I’ve been watching old concerts of some of the great stand-up comedians recently and have become fascinated with their ability to manipulate time, space and language. Comedians seem to be able to make the mundane funny with the right word choice. Couple that with their skill of creating pauses before a punchline, whether it’s a one word zinger or a change in facial expression, and you have someone who can bring tears to the eyes of some of the most stoic individuals on the planet. What does this have to do with blogging? While you can’t necessarily affect the speed of a reader, you can bring a smile or laugh with the right word selection. And when I’m talking comedy, I’m talking comedy that doesn’t rely on profanity. Call me old-fashioned, but the really funny stuff is funny without profanity. I’m not a prude, if a comedian swears for emphasis, it can sometimes enhance the joke, but most people who think they are comedians, both professionally and non-professionally, rely on the four letter words to generate the laughs. If you can find it, it’s out of print as of today, to really see what I mean by the power of word selection to make you laugh, check out The Last Catholic in America. I always laughed when I read that book, and it’s not anti-Catholic or anything like that.

I haven’t done a Friday fun post for a couple of weeks, so I’m here to make up for that with a great clip from the past. If you watch Comedy Central, you may have seen a couple of their Celebrity Roasts. This is where a celebrities get together to good naturedly poke fun at a particular star and each other. The concept is not a new one, the Friars Club in New York has been doin it for years. And in the early 70s, the Dean Martin Show did quite a few of these roasts. This clip is from the roast of Johnny Carson and stars Rich Little, a famed celebrity impressionist. When you get roasted and one of the roasters is capable of imitating you, it takes you back a step or two. Watch Johnny as Little does his impression.

OK, so maybe putting two youtube clips in back to back posts seems a little lazy, but it’s Friday and we all need to have some fun and laugh. This clip is from a private party for the late Don Adams. Don was the voice of Inspector Gadget as well as the original Maxwell Smart. One of things that you may not know is Adams’ close friendship with Don Rickles. Rickles is, in my opinion, the original and best insult comic ever. Here is a clip of Rickles doing what he does best, needling the members of the audience that has come together to celebrate Adams 75th birthday.  What makes this clip a little more poignant is the heartfelt words Rickles speaks at the end coupled with the knowledge tha Adams was dying of cancer at the time. Enjoy!

Well, for today’s bit of fun, I dip into the archives of classic animation for a gem from the Warner Brothers studio starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. I grew up on Bugs Bunny and have seen hundreds of cartoons multiple times, and there are a few that attain the status of timeless. This is one of those. I’m also a lover of great music, so when you marry Bugs’ wacky antics with memorable music, it’s a no-lose situation. Bugs uses an opera to mold Elmer, literally, into whatever he wishes. Quite possibly the most memorable part is where Bugs rubs fertilizer into Elmer’s scalp, growing what he thinks is hair, but what ends up being daisies. Enjoy.

Here’s another mad-lib type of story for you to enjoy on your day before the weekend. I took this story from MSNBC, removed the names to protect the innocent, and left blanks for various words. As funny as this story can be with your help, the real story was much weirder.

You get an extra treat this week. Two bits of fun for this week (lucky you). Ok, this comes from the cult TV show “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ and the movie they lampooned has a hero who looks like a stereotypical jock body builder with blonde hair and a sleeveless T-shirt. The character’s name is David Ryder, but the trio watching the film give him comical names, which are all condensed into a minute and a half. Enjoy.

I know I missed the regular Friday fun post. Life got in the way a little bit. So, to all of my fan out there (that’s not a typo), I give you my Monday bit o’ fun. I am a huge fan of music and comedy, and when someone can combine the two, I laugh to the point of wheezing. This clip from YouTube is of the great Victor Borge, the Danish pianist/comedian. He describes an opera suposedly written by Mozart and plays and sings the opera. Obviously, this is an imaginary opera, but Borge does a great job of incorporating all the common elements from Mozart’s music. Enjoy!

I got to thinking about video blogs and what the proper protocol for getting something like that going. I went to YouTube and did a search for blogs just to see what would pop up.  this is one of the videos I got.  This is a very clever presentation of the benefits of both blogs and wikis.  For those unsure of what a wiki is, it’s a platform for sharing information where the content can be edited by the readers.  This “debate” uses the Kennedy/Nixon presidential debates of 1960 as its vehicle.  Now, I think that while this is a good presentation, I also believe it automatically sets a bias in the viewer’s mind because we all know what Nixon eventually did when he was President. Which is why I wince to say I sided with the Nixon side of the debate in general. At one point, Nixon talks about how you can see who said what when.  With a wiki, you can edit anonymously and there is no repercussion if your statement is incorrect.  But, watch the whole video and decide for yourself which platform is better.

I decided to do something different for this weeks bit of Friday fun.  Remember the old word game Mad-Libs? I decided to take a story and edit it, protecting the names of anyone involved, and replaced words with blanks to create a fun, silly story.

Martin Stone, an 83-year-old World War II veteran, and his wife Rosetta, 82, say that police have come looking for __________(noun) at their house about 50 times in the past _______(number) years.

It’s not clear why.

Police arrive from all over and ________(verb) on the door of the Martins’ two-story home searching for a _________(adjective) _________(noun) nearly every time. “I’m really worried,” Rosetta said. “How could so many people get my __________(noun) and how could cops be ________(verb ending in -ing) from so many different precincts?” The couple said one of the most __________(adjective) mix-ups came when police and ___________(celebrity) rolled up, hunting for _____________(famous villain).

“That is one I can’t get over,” Martin said, unable to understand how the NYPD could not know how to _________(adverb) find one. Even police don’t understand why the couple’s ____________(noun) continues to be a target. “Our identity theft squad is investigating the matter,” Inspector Red Mulen said.

Martin says they’re ___________(adjective) — but it still makes his ____________(noun) ______________(verb).

This is not fantasy. This is a belt buckle with an LCD screen capable of showing pictures and movies. The company that make it is called Egokast and they are already coming out with a newer version with a slightly bigger screen and improved funcionality. So, you know what this means. Guys, you now have a surefire way of getting a girl to look, and then you can say, “Hey, I’M up here!”