Is France officially in mourning?

As I grew older I really felt he exploited medical issues under the guise of being a humanitarian.

This became personal when a coworker went to his charity for help 40 years ago and they offered nothing.

Nonetheless he lived a very long life. I guess that states something without really saying anything.

MDA helped her tremendously as her needs required.

Thank you. RIP.

I have to say, I never found him to be all that funny and often times just plain obnoxious. That real high "I'm being funny so laugh" voice he would use grated on me.

There are some pretty great ones (and many not great ones).

I enjoyed the one where he and Martin were running from gangsters and ended up on a zombie island but it was pretty much a rip-off of Bob Hope in The Ghost Breakers.

Many thought he was comic genius (apparently many French) but I never saw it. Abott and Costello, Three Stooges, etc. - yes, Lewis, no.

Anyway, RIP Jerry...

His humor was often so slapstick and over-the-top, it was hard to watch. I enjoyed him as child though.

However, he pretty much played himself.

His "I'm playing an idiot" slapstick with the childish voice was just plain obnoxious.

But I've broken my Mother's rule now, speaking ill...

RIP Jerry, your telethons rocked.

when he allowed someone else to direct him, were funny.

Once he officially became "a genius" and had to always direct himself, they slowly stopped being so.

Ran around Vegas wrecking cars, high on pain killers, etc.

Some say he had an awakening of conscience at some point and that's why he took up the cause of MS = perhaps as a sort of repentance.

Anyway, good for him for doing so.

but I believe he and Dean both appeared at Muscular Dystrophy benefits before the split-up.

Story about a clown at Auschwitz.

Although Lewis was allowing its release when it goes into the Library of Congress in 2024.

From the movies to the telethon

Are Trumpbots Loretta Lynn and Kenny Rogers next?

Both loved Trump's hard line stance against immigrants.

Kenny Rogers has Hep-C.

and I'll bet any amount they all had undocumented workers in their homes. The vast majority of Republicans do. They LOVE slave wage immigrants working for them, then they tell "angry Americans" that it's the IMMIGRANTS who are at fault. Hypocrites, every one.

I wasn't a big fan of his comedic style - kind of over the top, for me - but I was truly surprised at his performance with De Niro.

He's pretty much the last of that generation of comedic movie actors. I hope his spirit had a peaceful journey.

If he's a liberal, he's the greatest guy ever.

If he's a Republican, may he burn in hell.

He did not age very well, given all reports I've read.

happened with Mary Tyler Moore. She became a False Noise Nut in her final years.
I choose to remember the enjoyment I got from some of these people's performances rather than their politics.
I've gotten slammed for it here at DU when I mentioned certain people whose work I enjoyed.

Rupert Pupkin weeps tonight...

Completely unintentionally Jerry Lewis had a big impact on my life as a grade schooler. I was raised in a highly conformist Goldwater household. Everything had its place and everything had its time. No exceptions were allowed. My mother had very firm habits.

We never saw a Jerry Lewis movie in the theaters because my mother had decided that he was not funny in any way.

On the last day of 5th grade all students with good behavior records (basically everyone in the school but me) were released to attend a movie in the gymnasium. Then they let me go too. I was shocked to find 400 children watching a Jerry Lewis movie and laughing uncontrollably. I was so amazed to find that the universal truth that Jerry Lewis wasn’t funny that I scarcely watched the movie, I had an epiphany, not everything was black and white and not everybody agreed with my mother.

Ironically I never did find him that funny either, but I like the man and his desire to help vulnerable children.

We can guess what this is about, but it would be better if it was clear, and the rules do say use the title of the article. Thanks.

As a child I sat with my grandma and watched many of his movies/roasts and Telethons and had lots of laughs. Thank you Mr. Lewis for all the laughs!

You will be missed! RIP!

As controversial as he was over the decades (like Joan Rivers), as a kid I know that I watched my share of the MD telethons in the early '70s just to see who was performing. His slapstick comedic style was certainly a template for many who followed (like Jim Carrey) and the definition of pure over-the-top wackiness. I had seen bits and pieces of his many films on the old indie stations here in Philly, but was never that big a fan of his type of slapstick (Dick Van Dyke was the gentler but just as wacky type of rubber comedian).

R.I.P. and condolences to his family.

His telethons have been resoundingly denounced as fine-tuning the, "fundraising from pity" technique which is demeaning and demoralizing and his movies were ableist as could be. People with MD have also said he induced decades of internalized ableism in them. His movie characters were based on mocking a range of people with atypical bodies & neurologies. In general he was not "beloved" in those regards by everyone.

So as you laud him, please consider that perhaps you are doing so from a position of certain privilege. Above all, please listen when less-privileged communities tell you, "No, that is not a good thing".

But as a teen I got tired of his mugging and clowning. Even his slapstick started looking contrived. And by the time I was an adult, I was embarrassed by his mocking of the developmentally disabled, on which he built much of his early success.

I don't know that the reason for the split with Dean Martin was, but I suspect it was largely Lewis' needy, egotistical, attention craving personality.

Come to think of it, Trump did a Jerry Lewis imitation when he mocked a disabled reporter. But I was already tired of Trump by then.

Shame.

Long before I had any political sensibilities and a coherent intellectual response, I found Lewis's version of comedy to be creepy and distasteful. To me it seemed obvious that he was trading off of erratic physical movements to trigger laughter. His childish mugging -- teetering on the edge of mental impairment -- was somehow supposed to be endearing and funny in a grown man.

When I think of seminal comedians, Lewis is nowhere on the list. Instead, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd were superb as the everyday man taking pratfalls and falling victim to fate. They were portrayed with compassion and whimsy that invited laughter out of self-recognition rather than mockery and pity.

I actually thought he died a few years ago, until he started squawking about Trump.

The "Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association" was an annual iconic fundraiser that impacted millions and millions of kids and raised our civic and charitable awareness.

"The Nutty Professor" is just plain one of the greatest movies of all time.

Jerry Lewis was the precursor to a whole range of comedic acts and the careers that followed including Robin Williams.

Rest in peace, Jerry Lewis.

Dean Martin -- it was really about him playing both Martin & Lewis ...

No two ways about it he was a good person.

I used to love watching him and Dean Martin. Laugh so hard my sides would hurt for days.

Jerry, if anyone deserves to be 'up there' it is you bro'

I hope the passing wasn't too rough on you. You'll live on in my memory as long as I have one.

Peace Brother

was his best work.

Watching it I thought, yeah now I get why he was so funny. He was hilarious on the show. RIP

In a December 2015 interview on EWTN's World Over with Raymond Arroyo, Lewis expressed opposition to the United States letting in Syrian refugees, saying "No one has worked harder for the human condition than I have, but they're not part of the human condition if 11 guys in that group of 10,000 are ISIS. How can I take that chance?"[52] In the same interview, he criticized President Barack Obama for not being prepared for ISIS, while expressing support for Donald Trump, saying he would make a good president because he was a good "showman". He also added that he admired Ronald Reagan's presidency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Lewis