For some reason I've been getting really interested in old comedians. I'm thinking that Jack Benny is basically Phil Hartman + Fred Armisen. Regardless, I love him. I also almost cried at a documentary about Gracie Allen passing away. How's your day going?pic.twitter.com/o6Dg0LegNL
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Replying to @GrimmProspects @MikeRTrice
If you have Sirius XM, you should listen to episodes of the old Jack Benny radio show on Radio Classics. Or find them on one of the apps that offer libraries of old time radio shows. They're hilarious.
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I find that they often don't age well because the humor is sexist or racist...
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True, but I've found the Jack Benny Program to have less content offensive by today's standards than a lot of the other old time radio shows I listen to. A lot of the humor comes at Benny's expense (e.g., his stinginess), and his black butler Rochester tended to be the smart one.
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Replying to @gorskon @janoldenburg and
Also, Eddie Anderson, the actor who played Rochester, was the first black man to have a recurring role in a national radio show. (At the time it was not uncommon for black characters to be played by white actors in blackface.)
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Replying to @gorskon @janoldenburg and
A lot of the time on the show, Rochester got the better of Benny, often deflating his ego or outwitting him. Arguably, the show's portrayal of black characters was ahead for its time. One character, a friend of Rochester, was portrayed as a well-educated, articulate man.
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I'm not saying there isn't material on the Jack Benny Program that's cringe-inducing to 2019 ears, but there's a lot less of it than in other shows of the era.
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