Oct082004

Last “No Respects” 2

Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy

Been reading the obituaries for Rodney Dangerfield and was struck by how rare he was. As he stated in his LA Times obituary:

“I’m very lucky to have an image. Most comedians do not have an image. They do, ‘Did this ever happen to you?’ or they do satire. But there’s practically none around today with an image. (Jack) Benny had an image. (W.C.) Fields had an image. An image is tough to come by. It doesn’t just happen. And people try to create it and think, ‘What’s an image for me?’ But it has to happen from your soul, I guess. You have to feel it.”

Rodney’s image was of an iconic level: the tug on the “red tie” with the declarations of no respect. He manage to keep both contradicting balls of comedy - familiarity and surprise - up in the air for so long. We kinda knew what he was gonna say, but it always pulled the rug out from under us anyway. I don’t think anyone will have such a solid image again… so much stand-up is about being real, that filtering your jokes through a persona seems ridiculous. Yet Rodney’s persona was real… it was him… a downtown comic whose demeanor was Catskills. No wonder he was a bridge between generations of comedy and why many claim he was responsible for many careers including Sam Kinison, Roseanne Barr and Jerry Seinfeld.

Here’s a collection of interesting links/obits featuring Rodney and his comedy. Check ‘em out:

• Entertainment Weekly Interview
• LA Times Obit
  includes audio and video of performances
• NY Times Obit.
• NPR Interview
• NPR audio excerpt from Rodney Dangerfield’s comedy album “The Loser”
• Comedy Central “Stand-Up Central” entry for Rodney, including video of him winning a Comedy Idol award.

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