The most unexpected laugh

[krledu]

I have listened to Jack Benny for a while and have heard the shows numerous times. But sometimes I will catch a joke or gag that didn't strike me funny before. I am listening to the episode from Easter 1938. The gang is going to the circus but leaving Phil Harris behind to finish the show. As Phil is about to play a number there is a knock on the door. Its the guy that plays the crazy boarder of Jack later on in his program. (One of the writers I believe)

Crazy guy: Are you Phil Harris

Phil: (Surprised) Yes I am

Crazy Guy: And don't you have a blind date tonight?

Phil: Yes

Crazy Guy: Well don't keep Momma out to late tonight. Good bye

I laughed so hard. I was at my cubicle at work and had to try hard to keep from laughing out loud. I think what made it so funny was the fact that I had never caught/remembered that from before and you could here the orchestra members in the background laughing the hardest at the joke.

So what does anyone else have an unexpected laugh line? A joke they just "got" or something that heard after a second or third listening?

[Hank the All-Nite DJ]

I think by their very nature ad-libs are the most unexpected. The ones that surprise the cast themselves are the best.

Too Hot To Handle | 1938-11-20

Jack: Mary, you're an aviatrix. And in fact, you're as much at home in the air as you are on the ground.
Mary: That's fine. I get dizzy when I eat a three-decker sandwich.
Jack: All right, you'll only be acting and we'll get a better joke for tonight.

Mary's reaction is priceless and Kenny starts cracking up, too

[Chasitykins]

I choked on my own spit just this morning listening to one of the shows on Buck Benny's podcast. I don't remember if it was the 10-7-45 episode or the week before that. Jack's character he was playing in the skit knocked on the door belonging to the woman whose husband had "died", and Rochester answered it...and Jack goes, "Oh, you're in mourning already, I see." I'm so glad the audience laughed as long as they did so I could recover from choking!

Another unexpected laugh that's pretty memorable to me is one of the Colmans' episodes. I'm one of Ronald Colman's biggest fans that's alive today, and I've listened to all the ones I have a dozen times over, surely. The last time I was in an airplane, I was listening to the episode where the first half of the episode has the gang gathered at Jack's house so he can criticize them for all of their fluffs and mistakes in the recent weeks on the show... Jack played Phil's "Portuguese" pronunciation, and Phil said "I thought that sounded kind of cute, play it again". I don't know how I had ever missed that before, but everyone on the airplane must have thought I was a little looney.

Incidentally, I haven't been able to pronounce Portuguese correctly since.

[Brad from Georgia]

During one of the last shows for Grape-Nuts, Jack gets into a tiff with Don about what makes up an "essential" breakfast. It goes something like this:

Jack: Now, lookit, I can prove that most people don't think of cereal as an essential breakfast. Years ago I was walking down the street, and this pitiful, starving man came up to me and asked me if I could give him a dime for a cup of coffee. THAT was his idea of breakfast. A cup of coffee!

Don: Jack! You should be ashamed of yourself. A pitiful derelict came to you begging for a dime for a lousy cup of coffee for breakfast! And I'll bet you didn't even give it to him.

Jack: THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT! He didn't ask me for Grape-Nuts, he asked for a dime for a cup of coffee!

Don: And you didn't give it to him.

Jack: Now, that's where you're wrong! I was so moved that not only did I give him the dime, I gave him a job!

Don: Oh, Jack, I don't believe that.

Jack: No? Hey, Phil!

Phil: Yeah, Jackson?

Jack: SHOW DON THAT DIME!
--------------

I cracked up.

[AnneCr]

It is a classic, but I didn't know about it beforehand, so I remember having a literal choking fit while driving the car over "Who do you think I am, Dreer Pooson?"

[Jack Benny]

[quote="Chasitykins"]I choked on my own spit just this morning listening to one of the shows on Buck Benny's podcast. [\quote]

I'm glad you are listening! I knew there was one of you out there! I lost it on the same joke by the way!

[Jack Benny]

I choked on my own spit just this morning listening to one of the shows on Buck Benny's podcast. [\quote]

I'm glad you are listening! I knew there was one of you out there! I lost it on the same joke by the way!

[helloagain]

I sprayed my wife with coffee this morning while listening to the 10-5-41 broadcast:

"By the way, have you got the same writers you had last season?"

" You mean Scum and Abner?"

[Hank the All-Nite DJ]

Mary: Is Fred Allen older than you are?
Jack: Is he older! Mary, Allen died in 1896. What you hear on Sundays are transcriptions! I wonder how he gets those transcriptions up here.

[helloagain]

"Just a minute, Rochester...I told you to HOLD my chocolate eclair, not EAT it!

"It's right here in my hand, boss. Look again."

"Oh, pardon me...I didn't see it."

[epeterd]

today i heard the episode from around Christmas '46 when Babe was on. Dennis gets in the car with Jack and Babe and Jack introduces her as Miss Livingston. Babe says, "You can call me Babe."
Dennis replies, "You can call me Toots." LOL Should be obvious something like that was coming but was completely unexpected.


peter

[Moose Hatrack]

Toots. That's another one for the 'things you don't hear any more' thread.