I don't know if I'm being hypersensitive to this or if it's actually true, but I'm beginning to feel like the Daily Kos Memorialist. It's not a title I mind assuming in this case, because tonight we remember, VERY fondly, one of the best comedians the world has ever known, and one who was distinctly -- and distinctively -- American, Jonathan Winters, who died Thursday at the age of 87. If you remember him, you REMEMBER him, and if you don't, this diary is so you will, and, I hope, remember him as we who loved his work still do.
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Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home!
Seriously, sui generis, and we were aware of that while he was alive. He created a raft of characters, each one funnier than the one before, who served as models (and in at least one case, an EXACT model) for other comedians. As his obituary in the Los Angeles Times observed,
With his rubbery, moon-shaped face and pitch-perfect ear for speech patterns, Winters began to unleash a cavalcade of charmingly twisted characters, including a redneck ballplayer, a lisping child and a prissy schoolmarm. He gave many of them names — Elwood P. Suggins, Chester Honeyhugger and, perhaps most beloved, Maude Frickert the swinging granny he performed in drag and described as a cross between Whistler's and Norman Bates' mothers.
"If you ask me who are the 25 most funny people I know," Jack Paar would later quip on the "Tonight" show, "I would say, 'Here they are: Jonathan Winters.'"
In fact, Maude Frickert leads in this short set of clips furnished in his memory by the New York Times.
But he was also exquisitely funny as himself. This is Jonathan Winters on The Tonight Show with Jack Paar. If you want to know where Robin Williams (and he admits it freely) got his standup routine from, here it is. 7:35, but you absolutely have to watch all of it. It starts with some stuff from the Times video and it ends with one of his most famous (to my generation, at least) lines.
The obituaries in the LA Times and in the New York Times tell his story better than I can here, and there's also a remarkable tweetdeck at mashable.com, but I also have to link "Jonathan Winters walks on" from Indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com because
Winters had Native ancestry, although he was the first to admit that, as a 1/16th Cherokee he was not as Indian as others -- a People Magazine profile from 1976 cites the quip, "If I had a nosebleed, I'd be out of the tribe." Nonetheless he was a passionate supporter of Native causes, and served as honorary chair of the National Congress of American Indians. In 1969, Winters was among the celebrities -- others included Jane Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Marlon Brando, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Dick Gregory -- who visited occupied Alcatraz Island to show support for the Indian action.
Father of improv comedy, social activist, star of nightclub and screen (both large and small), there's one other thing we should remember, and that comes to us
from cnn.com via Gilbert Gottfried in one of the best remembrances of Winters so far:
Jonathan Winters was not always in his right mind. I don't mean that only in the showbiz sense, but in the mental health sense. Jonathan, who died Thursday, was a nut as a comic, but also manic depressive and was institutionalized at least once in his life. He was also brilliantly talented. And the combination of his mental troubles and amazing talent made him the legendary performer that he was. He recognized this himself, telling an NPR reporter in 2011, "I need that pain — whatever it is — to call upon it from time to time, no matter how bad it was." That's a common concern for performers when they go into therapy or other treatment; ditto performers who give up drugs and alcohol. They worry: If I don't have that pain, where do I draw my creativity from?
Yes, and the world knew about it, and during the 1970s we understood how special his appearances were because of that. He even shows up in tonight's picture quilt!
Jim loved Jonathan Winters. I'd like to think that he was on the receiving line to welcome him, if indeed the afterlife is like that. We don't see talent like Winters had every day, or even every decade. Let's relish the fact that we saw it at all.
And now for the stuff that makes this Top Comments:
TOP COMMENTS
April 13, 2013
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU when you find that proficient comment.
From Chrislove:
In zooecium's (er, Geoffery the cat's) hilarious rebuttal to commonmass' equally hilarious diary outing his cat as a Republican, cactusgal nearly made me squirt Diet Coke out my nose with this comment.
From Noddy:
I'll see you, Chrislove, and I'll raise you with this: zooecium makes a funny that spreads into the down thread - so go read not just this comment but the diary and all the comments on zooecium's diary, commonmassconception
From Dave in Northridge, your intrepid diarist:
In Chrislove's Top Comments diary last night on the banana slicer, jwinIL14 almost brought me to tears of laughter with this comment.
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TOP MOJO
April 10, 2013
(excluding Tip Jars and first comments)
1) both of mine by Debbie in ME — 241
2) Children shouldn't be used as props. by milkbone — 177
3) Tell me more... by Vacationland — 173
4) sorry, but I am going to disagree by teacherken — 157
5) Can you imagine the pressure by NMDad — 157
6) Thank you david. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 149
7) The Ragdoll breed is the only breed of cat, as far by commonmass — 129
8) It's a front. by gizmo59 — 119
9) Why the Friday news leak/dump? by Bruce Webb — 115
10) they are their brother's keeper by Debbie in ME — 114
11) they help with the chores by Debbie in ME — 113
12) I think it's important by claytonben — 112
13) The sure way to tell cats are Republicans? by Crashing Vor — 109
14) Well, at least your cat by left rev — 106
15) will he ever recover his presidency? by Don midwest — 103
16) You think I am unaware that Republicans control... by Meteor Blades — 103
17) um um ummm by kishik — 101
18) Jonathan Winters and a stick by FiredUpInCA — 97
19) in school a professor advised us by mightymouse — 96
20) Huge Political Blunder & Horrid Economics by FishOutofWater — 96
21) they share - distribute the wealth of 'nip by Debbie in ME — 95
22) we do not have a parliamentary system by Laurence Lewis — 94
23) HR for call-out diary by ericlewis0 — 93
24) Pretzel logic to the max! by bobswern — 92
25) That's the only way to stop this by Dallasdoc — 88
26) In the spirit of Ed Tracey, a "separated at birth" by commonmass — 87
27) My cat must be a Communist by Major Kong — 87
28) Not only that by zaynabou — 86
29) Since any budget can't be passed anyway... by Meteor Blades — 84
30) Very good work. nt/ by Meteor Blades — 82
For an explanation of How Top Mojo Works, see mik's FAQing Top Mojo
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TOP PHOTOS
April 12, 2013
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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