RIP Jackie Mason 1928-2021.

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DAR

Can't Leave
Aug 2, 2020
355
1,113
Tiburon, California
One of the best old style comedians ever. Can't forget that voice......... I remember when Starbucks started to appear on every corner, he had an incredibly long rant about how we've totally killed "the coffee shop" of yesterday. I think part of his act was him actually pissed off at things.
He was a style of comedian that doesn't exist anymore.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
According to one of the obits, he served as a rabbi in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. He must have had a hard time finding a good Jewish restaurant or deli in N.C., alas. No wonder he left the clergy for stand-up. I remember taking a day trip with friends and playing a Jackie Mason tape most of the way. Many funny bits that have stuck with me for years. One of the bits was about how Italians in suits are dangerous, but put them in uniforms and they are clowns, whereas Jewish guys in suits are pacific, whereas if you put them in uniform they're deadly. And about how non-Jews always want to show you how they've remodeled their houses, but Jewish people make the best food. "That's our department." Funny how his jokes translated to other ethnicities, even the ones that don't think of themselves in ethnic terms so much ... really a universality. He really was one of the best, and I'm glad he had a long and often successful life. One of my favorite novelists is Saul Bellow, and Mason provided an insight into some of Bellow's non-humorous work.
 

Merton

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 8, 2020
941
2,499
Boston, Massachusetts
A very funny guy who became much more celebrated as he grew somewhat older. His career was nearly ruined by the Ed Sullivan bird flipping thing, however, he had a big "Second Act" down the road. Great delivery and he had a voice which was very funny too.
 

Aomalley27

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 8, 2021
763
1,696
Chicagoland area
Mason could be cheeky, but he made a point of never being vulgar.
There’s a interview he gave one of the late night hosts (I think it might have been Tom Snyder(???)) Where he lamented how comedy devolved with the vulgarities of comics like Pryor, Murphy, Dice Clay, etc. (*I do enjoy a lot of the aforementioned comics’ work)
Told how he had to turn down a famous comedian’s film project because it involved some rather risqué humor.
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I'm sorry, but I always thought Ed Sullivan was a dreadful guy that someone had let out of his coffin, so his disliking Jackie Mason is nothing but a plus to me. Sullivan was a newsman who should have stayed at his typewriter. He had all the warmth of a stuffed fish.
 
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