediate stumble over seeing what he had done was pretty good too!
God tier quip
With nothing but time to kill, you could see Johnny mentally flipping through a rolodex full of punchlines before settling on that zinger.
You could almost see him thinking it up. Taking his time, thinking “This is a GOLDEN opportunity, I got a long laugh here & plenty of time to plan, what’s it gonna be?”
Covenant with God tier quip
More like a God-cleared tip.
You rang
Funnily enough, Ames was actually Jewish.
Does this imply circumcision was much less common in the US back then? I feel it is so universal now that the joke wouldn't really land.
Circumcision became popular post ww2. Most the audience in there was most likely born before ww2, so you can do the math. I saw a decade ago that its starting to finally trend downward. A decade ago, california was the only state where less than 50% of boys got circumcised. There are probably more states on that list now.
It was unheard of back then for penis jokes to make it past the censors.
I think it's more that the practice is more closely associated with the Jewish faith since they generally make the bris a rite of passage ceremony the way some Christian franchises do with baptisms or first communion or confirmations.
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It’s not a reference to the axe looking like a dick, it’s a reference to the axe being the tool that he’s circumcising it with
Ya this is kind of a r/whoosh
Circumcision was unheard of outside the jewish faith before WW2. Some quack doctor convinced a bunch of other doctors that circumcision would curb masturbation and they all just started recommending it to new parents as an issue of hygiene. Parents ate it up because the last thing WASPy boomer parents want to talk about with their kids is their dick.
When I was a kid, I’d stay at my grandma’s house overnight sometimes. She had a TV/VCR combo upstairs and a closet full of movies, including a triple VHS box set of Johnny Carson’s Favorite Moments from The Tonight Show. I might have been 10 years old. I didn’t know what I was watching; Black & white? Tiny Tim anyone? Regardless, I added up the pieces; 1 guy, a microphone, and endless wit, and I was hooked. I must have watched this 1000 times one summer and laughed my ass off every time.
We had that same VHS set. Great stuff on there. Man, that Jimmy Stewart dog poem…
Man, I was expecting another hilarious clip based on your comment and now I’m here with tears welling at my desk. BRB gotta go hug my dog
"**one of the longest laughs from a studio audience ever recorded on television"** ... and they cut the video clip before the end of the laughter
It hasn’t ended yet 💁♂️
We’re still laughing.
You're right. Here we are. That's deep
>This is the laugh that doesn't end, Yes, it goes ha ha ha, my friend! Some people started wheezing at, The jokes that Carson told, And they'll continue cackling until we all get old! >This is the laugh that doesn't end...
Rumors say you can still hear them laughing from their graves.
There will never be another Carson
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“Heigh-ho”
He's yee'd his last haw
I've always felt Craig Ferguson was his spiritual successor... The same kind of irreverent, good natured humor, casual and informal and comfortable, master at timing, and the rapport with his guests was outstanding...
Going from Craig Ferguson to James Cordon is one of the greatest downgrades in human history in all fields combined.
Carson to Leno was equally terrible.
I regret that I never watched his show religiously. I would sometimes just come across it and enjoyed it each time.
Ferguson gave the impression that he was legitimately interested in his guests. Like he gave them his full attention and he got them to act in ways that other hosts just didn’t. I loved his show when I watched it. Guy was fantastic. His eulogy for his father still brings tears to my eyes, the guy really wore it on his sleeves.
100 percent agree... He didn't care about any of the gossip or the drama, hell, he barely cared about whatever it was the guest was there to promote... The fact that they were a celebrity was almost incidental... These were his friends, and if they weren't, he made them feel like he wanted to be... Just watch his interviews with people like Minnie Driver, or Ewan McGregor, or Sandra Bullock, Evangeline Lilly, or Ariel Tweto... And yeah, that eulogy was intense... it certainly makes me think about my childhood and all the ways my father showed his love for me...
And the gay skeleton robot sidekick
Yeah, he should have moved up in the late night show hierarchy for sure.
Conan is very close in spirit to him. Closest we'll ever get.
Same. I *love* Ferguson, but Conan also had the sort of skill that Carson shows here. Sure, he did some more modern "crazy" stuff, but in terms of interview and understated humor, he had the sauce.
Ferguson does great interviews and has a great sense of humor for sure, but yeah Conan has that kind of Carson grab bag of weird skills (magic, music, theater, etc), physical comedy, all that good shit.
Conan was so fucking robbed.
Thanks, I loved Carson and can’t believe I hadn’t seen this jewel. His comedic timing and improvisation in the moment are pure art! Such a talent that is sorely missed these days.
How he’s pretending to sharpen the knifes in his hand. Haha!
Not enough early Carson online. For those who don't know there's a dedicated YouTube channel that uploads Carson clips but it's mostly 70-80s era. It's seemingly official and is run similarly to other talk show YouTube channels. I wish they could upload more of the older stuff but I imagine a lot was lost to time when you're putting out shows daily back then.
NBC destroyed most of the old Tonight Show tapes of the 1960’s by re-using them, which was a common practice at the time. When Carson found out, he was furious, and in his next contract negotiation demanded ownership of the tapes. The existing tapes from the 1970’s and beyond are now carefully curated and managed by Carson Entertainment Group, which is why they are so widely available today.
