"if it's good news, it must be someone else's"

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

808. a little known fact about henny youngman

it dawned on me that i never hear about stand up comics from the middle ages.
so i did some research.
i executed a proper google search and discovered that henny youngman was such a comic.
apparently he was a regular of the grand banquet tour in the little known resort area, the caspian catskill belt.

some of his best lines included:
  • the queen is so fat that when she sits around the castle, she sits around the castle.
  • the king took his queen to a queen-swapping party. he had to throw in some treasure just to get her in the door.
  • the queen is so ugly when the king brought her on safari, they groundskeeper said thanks for bringing back the elephant.
  • the king visited his personal doctor. the doctor said, "you need some blood letting your majesty". the king replied, "i want a second opinion." so the doctor said, "and you're ugly too!"

in fact, so popular was henny with royalty that he was knighted, lord of the laugh.

and to think i got to see him perform at the square in willowbrook mall for free no more than twenty years ago.
gee, i wish i had known.
i would have greeted him "sir youngman", instead of just"hey henny".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for another happy memory. I used to love listening to Henny Youngman with my grandfather when I was a kid.

Youngman was an accomplished jazz violinist as well.

itsmecissy said...

"Take my wife. Please."

Is that the same guy? Yeah, he was funny.