Buddy Hackett made me laugh

Buddy Hackett made me laugh. \nThat's probably something that the marketing staff at any entertainment-producing organization would want to hear. After all, I am not in Buddy Hackett's target demographic. \nThat's also probably irrelevant now after Hackett's death at age 78 last Monday. But now's a good time to make another point. \nHackett hadn't been seen much in public over the last few years of his life. He made semi-regular appearances on "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn," and he absolutely killed. So Kilborn brought him out every week on a segment called "Tuesdays with Buddy" where he would tell a couple of jokes and then leave. \nKilborn's show couldn't have seemed more out of place for Hackett's shtick. The twentysomething crowd hoots and hollers at any remotely sexual reference as if they needed a place to go now that "Married... with Children" no longer needs a studio audience. Plus, Kilborn's aloof hipness wouldn't figure to mesh with Hackett's uncamouflaged silliness. However, since Kilborn gets C-list celebrities -- we're talking third-billed actors from shows on the WB here -- it's probably worth a shot at somebody forgotten but not gone. \nSo he brought out Hackett, and Hackett was funny. \nPart of the Catskills comedy scene often described as the Borscht Belt, Hackett was all marble-mouthed and detailed. He could tell the same joke twice, get a bigger laugh the second time and explain the slight change in the delivery or recitation of the joke that made it funnier. \nIn other words, he wasn't as stupid as his cross-eyed countenance might have suggested. \nHe was an actor who appeared in the 1962 film version of Meredith Willson's "The Music Man," still the version of record for the classic musical. Hackett sang the showstopper "Shipoopee." He was also in demand as a voice actor in animated films. \nBut primarily he worked standup comedy, an entertainment form that emphasizes edginess. Hackett never looked threatening, but perhaps made up for it by using more than his share of dirty material. He and Redd Foxx might have been the only two comedians who could be funny to a mainstream audience and to an adult audience. (I'm not a huge Richard Pryor fan, perhaps because they show "Brewster's Millions" on Comedy Central far too often.) \nAfter Johnny Carson retired from "The Tonight Show" in May 1992, Hackett rarely got to do what he did best in front of a large audience. What's unfortunate is that we shouldn't take funny for granted. Making people laugh is not easy. Think of how many sitcoms get canceled each year. Think of how many unfunny film comedies get made each year. Consider that "Friends" is really no longer a sitcom but rather a soap opera. And Pauly Shore's career just went downhill after "Encino Man." \nIf a normally funny person makes something unfunny, it's an uncomfortable moment for both audience and performer. (Having said that, Eddie Murphy is probably used to it by now.) If a normally unfunny person makes us laugh, we applaud them for lightening up. See Robert DeNiro in "Analyze This/That" and "Meet the Parents." \nDana Carvey is my all-time favorite "Saturday Night Live" performer. Obviously, he is most famous for his impressions of the first President Bush, Ross Perot and Regis Philbin as well as characters like Franz of "Hans and Franz", Garth Algar from "Wayne's World," Grumpy Old Man and The Church Lady. And that's not counting his less-celebrated but just as hilarious impersonations of Casey Kasem, Strom Thurmond (speaking of recently deceased people who could make you laugh) and Jimmy Stewart. Yet, it should be noted that his films, with the two "Wayne's World" flicks as exceptions, have been horrendous, especially when Carvey has been asked to carry the movie. And even in "Wayne's World," he was more of a supporting player. It's just hard to deliver the goods the way Hackett could. \nCertain comedians and comedic films seem to almost dare you to laugh, certainly not inviting you to laugh. Andrew "Dice" Clay comes to mind. The same goes for any Rob Schneider film or any Chris Tucker film post-"Jackie Brown." The people behind these films pigeonhole their audience with a PG-13 rating and then insult their intelligence. \nMeanwhile, you cannot believe how many younger people are still discovering and guffawing to "Golden Girls" reruns on Lifetime that would certainly not count as the target audience for Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Betty White or Estelle Getty. \nBuddy Hackett was consistently funny. We shouldn't have taken it for granted.