funiest show

[Yu Gi Oh]

what is the funiest jack benny show? i heard jack was the funiest comedian ever. i heard jacks funiest show was being held up and he says your money or your life. where do you hear this show?

i'm going to be an actor and i want to be funier than jack benny.

[bboswell]

I will never have just one favorite episode, but if you're just starting out on Jack Benny, a great episode to listen to would be "Jack and Bob Hope double date." That is a VERY funny eipsode, and you can hear TWO of the all-time great comedians in one show.

I think the "Your money or your life" episode was the first one I heard, and I was a little let down because, by now, everyone knows the punch line, and the "long laugh" doesn't seem that long.

[faze]

My vote for funniest would be some of the Buck Benny episodes from the late thirties. There is one in particular -- oh gosh, I wish I could remember the title -- from 1938, where the absurdity gets delerious at breakneck speed, winding up with the whole cast trading verses of "Sing Baby Sing" in totally uninhibted joy. This episode makes me crazy with happiness.

[Gerry O.]

My vote for funniest would be some of the Buck Benny episodes from the late thirties. There is one in particular -- oh gosh, I wish I could remember the title -- from 1938, where the absurdity gets delerious at breakneck speed, winding up with the whole cast trading verses of "Sing Baby Sing" in totally uninhibted joy. This episode makes me crazy with happiness.

That's why I love those late 1930's "Jell-O" shows so much.....it's obvious that everyone in the cast is having so much FUN! In fact, sometimes the ad-libs and on-air break-ups get downright silly, but those programs have a loose, carefree air about them.

The shows of the mid-to-late 1940's and 1950's are excellent, but somehow some of the silly fun seems to be gone. By then it's as if Jack and the cast have this "We're an important, highly-rated show and we have to be professional about this" attitude. These later shows are still hilarious, but there just seems to be this polished professionalism about them, and the cast doesn't let their hair down and have fun the way that they do on those late 1930's episodes.

[bboswell]

OK OK!! Now you've done it! Now I have to go back and start listening to some of the older shows. I've always preferred the later shows, but now that I've heard all of the praise for the late '30s, I need to start re-evaluating things. Harumph!

[LLeff]

That's why I love those late 1930's "Jell-O" shows so much.....it's obvious that everyone in the cast is having so much FUN! In fact, sometimes the ad-libs and on-air break-ups get downright silly, but those programs have a loose, carefree air about them.

I second that emotion. Just listen to the 1937 show from the April chat and you can hear a lot of that. For example, Jack asks Kenny to rehearse his song on the train, and has an aside to the audience about, "Isn't this a clever way to introduce a song on a train?" Then with the explosion of music, Jack yells an ad lib of, "Where did we get the orchestra?!?!" It's also this certain degree of self-consciousness that makes a listener feel like they are "in" on the joke, part of the fun.

[Gerry O.]

Something to consider....Perhaps those later Benny radio shows don't have the loose, ad-libbing silliness of the earlier shows because the series had altered its format over the years. Most of the Jell-O episodes are variety show-oriented, with the cast standing on a stage, in front of microphones talking back and forth. They weren't trying to convey any other mental image to the listener.

However, as the series progressed, more and more episodes were sitcom-oriented, taking place in various locales like Jack's home, doctor's offices, restaurants, train stations, rehearsal studios, etc. Because of this, Jack and the gang had to stay "in character" more since they were trying to paint a mental picture for the listener.

Sure, there were break-ups and ad-libs in the later shows...but there usually had to be a MAJOR flub for those script deviations to occur. So I think that the "Let's Just Stand Around The Microphone and Talk" atmosphere of the early Jell-O shows lent itself to free-wheeling, silly and spontaneous fun a lot more than the later "And Now We Take You To Jack Benny's Home In Beverly Hills..." format of so many of the later Lucky Strike shows.

[Huxley]

One the of the funniest episodes that comes to mind is "Jack gets held up on the way to Don's house". You are so entwined in the plot and why Jack is waiting outside Don's house in the bushes that you don't realize what the "held up" part of the title means until you hear "Stick 'em up, buddy!" and Jack's equally unexpected "Wha?" (May not be verbatim, I have the memory of a golfball collector at a practice range)

As OTR listeners the one advantage we have over the original studio audience is the we know, by way of the title, what the main theme of the program will be. That's why I'm even more delighted when I'm caught off guard by a funny twist or tangent, like in the episode previously mentioned.

[bboswell]

That's true, I guess we haven't answered the question of where to find the show. There is a website that has many of Jack's shows online to listen to. You can find this one at:

http://www.crispy.com/benny/audio/seaso ... 28_649.mp3

But look around the "crispy" site while you're there and listen to several different shows.

[ZEjackbennykid]

Yes, I noticed that posting name the other day but forgot to question it. Anyone with a name like that is just screaming for attention.

