Paul Henning

This forum is for discussions about the people associated with Jack Benny, such as Eddie Anderson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Mel Blanc, etc.

Postby Maxwell » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:09 pm

shimp scrampi wrote:
Many ( if not most all ) comedy series have specific characters that are either mostly/completely in or out of relative "reality."

Not only is JB a part of both worlds, i think ALL of the primary characters are....maybe DD to the least extent (?), but even he is often just thinking about his contract, how funny JB is acting, his song,etc...


Interesting point. Mary seems to be the least surreal or prone to "way out" behavior though. The thing about Dennis is that his nutso behavior is totally directed at Jack and Jack alone. It's a great comic premise, but it also has the effect (just speaking for myself here, imho) of making Dennis somewhat less believable - compare Dennis with Gracie Allen - she's totally, utterly convincing and sincere in her screwy world view - with Dennis you get the underlying sense that he might not be so stupid, he's just doing stuff to bother Jack.


You could make a similar statement about a lot of the characters' traits. They seem to be directed at Jack. I don't picture Frank Nelson being anywhere near as sarcastic to anyone as he is to Jack. Mary's wisecracks are invariably directed toward Jack.

I read an article (I think somewhere other than here) yesterday that spoke of the fact that Jack wasn't afraid to let others get the laughs in his show. But take a look at where the laughs are directed. I'd be willing to guess that an overwhelming majority of them are directed in some way at the Jack's character. So while others may have gotten the laughs, the humor was mainly directed towards Jack and his foibles.

And boy was that character crafted. He was vain, but not so vain as to be unlikable. He was a tightwad. (As a kid I remember kids saying the following: "Want a nickel? Go suck a pickle. Want a penny? Go see Jack Benny.) But he wasn't exactly scroogeline in his miserliness. He wanted to do nice things for people...as long as it didn't cost him all that much. The list of these characteristics goes on, but the point is that a lot of the jokes were directed at that.

Since the characters were mainly seen in relation to Jack, it's hard to gauge what they were "really like" if they were to deal with anyone else, but I always got the feeling that most of their actions were in response to the Jack character and that if they existed in some kind of context other than the show, they'd react much differently.

I have no idea if I've made myself clear.
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Postby bboswell » Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:46 pm

Maxwell wrote: Gracie Allen - she's totally, utterly convincing and sincere in her screwy world view -


Thank you for that phrase "screwy world view!" I have been trying to come up with a simple way to describe Gracie to people, should the occasion arise. Certainly ditzy, dizzy, airhead and any other common adjectives don't work at all. The closest I could come up with is "scatterbrained," but that doesn't fully encompass her personality. I think "screwy world view" with a little extra explanation might get the idea across to an OTR newbie! (On first glance, this post doesn't fit in a Jack Benny forum, but since George and Gracie were close friends of Jack's, I don't feel too bad about it!)

Thanks Maxwell!
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Postby shimp scrampi » Tue Mar 29, 2005 6:18 am

Thanks Maxwell!

Ahem, that would be my choice phrase :wink:, despite some really nice observations from Maxwell there, which I generally agree with (Jack being the brunt of all of the craziness from everyone).

George and the writers called Gracie's mindset "illogical logic" which is about as good an explanation as I can think of. She interprets any sentence structure in the most surreal way possible. SHE doesn't think she's dumb at all - and the best thing is she has great patience with the rest of the world who just "don't get it" - IMHO this aspect got sharper on TV than on radio, where sometimes they would succumb to "ditz" behavior for Gracie.

If the Benny-only fans will permit one more Gracie quote here, which I think is a good example of "illogical-logic" (from a '53 TV episode) - Gracie is at a police station reporting the theft of a fur stole:

Officer: Now, Mrs. Burns, where was this fur stole?
Gracie: Excuse me, I think you mean 'where was this fur stolen'
Officer: But, Mrs. Burns, this fur, it was a stole, right?
Gracie: (laughs) Gosh, I bet you know some wonderful recipes for spaghetti!
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Postby LLeff » Tue Mar 29, 2005 8:42 am

Maxwell wrote:Since the characters were mainly seen in relation to Jack, it's hard to gauge what they were "really like" if they were to deal with anyone else, but I always got the feeling that most of their actions were in response to the Jack character and that if they existed in some kind of context other than the show, they'd react much differently.


You can get a glimpse of that possibility in the 2/2/41 program where Herbert Marshall subs for Jack. There's also a little in the series of programs where Orson Welles subs for Jack, but in those it seems that some of the "weight" of the Benny character is distributed to other characters (e.g., Dennis saying something silly and Mary saying, "No use waiting, I've got to have a talk with that kid.").

And no problem on the Gracie Allen comments. People on this Forum are almost always very respectful of staying on topic, so I'm happy to be flexible around the edges. But that's just my screwy world view. :P
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Postby bboswell » Tue Mar 29, 2005 11:49 am

shimp scrampi wrote:
Thanks Maxwell!

Ahem, that would be my choice phrase :wink:


Oops! :? I guess I got a little confused with my quoting! Many thanks for that phrase, shimp scrampi! (And Maxwell, thanks for having the good taste to quote shimp!)
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Postby Maxwell » Tue Mar 29, 2005 3:56 pm

bboswell wrote:
shimp scrampi wrote:
Thanks Maxwell!

Ahem, that would be my choice phrase :wink:


Oops! :? I guess I got a little confused with my quoting! Many thanks for that phrase, shimp scrampi! (And Maxwell, thanks for having the good taste to quote shimp!)


I only quote the best. I'm in awe of people like LLeff and Shimp who can give you the date of a program when giving an example. I guess I'd better start getting serious in collecting in order to keep pace with this crowd!
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Postby LLeff » Tue Mar 29, 2005 4:34 pm

Maxwell wrote:I only quote the best. I'm in awe of people like LLeff and Shimp who can give you the date of a program when giving an example. I guess I'd better start getting serious in collecting in order to keep pace with this crowd!


Well, at the risk of tarnishing my own image, I almost always grab my copy of 39 Forever just to insure that I'm giving you the right date. It would be embarassing to be sending people to the wrong show (or a date that had no show...). I mean hey, didn't that 4-15-45 Benny show just rock the house?!?!
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Postby shimp scrampi » Wed Mar 30, 2005 1:52 pm

And, as for me, I'm just a hack! :lol:
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Postby Maxwell » Wed Mar 30, 2005 4:08 pm

shimp scrampi wrote:And, as for me, I'm just a hack! :lol:


LOL...Yeah, but a knowledgible hack! :lol:
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Postby shimp scrampi » Fri Apr 01, 2005 5:30 am

Going back a bit in this thread, thanks bboswell for the airdate of the first "echo" gag, I've been listening to the whole arc and they have really been making me laugh out loud! It does pay to listen to the shows in order, which I don't often do.

Now, everyone watch out on the forum if you give me a feed line like:

Rochester, pass the oleo or
That's what I told Leo

You'll know what's coming!
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