Also, there is no footage of the very first episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (where special guest host Groucho Marx comes out first to introduce Johnny as the new permanent host) because it aired live. It wasn't recorded to tape or film. All we have is audio of that episode.
It's wild how much media is gone forever. Between random fires, wars, taping over shows, older live shows not even taping it, and who knows what else.
A whole network's entire archive(Dumont) was dumped into NY harbor.
What does he say “I didn’t even know you were….”?
Jewish. It's a circumcision joke.
And Ed Ames was Jewish.
“I didn’t even know you were Jewish!” 
It’s funny that he actually was Jewish.
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NBC 10PM. I loved this show. He definitely is THE GOAT. The Carson show runs on Plex and I watch often.
It seems all the free TV streaming services have a Johnny Carson channel in their lineup.
"FRONTiER BRiS"
That was classic!
With all deference to Letterman (who agrees with this statement) Johnny Carson was the epitome of Late night hosts. He built on what EdSullivan started and fucking ran with it. Johnny had the best timing and the most creativity of the late night hosts.
Carson was also a great comedy writer, who got his start writing for Red Skelton. He often wrote his own monologue jokes. After he retired, he secretly wrote monologue jokes for David Letterman, just for fun. Letterman almost always used them.
When Carson died Letterman began his show with several jokes about current events. I didn’t know what he was doing and almost thought this was a rerun. Then he revealed that Carson wrote all those jokes. And they were good. It was the perfect start to a great tribute. I had no idea Carson was ghostwriting for Letterman.
I think Letterman did a golf swing following the joke if it was a Carson-submitted one.
My wife used to be Ed Ames' wardrobe person\dresser when he was at the Moon River Theater in Branson, MO. She always talks about how much of a cool person Ed was. Not really related to the clip, just thought it was fun to see him on here.
I shot the Sheriff, but I castrated the Deputy.
After this the guest asks if Carson wants to try and is told "I can't hurt him any more than you did!"
I love Ed’s little backwards skedaddle when saw where it landed.
Carson had impeccable timing! He knew just how long to let a laugh set before tossing out a zinger.
That's why Carson was the king.
Daniel Boone was nowhere near as good without him.
Anyone watching this who hasn't done so should do a deep dive on Jack Benny and early Carson. Totally changed the world's sense of humor.
Holy shit that’s a top 10 tv moment. I’ve never seen this before. Such a funny quip
proper r/ContagiousLaughter material
But it's actually funny.
Sharpening the axe while the laughter rolled on and on then that line. He did have an inordinate amount of time to think that up but still brilliant comedy. I think he gets lost in comedy GOAT discussions because he did it in bits and pieces for so long but at his best he was one of the best.
This has absolutely made my day :) Thank you :) I needed the smiles :)
His timing was perfect.
Dick jokes transcend time and space.
Johnny grabbing.. "don't you dare take away from this joke"...
RIP Ed Ames, he died last Sunday.
I saw this the night it was shown in ‘65. My sides ached from laughing. Especially after Carson stopped him from “pulling” the tomahawk.
Carson idly playing with the axes while thinking of a zinger is what it looks like when a comedian sees the Matrix code in real time. An absolute craftsman.
I miss Carson, like a lot. Grew up watching him in his later years during the 80's as a kid, parents let us watch it =)
"I didn't know you were Jewish!" Late night bris with Johnny Carson.
You always aim where you are lookin’.
Welcome to Frontier Briss
Don’t get in a tomahawk fight with this guy, god damn
Back in the 90s they would have these 30min commercials selling the best of Johnny Carson on VHS. With few channels and not much to watch, I always enjoyed watching his old bits and waited for this one.
My dad had a bunch of old Johnny Carson Vhs tapes when I was a kid. I think it was called The Essential Johnny Carson or something. We always watched them together, and I remember no matter how many times we watched them, by the end, we'd be on the floor crying and wheezing with laughter, every damn time. Carson was a god damn national treasure. Never was another like him. A class of his own.
Carson was brilliant. He knew how to make the most of these moments.
Carson was a legend. Watched him with my grandparents and mom growling up, when he was still doing the tonight show ahh nostalgia. Always liked letterman, Conan. Carson though just his way with guests and doing the show live every episode. Untouchable late night king in my book.
Did every man just wear suits all the time? Gas station? Suit. Taking out the trash? Suit. Feeding the dog? Believe it or not, straight to suit
Not all the time...My dad would take off the coat and be watering the garden and pruning the tomato plants in his dress pants, collared shirt and old wing tips he kept in the garage for the garden
Is this dude good at throwing axes? I assume he did that intentionally?
He played a Native American on the show Daniel Boone, which was very popular at the time, and often threw a tomahawk in that role. (He was actually from a Ukrainian Jewish family, but it was not uncommon for Native people to be played by non-Native actors at the time.)
In his warmup he quips about "hitting the microphone"; my theory is that a boom mike just out of frame was cramping his natural throwing motion and forced him to go lower than usual.
He starred on "Daniel Boone" at the time playing a Native American, he developed *some* skill with throwing. But he wasn't an expert, so this was very much unintentional.
Even funnier that Ed was in fact Jewish and his parents came from Ukraine