Question of the Day | 08/11/2009 11:00 pm

From Lucille Ball to Ellen DeGeneres to Chelsea Handler, what comedienne cracks you up?

Laugh along with Liz Smith, Marlo Thomas, Jane Wagner and Joan Ganz Cooney as they salute the people who’ve put smiles on their faces.

Lucille Ball, Ellen DeGeneres, Chelsea Handler

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Joan Ganz Cooney | 08/11/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney Praises Jon Stewart

I laugh easily at comedians, particularly if they use irony in their routines. Jon Stewart and some of his cohorts make me laugh every night before I go to bed. I love his exposure of the hypocrisy of politicians.

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Marlo Thomas | 08/11/2009 11:00 pm

Marlo Thomas Recalls Her Favorite Scenes From 'I Love Lucy' and Carol Burnett's 'Gone With the Wind'

Hands down, the one to beat (but eternally unbeatable) is Lucille Ball in her famous candy factory scene. She and Ethel are stuck on the assembly line, with a humorless supervisor checking in on them, and Lucy’s stuffing chocolates in her blouse, in her hat, in her cheeks — anywhere — trying to hide them because the conveyor belt is moving too fast for her.

Close behind Lucy is Carol Burnett’s "Gone with the Wind" send-up from her old CBS variety show. Dripping with fake southern charm, and overacting within an inch of her life, she hilariously channels Scarlett O’Hara, dressed in Tara’s green velvet drapes (complete with the curtain rod!). I could watch these two pieces for the rest of my life, and they’d still make me scream with laughter.

13 Comments

Liz Smith | 08/11/2009 11:00 pm

From Roseanne Barr to Kaye Ballard, Liz Smith on the Commediennes of Today and Yesteryear

The one and only Roseanne Barr, a great social commentator and a genius much misunderstood by her audiences. Then there are two more in the genius category – the incomparable writer Jane Wagner and her clever friend Lily Tomlin. I did adore Carol Burnett and think a show like hers would go over great today if only they could find another Carol Burnett. If we think back to yesterday, how about the comic talents of Kaye Ballard, Nancy Walker and Beatrice Lily? If you missed them, you missed a lot. Of the newer breed I’d have to name the controversial Paula Poundstone, who managed to go on working after much notoriety.

7 Comments

Jane Wagner | 08/11/2009 11:00 pm

Jane Wagner Gives Kudos to Her Favorite Comediennes

Lucille: What can you say but OMG! Simply one of the greats. Her style of broad, beautifully timed and executed comedy has released more endorphins than all the OxyContin, feel-good meds and morphine pumps in the world.

Ellen DeGeneres is a true original. She is just brilliantly funny from stand-up to talk-show host to whatever she does. And so loveable! Her sitcoms were funny and innovative. She has a witty, high-comedy style that blends seamlessly with her own persona — this is, I think, what gives her unusual magnetism. She is so real and wise as she brings us her sly insights into this absurd and foolish world of ours.

Chelsea Handler is someone I’ve heard about. I know Chelsea has a show on VH1 and I’m going to catch up with her right away.

But I must add kudos to some of my other favorites:

Phyllis Diller — brilliant, bizarre, hysterically funny jokes. She laid down the trail for the hilarious, outspoken Roseanne.

Joan Rivers — Some of the best, flat-out, funniest lines in the history of one-liners.

Whoopi — I love this brilliant actress and comic.

I think Joy Behar is wonderfully funny on "The View." I love her quick wit and intelligence when she hosts the "Larry King" show.

I feel I’ve left someone out — one of my absolute favorites — gee whiz, what IS her name?

19 Comments

80 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

The unforgettable Gilda Radner. I’ll never forget her or the wonderful characters she created.

By Laura Ward on 08/12/2009 12:09 am

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I don’t find Ellen DeGeneres or Chelsea Handler funny at all. Neither one has ever made me laugh. I think some of the funnier comediennes on tv were …, Julie Kavner, Nancy Walker, Cloris Leachman, Valerie Harper, Estelle Ghetty, as for stand up, I think Paula Poundstone is pretty funny. I don’t understand why she doesn’t have her own show.

By Woody McBreairty on 08/12/2009 12:14 am

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I agree about Paula Poundstone. I think that when she ‘got into trouble’ she backed out of the fame track & on to the ‘mommy track’. My hope is that some day she will find a way to make it work for her & we will see her more. But I gotta say, if the choice is her making me laugh or taking care of herself - I want her to be well.

By Midwest Mom on 08/12/2009 8:28 am

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I saw Paula Poundstone last year in Orange County, CA. I have never laughed so hard. Just talking to the audience and responding to what they said to her. She is brilliant and working.

By Dianne Russell on 08/12/2009 12:01 pm

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Whoopie, Joy and Sherri on the View, the Saturday Night Live group - now and before. Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and George Burns. Valerie Harper, Mary Tyler Moore and Lucille Ball.

By Linda Myers on 08/12/2009 12:26 am

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Kathy Griffin, Joan Rivers, Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett are a given, Lily Tomlin and Whoppi and not because they are on wow. Um, I’m sure I’m missing a few.

