"T'aint Funny, McGee"

My wife often accused me of being stuck in the 50's when it comes to music. I don't protest, partially because it's probably true - but,also because I'm not sure she doesn't mean the 1850's.

In truth, my humor may be stuck in the 40's. Radio comedy was big in our house growing up. It included Amos & Andy, because we were of a different generation and still naively unaware that what we were laughing at was prejudicial against an entire race of people.

Hopefully, the advent of B.E.T television clarified the assumption.

It was a different time and much of the humor those days has not translated well to that of our present generation. Listening to some of the old comedy show tapes suggests that what we found to be funny was actually kind of amateurish.

There were exceptions. When listning to an old Fibber McGee and Molly recently.I found Fibber's defense of the weather being extremely cold to be vaguely familiar. When asked how cold it was, he stated, "It is so cold that I saw the snowman down at the department store blowing on his hands."

Apparently, the writers of Johnny Carson's tonight show felt it could be updated and included the premise in his response to Ed McMahon when questioned as to explaining, "How cold is it?".

It would take too long to go into all the radio comedy shows I found amusing as a child. Needless-to-say they included comedy entertainers such as Burns & Allen, Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Red Skelton, and my alltime favorite, Fibber McGee and Molly.

These were two former vaudevillians, Jim & Marian Jordan, who were also husband and wife in real life.

The humor was easy going and lacked either the dirty language or the mean comments of many of today's successful comedians.

Molly's continuos use of the line "T'aint Funny McGee" was as well known as Fibber McGee's closet that poured various items down on McGee when he attempted to open the door.

I enjoyed the sound effects almost as much as the sound of breaking glass that followed the exclamation by former Pirate broadcaster Rosey Roswell following a homerun by the Pirates, "Open the window Aunt Minnie, here it comes!" - a line all us kids adopted when playing ball over at Atlantic Avenue School's playground with the short right field.

Fibber was the main character in a show that lasted from the 30's into the 50's.

The show stood out for me as it included many characters and was the precursor of todays successful situation comedy shows. The actors who portrayed the characters, such as Harold Perry, Gale
Gordon and others survived radio and were star character performers on TV.

The premise of Fibber McGee and Molly was simple and usually took place entirely in the McGee's living room where the various characters, mostly alleged neighbors, made a regular appearance.

They included Wallace Wimple, a hen-pecked husband who was constantly dominated and battered by his never seen spouse,
Cornelia, to whom he referred as "Sweetieface" and/or his "big ol wife".

The part was played by Bill Thompson, who was also "The Old Timer" a hearing challenged senior citizen who coined the popular phrase, "That ain't the way I heared it!"

Another character actor, Richard LeGrand created the part of Ole Swenson, a Swedish-born janitor at the Elks Club and who later became Mr. Peavey on the Great Gildesleeve. Ole complained a lot that he was "joost donatin' my time." (another gem)

There was also another character referred to alternately as "Sis" and "Little girl", who was voiced by Marian Jordan. Her catchphrase was that of ending her statements with the tagline, "I betcha."

I think I liked her most because of my Grandma Sullivans neighbor and close friend up in Wilmerding, Pa., Mrs. St. Clair, who drove me nuts as a kid by insisting on ending each sentence with the utterance, "So I did" or "So, I said.".

We have been stealing jokes, comedic techniques and one-liners since the beginning of time.

Puns and the stealing of malapropism infested humor from the style of Mrs. Malaprop", a character in Sheridan's classic, "The Rivals."
were employed in the 40's and continue to be a great source of simple humor - including the popular NCIS.

The lines and sayings of the characters on FM & M became part of this nations vernacular in the same way that TV stars Milton Berle's "MAKEUP!", Gleasons,"And, awaay we go!" & "Someday Alice - right to the Moon!", and Flip Wilson's, "The Devil made me do it" stuck with generations that survived the humor of the 40's.

There were fewer of us in the 40's but we were still more than willing to highjack these catch phrases and employ them at just about any moment in time.

The idea of including homemade characters on radio was adopted by local Pittsburgh morning drive time host, Rege Cordic, who with the imagination of Bob Trow and Karl Hardman, developed such favorites as "Louie The Garbage Man", "Brunhilda", "Omicron", "Big Ube & Little Ube" and Carmen Monoxide, a champion punster.

As Junior High kids we weren't allowed to stand around the water cooler and recite lines from Cordic & Company due to the always present hall monitors - so we wandered off to the bathrooms instead.

But, guaranteed, Dad and his work cronies were probably standing around the coke machine at Beadling Motors on Wednesday mornings, repeating their favorite jokes or lines from the previous nights Texaco sponsored Berle show.

These are tough times financially and emotionally. Maybe we need to install more water coolers at work and try again to make comedy truly funny.