Posted ByLL on December 24, 2003 at 20:02:58:
In Reply to: Re: Bossy Spouses posted byScott D. Vroegindewey on December 24, 2003 at 13:18:03:
: I am ONLY speculating, but do you think Jack Benny got some ideas from the way Mr. and Mrs. Kubelsky related to each other? (I need Laura's help here.)
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An interesting theory, and not one I'd considered previously. Jack's mother does seem to have been a pretty strong woman (the few photographs of her look pretty intimidating), and I am told that Jack's father had very little sense of humor (except for his son's work, of course). I have often been interested how Jack, with such a finely -honed understanding of comedy, timing, editing, and all things connected to it came out of a house that was definitely not full of laughter.
I think a better bet is as Kurt mentioned below, that the character of an overbearing mother (or mother-in-law) is a long-standing comedic device. I was thinking of Ethel Merman in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" after my previous comments about Dennis' mother.
--LL