By siasp surate on 08/12/2009 12:28 am

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I’m so embarrassed, I mispelled Whoopi, yikes.

By siasp surate on 08/12/2009 12:29 am

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How could we forget Imogene Coca in the 1950s? Remember her with her partner Sid Caesar in the Show of Shows - at a time when comedy was still clean and still very funny - doing the percussion instruments in the 1812 Overture? They played off each other so well, often doing improvisation that was side-splitting.

And what about Elaine May, a lady beyond talented (who later became a writer and director) who I think got a Grammy for "An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May" in the early ’60s. She and Nichols were together so much in the early years that not that long ago she was asked publicly "So did you guys have an affair or what?". She answered "Exactly" and moved on.

By joan larsen on 08/12/2009 12:35 am

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Gosh, Joan, I don’t even have to comment–-you’ve done it for me. Nichols/May duo were superb as were Caesar/Cocoa. These were cleverly worked out sketches that are now classic. I don’t know anybody that does that kind of thing today, except for SNL, but even that is different. I love Whoopi’s dialogue on anything and her schticks with Robin and Billy are just hilarious. Tomblin, Burnett, ––don’t really get to see or hear women comics today.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 08/12/2009 12:52 pm

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Do you remember Margaret Dumont, the dowager like woman, in most of the Groucho Marx movies? Like Night at the Opera? She was one of a kind - just right to play off Groucho. Every New Years Eve when all the kids were growing up, do you remember they would play Groucho’s movies, one after another — and we would stay up until all hours. It was tradition — and I Remember Margaret!!!!

By joan larsen on 08/12/2009 10:25 pm

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Oh, yes! Imogene Coca was just hilarious, as were a couple of other 1950’s-era comediennes: Joan Davis and Eve Arden. Joan Davis could play for laughs with a straight face and make the tiniest situation fall-down funny, and Eve Arden’s priceless, wry delivery was classic. I also LOVE Carol Burnett - can you ever forget her send-up of Gone With the Wind?

I am also a huge fan of Whoopi and Lily Tomlin (I can still do Ernestine routines word for word after all these years). Paula Poundstone is so wonderful - what I love best about her is that she is a storyteller who builds a tale so carefully and so full of tiny, hilarious details, that by the time the "pay-off moment" arrives, you’re already rolling in the aisles. And boy, do I miss Madeline Kahn! Anyone who could steal a scene from Mel Brooks is truly worthy of respect!

Going back for a moment to some of the great classic TV comediennes, the late, great Suzanne Pleshette in combination with Bob Newhart was such a perfect foil that we forget how her own delivery of a line was often the highlight of the show. And the ensemble work of all the women on The Mary Tyler Moore Show was brilliantly done. Jean Stapleton on All In the Family. Bea Arthur could crack me up reading a phone book! Julie Kavner. Valerie Harper.

And from the current crop: Tina Fey; Wanda Sykes; Julia Louis-Dreyfus; and when will the miraculous Jane Leeves from Frazier be back, for goodness’ sake?

By Susan Crawford on 08/12/2009 6:16 pm

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Yes, yes, yes. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has timing, the greatest facial expression and great lines. But way back when, most of Imogene Coca was improvisational and how one does those rubber facial expressions without looking in the mirror - well, I don’t know. Way back when - mostly seen a bit later - was Mae West …not exactly a comedienne, but the one liners: the favorite being "Why don’t you come up and see me sometime?" with that "look" and "the spice" sticks with me. There was never another like her.

By joan larsen on 08/12/2009 10:15 pm

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Too true regarding Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar - they "winged it" and because they seemed so completely in tune, their improv was just about perfect. Amazing, wasn’t it, how early live TV was such a bold experiment? When I think of the greats of that era (Ernie Kovacs, Berle, even the Ed Sullivan show) I’m amazed that so much quality came out of something so primitive by today’s standards. And Coca’s face was just amazing as she managed to run through a seemingly endless variety of expressions, one more apt and hilarious than the next. (The only thing that comes close today are those videos of a face "morphing" - and that has to be done with computer generated imagery. All hail Imogene, the Facial Queen!) And on Mae West, she sure was a comedienne in my book, Joan! Hand on ample hip, sidelong glance and a delivery that managed to be both suggestive and a send-up of suggestiveness at the same time. Brilliant (or, as my students put it: brills!)

By Susan Crawford on 08/13/2009 8:39 am

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Susan … I am so curious on the twists and turns of life - and how YOU got into teaching film. A long term dream - or a fluke that set you on that path. Does that mean you see a lot of movies then — as these days, well, perhaps we are too ancient to enjoy what often is turned out as "film" these days. I remember when I went to the show once a week - at least — and now - well, perhaps I am just plain choosy and read ahead. I loved a movie called "Days of Heaven" with Richard Gere early on. The photography alone caught me. That single house out among the fields remains in my mind so many years later.

Glad you too loved Mae West - suggestive with a look, a few words, but not over the line. Now everything is over the line and it seems not all that sexy as imagination is enough for me. I think you must lead a wonderful life.

By joan larsen on 08/13/2009 9:03 am