Posted on 04/06/2017 1:57:43 PM PDT by NRx
Don Rickles, the acidic stand-up comic who became world-famous not by telling jokes but by insulting his audience, died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 90.
The cause was kidney failure, said a spokesman, Paul Shefrin.
For more than half a century, on nightclub stages, in concert halls and on television, Mr. Rickles made outrageously derisive comments about people’s looks, their ethnicity, their spouses, their sexual orientation, their jobs or anything else he could think of. He didn’t discriminate: His incendiary unpleasantries were aimed at the biggest stars in show business (Frank Sinatra was a favorite target) and at ordinary paying customers.
His rise to national prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s roughly coincided with the success of “All in the Family,” the groundbreaking situation comedy whose protagonist, Archie Bunker, was an outspoken bigot. Mr. Rickles’s humor was similarly transgressive. But he went further than Archie Bunker, and while Carroll O’Connor, who played Archie, was speaking words someone else had written — and was invariably the butt of the joke — Mr. Rickles, whose targets included his fellow Jews, never needed a script and was always in charge.
One night, on learning that some members of his audience were German, he said, “Forty million Jews in this country, and I got four Nazis sitting here in front waiting for the rally to start.” He said that America needed Italians “to keep the cops busy” and blacks “so we can have cotton in the drugstore,” and that “Asians are nice people, but they burn a lot of shirts.” He might ask a man in the audience, “Is that your wife?” and, when the man answered yes, respond: “Oh, well. Keep your chin up.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I didn’t watch this whole thing before posting, but it started out as a nice commentary on the passing of Don Rickles.
It was put out by CBS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kmen1DLuy4
I didn’t watch this whole thing before posting, but it started out as a nice commentary on the passing of Don Rickles.
It was put out by CBS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kmen1DLuy4
RIP to a true comic genius. His appearances on the Dean Martin roasts were legendary, especially the Ronald Reagan show :)
Rickles was great in “Casino” in a dramatic role. And in “Kelly’s Heroes”.
RIP
His gigs on the Dean Martin Roasts had me in tears, although when he was the Man of Honor, the returned barbs were just as gut busting.
Surprised how unbelievably sad this is to me... Always loved this guy.
Another one of my old man’s generation is gone.
But he had a good run, and a blessed life. I suppose, at the end, that’s all anyone can ask for.
I was teary when I saw it.
Think I’ll see if I can find “Kelly’s Heroes” somewhere online and watch it this weekend. One of my favorite WW2 films.
One of mine, too.
Hard to believe Clint isn’t that far behind, age-wise. He’s the Eternal Gunsligner to me... always think of him as Josey Wales.
Or Lieutenant Schaffer in “Where Eagles Dare” with two MP40 SMGs hosing down the Germans in the radio tower...
Yep. Sucks.
He’s the last one from “The Spaghetti Westerns”.
There’s still a few of the guys from “Kelly’s” around.
Roger Moore is going to be 90 this year. Wow!!!
R.I.P.
Woah, I didn’t realize Moore was that old. Connery’s not that far behind.
He is. Many people think Connery is the older of the two. Nope. He’s three years younger than Moore.
Gene Hackman’s still around, but has been retired for a while now. He’s awesome too.
Stallone’s 70. Chuck Norris is 75-ish.
As these guys go, there are no replacements for them.
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