Thanx Huxley, and Yu-Gi-Oh to find the show your looking for check Radio Spirits.com they have an ultimate jack benny collection cotaining 40 of jack's best episodes. Personally my favorite episodes are "Jack gives his Maxwell to the scrapdrive", "Jack returns after 5 week sick absence w/ guest Orson Welles", "Jack recalls enlisting in the navy in 1917 at Great Lakes, broadcast from Roosevelt Base at Terminal Island", "'Your Money or Your Life' parts 1 & 2 ( pt.2 with guest Bing Crosby Pt.1 with guests Ronald and Benita Coleman)", "Sportsman Quartet debut", "The Fiddler" and tons of others.

[Yu Gi Oh]

thanx everybody. youve given me lots of info. i have alot of listening to do!!!!! zejackbennykid, good luck i hope your homework and everything goes well.

Thanx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Radioman]

Episodes that make me laugh out loud even after listening to them over and over are when Jack goes Christmas shopping and every year runs into department store clerk Mel Blanc. He drives poor Mel crazy as he buys something, has it wrapped, changes his mind because it costs too much, exchanges it for the other item, has it wrapped, goes off and discusses it with Mary, changes his mind again and goes back to Mel to exchange it and rewrap it again, and on and on and on.

THESE episodes are funny. Really funny. Especially one of the last ones made where Mel's wife Desdemona takes his place at the counter to deal with Jack, after Mel takes his break.

Or the one where Mel's pschiatrist takes Mel's place at the counter and has to deal with Jack.

Another hilarious episode is the one guest starring Humphrey Bogart, and Jack rehearses the "Just put your lips together and blow" scene with Lauren Bacall, and Jack falls into a succession of really bad Bogart impressions during the rehearsal with Bacall.

Or the one where Jack get hit on the head with the tomato juice can, and his personality flip-flops and he goes on a spending spree, and buys--among other things--a $250 bathrobe and a yacht.

Or the episode where Jack and the gang go see a drive-in movie. Mel Blanc and his carload of kids are right next to them. And I'm remembering correctly, The Horn Blows at Midnight was playing that night too

There are just so many to choose from! If I had to choose, it would be the Christmas shopping episodes, either the one with the paints for Don, or the dates for Don.

Radioman

[Alan]

Radioman, i think all the eps you mention are awesome. Of course, the Christmas "series" (with all the imaginative variations from yr to yr) is deservedly famous.

A personal fave of mine is that ep w/ tomato cans hitting JB and his subsequent spending spree... I love the various scenarios when any of the performers act out of character....for example; the ep where Ronald Colman dreams that HE is JB.....!

[bboswell]

Radioman and Alan have reminded me of another one of my favorite shows. It is the "I Stand Condemned" episode Jan 19, 1947 with guest Boris Karloff, (I know Peter Lorre did the same script earlier, and I'm not as familiar with that episode.)
This has some very funny moments in it, and it has a lot of very surreal humor like what we have discussed in a different thread elsewhere on this board.

I wrote earlier that I would have to listen to the earlier shows to see if I liked them better than I thought I did.

The answer? No.

I must like the structure of the post-war shows. I think the same goes for all of the comedy shows I enjoy. They all seemed to change around WW2. Burns and Allen and Amos & Andy are extreme examples, (Amos & Andy going from a 10-15 minute serial to a 1/2 hour comedy show with a studio audience, and Burns and Allen becoming a married couple) but Jack Benny, and Fibber & Molly changed too. As Gerry O pointed out, They all seemed to go to the sitcom format and jokes, instead of vaudeville-type straight line, punchline humor. (Admittedly I am probably WAY over generalizing.)

[Roman]

I'd have to go with just about any of the shows that the Colmans or Fred Allen guested. An early Allen appearance in the mid-1930s was especially funny. Fred and Jack spent several minutes insulting each other (with Fred breaking Jack up with his constant ad-libs - I always loved the way Fred would say "Why Benny you fugitive from a ....") and then they retreated off stage to settle their feud once and for all - to Mary and the gang's mock horror - and then, of course, they return a minute later arm in arm best of friends reminiscing over the old vaudeville days.

The Colman appearances were always a lot of fun but a particular favorite of mine was an episode where Jack tried to convince Ronald Colman to be his co-star in a Western. The part where Ronald and then Benita were reading that truly awful script Jack brought over was hilarious ("I reckon I do, little lady, I reckon."). This was the episode where Jack asked to borrow Ronald's Oscar and then got robbed on the way home ("Bud I said you're money or your life!"). I also loved the show where Jack barged his way into sitting at the Colman's table at a premiere party for Ronald's new movie. Jack was the ultimate of nightmare guests who you can't get rid of and who can't take a hint to leave.