I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BOB NEWHART-The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1960), The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back (1960) & Behind the Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1961).

We started watching The Bob Newhart Show on DVD (the 1970s one, not the one set in the inn).  I was surprised how much I liked it and how well it stood up, for the most part.  And it made me realize how much I liked Bob Newhart in general.  So, I figured I’d try some of his stand up and see what it was like.

I was delighted to find out that a joke from Mystery Science Theater 3000 was finally explained to me: the “Mrs Webb” joke that is muttered whenever an old lady is driving a car comes from the “Driving Instructor” joke on the first album (hereafter known as Button-Down).  It’s only taken a decade for me to get that joke!

But really, what do you get when you listen to a Newhart CD?  And what would a reviewer write about in a review of these CDs?  Well, I think it would go something like this:

[Reviewer]: Yea, hi, ha ha.  Hi.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: I was just listening to these Newhart CDs.
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[Reviewer]: No.  No, they’re not new, they’re almost 50 years old now.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Ha ha, right.
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[Reviewer]: No, they’re basically telephone conversations.  In most instances Bob plays a character listening to the person on the other end whom you never hear.  So, it’s almost entirely reaction shots.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Yes, they’re very funny.
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[Reviewer]: A few are dated.  The one about Khrushchev, “The Khrushchev Landing Rehearsal” (Button-Down), for example is pretty funny but was probably a lot funnier in 1960.  And “Driving Instructor” (Button-Down) is sexist in set-up (it’s sort of a joke about “women drivers” but once you get past that it applies to any new driver) but the joke is probably the funniest thing on any of the discs.  I was also concerned about “The Africa Movie” (Behind the Button) as it seemed potentially fraught with inappropriate humor, but it turned out to be very very funny, and a wonderful twist on expectations.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Yes, the skits do run pretty long.  Most are over 5 minutes, but he packs a lot of jokes into that time.
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[Reviewer]: Well, sure there are a few that are only about 2 minutes long, and one that even comes close to set up/punchline: “TV Commercials” on Behind the Button (the dentist commercial in particular).  But even on that disc, the one sided nature of the conversations persists.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: There’s a Khrushchev skit on Behind the Button as well (“Tourist Meets Khrushchev”), but aside from knowing who he is, the jokes in that skit aren’t dated at all.  It’s all about an annoying tourist running into him somewhere…and the resultant consequences.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Yeah, Yeah. Boom!
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[Reviewer]: It’s not violent, just implied.  Another potentially violent one is “Bus Drivers School” (Strikes Back) as he notes that it takes a certain type of sadist to drive a bus, if you know what I mean.  But, uh, well, the only one that gets somewhat risque is “The Uncle Freddie Show” which shows Newhart’s intolerance for kid’s TV show hosts.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: What?
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[Reviewer]: Well, Uncle Freddie doesn’t seem to like kids.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Oh.
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[Reviewer]: Well, no, some other topics are “Nobody Will Ever Play Baseball” (Button-Down) because how could you possibly market it [“Why four balls, Abner?”]?
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[Reviewer]: Yes, a lot with marketing.  Like “Abe Lincoln Vs. Madison Avenue” (Button-Down) [“Keep the beard, Abe], and “Merchandising the Wright Brothers” (Button-Down) [“Where will we put the john, Orville?”].
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Precursor to what?
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[Reviewer]: Well, he does predate many, many comedians by having airline jokes.
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[Reviewer]: No, nothing about peanuts. But “The Grace L. Ferguson Airline (And Storm Door Co.)” (Strikes Back)” pretty much negates the need for any future airline humor.
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[Reviewer]: No, I’m not saying the new comedians aren’t funny.
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[Reviewer]: I do like Seinfeld.
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[Reviewer]: No, Newhart’s bit is about an airline run out of someone’s house.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: It’s totally….
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Oh, forget it.

All three discs are very funny.  I was under the impression that he only had these three discs, but I now understand he released four more discs through 1967, all of which are supposed to be funny, but which are unavailable right now.

[READ: Halloween 2008] Wacky Packages

So you don’t really READ this book.  This book is a collection of images from the Wacky Packages collection of trading cards that circulated from 1973-1974.  There were seven series of cards that ran during this time for a total of some 232 cards.  According to the site I link to below, there were 16 series in total, which makes sense, as I was only 5 when these 7 series came out, but I distinctly recall getting the packs myself.

The cards were simply parodies of popular products of the time.  Liptorn (for Lipton Soup), Quacker Oats (for Quaker Oats), Cap’n Crud (for Cap’n Crunch) etc.  Seeing them all put together, it was funny to me how most of the parodies fell into three categories: stuff that makes you “dumb,” (Play-Dumb Moldy Clay, Dimwit Dots Sugar Cubes for Dummies, Dums [Tums] for the Dummy); jokes about smelly hippies, (Oh Hairy! fuzzy chocolate for fuzzy people, Hipton Tea Bags the “hippy” tea) and a surprising amount of dog jokes (lots of dog products were made back then too, I guess).

These were the precursor to Garbage Pail Kids, and were considerably tamer, although I suspect at the time that they were deemed the end of civilization.  What’s interesting is the folks who were behind the creations, including Jay Lynch, Bill Griffith (Creator of Zippy the Pinhead) and Art Spiegelman.

Even though you buy the book for the nostalgia factor of all of these cards, the real selling point of the book for me was the interview with Spiegelman.  Spiegelman has never really talked about the Wacky Packages days of career before, and its interesting to learn how he and the other writers didn’t get what the creator originally wanted to do which was to create mini ads for old time products.  Spiegelman and the others thought parodies would be much better sellers…and that was that.

This is clearly not essential “reading” but if you’ve got nostalgia for these humorous stickers, the book is great place to see them.  Or, for a great website showing all of the packs, check this out.