Dan Rowan talks about LAUGH-IN

[MegaObserver1]

Humphrey confirmed that he was offered a similar spot and turned it down. He joked that it was the biggest mistake he made in the '68 campaign.

[defundthewar]

I'm not saying Mr. Rowan was a liar, but I'm dubious about his saying an equal offer was put out to both Nixon and Humphrey to appear on Laugh-In in 1968. The head writer of the show, Paul Keyes, was a Nixon friend and speech-writer from 'way back. I saw the Nixon appearance, and it showed Nixon had a humorous side, which is like showing Orson Welles had a thin side. Unrelated note: Rowan had a fit when his daughter said she was going to marry Peter Lawford. She did; they divorced later.

[makthnife]

@defundthewar

No, it was offered to both. Quite well documented. And humour is relative. I found it damn funny!

[defundthewar]

@makthnife If Humphrey turned it down, or his handlers turned it down, they were fools. To me, precious little about Laugh-In was funny, and like so many new shows, the hardest working person on the staff was the fella with the laugh/guffaw button.

[reprobacious]

@defundthewar Lol, I hope you're not suggesting the show had a RIGHT-wing slant. It was essentially wall-to-wall anti-Pentagon jokes (i.e., Rowan's General Bull Right) & antiwar messages. So, one of the writers liked Nixon personally, big deal. The boss behind the show, George Schlatter later said he was horrified that his having Nixon on the show (and having Humphrey turn him down) is what possibly swung the 1968 election...sounds to me like something a Lefty is far more likely to say.

[defundthewar]

@reprobacious While channel-surfing tonight I came across a PBS retrospective of Laugh-In. Maybe you did, too, which jogged your memory and got you to write on this site. I didn't find Laugh-In even remotely political in the way the Smothers Brothers Show was, and- you might know this- Rowan and Martin had been around since the days of the Colgate Comedy Hour... they were hardly young when they did Laugh-In, and much of the cornball material- little of it funny- was Vaudeville style.

[131313jh]

stop fightin' !

hehe zk