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Different Drummer

(7,621 posts) Wed Jul 3, 2019, 04:52 PM Jul 2019

Arte Johnson, Master of Manic Characters on 'Laugh-In,' Dies at 90

Source: HollywoodReporter.com

Arte Johnson, the comic best known for the hilarious characters he created for the 1960s NBC smash hit Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, has died. He was 90.

The 5-foot-4 Johnson, a master of ad libs, double-talk and dialects who was content to be a "second banana," died Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of heart failure following a three-year battle with bladder and prostate cancer, his family announced.

<snip>

Johnson had a repertoire of more than 60 comic characters, including Piotr Rosmenko, an Eastern European song-and-dance man; Rabbi Shankar, an addled Indian guru; and a man in a yellow raincoat who could not help falling off his tricycle.

"Humor for me consists in incongruity," he said in 1974. "If I were doing a Hasidic rabbi, I'd have him speak with an Irish accent. … You take it out of reality and make it cartoon-esque without being denigrating. Because people today are so sensitive, it's the only way of creating humor without offending someone."

More at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/arte-johnson-dead-laugh-in-star-905754

19 replies

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Highlight:

Arte Johnson, Master of Manic Characters on 'Laugh-In,' Dies at 90 (Original Post) Different Drummer Jul 2019 OP

R.I.P. Since the issue of tanks is on everyone's mind these days, Aristus Jul 2019 #1

Ruthie is still with us SoCalNative Jul 2019 #2

I didn't see it, thank goodness. Aristus Jul 2019 #4

Regarding the cartoon you mentioned, here's a link to the intro of it. Different Drummer Jul 2019 #6

Thank you! This is great! Aristus Jul 2019 #7

ahhh... sad to see them all age and go... hlthe2b Jul 2019 #3

Sad to hear. wendyb-NC Jul 2019 #5

Rest In Peace you hilarious man. Nt BootinUp Jul 2019 #8

He was soooooo funny! One of my all-time favorites! RIP bobbieinok Jul 2019 #9

One of the greats. CentralMass Jul 2019 #10

"Do you believe in the hereafter?" Duppers Jul 2019 #11

Btw, "to this day"... Duppers Jul 2019 #12

Yes, we are. Scarsdale Jul 2019 #14

Funny man Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin Jul 2019 #13

Ve-e-e-e-ry interesting. But sad. TygrBright Jul 2019 #15

The only funny Nazi outside of Hogan's Heroes. Marcuse Jul 2019 #16

Soooooooooooooooooooooo SAD !!!! i loved him !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Veddy Interestink, RIP trueblue2007 Jul 2019 #17

Rip Arte. Jim__ Jul 2019 #18

". . .Good night Lucy. . .And as for you, Gary. . ." DinahMoeHum Jul 2019 #19

Aristus

(66,388 posts)

1. R.I.P. Since the issue of tanks is on everyone's mind these days,

Reply to Different Drummer (Original post)

Wed Jul 3, 2019, 04:56 PM

Jul 2019

I'll say I remember him doing a fast food commercial back in the '80's in his comic Nazi persona. He drove a tank through the front door of the restaurant. I remember it as probably an M-41 Walker Bulldog. Yes. My memory for tanks is that good.

I loved his duos with Ruth Buzzie. I adored her.

SoCalNative

(4,613 posts)

2. Ruthie is still with us

Reply to Aristus (Reply #1)

Wed Jul 3, 2019, 04:59 PM

Jul 2019

retired and living on her ranch in Texas. She was on that horrible Laugh-In special that debuted last month on Netflix.

Aristus

(66,388 posts)

4. I didn't see it, thank goodness.

Reply to SoCalNative (Reply #2)

Wed Jul 3, 2019, 05:05 PM

Jul 2019

I loved her park bench lady with the lethal handbag. Arte Johnson usually played a masher trying to hit on her, and often got his comeuppance on the side of the head with her purse.

I remember back in the '70's, the two voiced a Saturday morning cartoon with his masher character re-imagined as a senile old superhero called out of retirement to deal with the 1970's crime wave. Buzzie played the handbag lady as his long-suffering wife.