Your most memorable Johnny Carson moment

I remember being a teenager and listening to my father whooping it up while watching JC. That whole period of my life was filled with pleasant times. My dads been dead since I was twenty so anytime I think of Johnny my dad comes to mind. The show I remember really well was when Ed Ames (MIngo on Daniel Boone show) threw a tomahawk at the target of a man. The tomahawk hit at the wanker point with the handle sticking up. The amazing thing was that the censors let this in the show. That had to be back in the mid sixties. Gosh that was hilarious. What is your memory of Johnny?

saying, "I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy than a bottle in front of me," and "Reality is a crutch."

Pretty atypical for Carson, but memorable.

That John Stewart's corespondant or something? Carson Daley? Huh?


:)

j/k

Said "trof, Jack Parr's getting out of the business and I think they want me to take the show. I need an announcer/sidekick/pitchman. Wanna take a shot at it?"

And to my everlasting chagrin I said "Gee Johnny, I don't think so. Kinda sounds like a dead end job to me. I hear Ed McMahon is looking for a gig. Why don't you try him?"
jeez

Don't know what year,but here is part of it:
" Democracy is buying a big house you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you wish were dead. And, unlike communism, democracy does not mean having just one ineffective political party; it means having two ineffective political parties. ... Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold onto -- usually a mop or a leaf blower. It means that with proper timing and scrupulous bookkeeping, anyone can die owing the government a huge amount of money. ... Democracy means free television, not good television, but free. ... And finally, democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollar bill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head -- this signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle. I thank you"

...complete w/ Judge Wapner officiating. I remember thinking, "why does Dave still drive that piece of shit when he has a Porsche?"

Classic Johnny & Dave moment.

1. Johnny's guest was an elderly woman with a fluffy cat. I don't know who she was or why she had the cat, but at one point she asked, "Would you like to pet my pussy?" Johnny didn't miss a beat: "Yeah, but first get that damned cat off your lap."

2. Johnny's guest was a woman who collected oddly-shaped potato chips: chips that looked like famous people or animals. She was showing him her collection, and had just handed him the Abraham Lincoln Chip. She looked back at her collection, and he took a different chip from a bowl under the desk and crunched it loudly. You should've seen the look on the woman's face. (He showed her the Lincoln Chip & the bowl right away.)

3. "Ronald Reagan doesn't dye his hair; he bleaches his face."

I miss Johnny Carson. Jay, you are no Johnny Carson.

Check out the story on the Urban Legends Reference Page:

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/zsazsa.htm

It was just a woman. As I wrote: I didn't know who she was or why she was on. I'm sure it was explained, but what he said wiped out everything but that 5-second exchange.

:shrug:

Johnny would have never done the same joke twice in a year. I have seen Leno do the same joke four nights in a row. Plus the fact he is a Bush lover.

Carson walked out to begin his monologue and said "So Gary Hart..."

And the audience began to laugh so loudly that he stopped (Hart had dared the press to follow him around to see if he was having an affair....which they did...and he turned out to be banging a lady named Donna Rice aboard a yacht called the Monkey Business) and just stood there.

When the laughter died down, he said "Fawn Hall..." and again the audience just started laughing before he got to any joke...(the Iran/Contra hearings were going on...and in among other jaw-dropping testimony was Fawn Hall, Ollie North's secretary, solemnly recounting how she sued to stuff her bra with shredded Iran Contra documents to smuggle them out of the White House). Again, Johnny just stood there...

So when that laughter died down, he said "Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker..." (televangelists who swindled their flock out of millions and then cried on television when they were caught) and when THAT laughter died down, he said "Jimmy Swaggert" (televangelist caught with a hooker who cried on television when he was caught)....and when the audience finished laughing, they applauded, and Johnny said "And on tonight's show...."

My second favorite was the guest appearance by Frank Zappa...he and Frank Zappa sat down and discussed various issues for almost the entire program...

It still gets me laughing so hard! That "hatchet job" was priceless.

Still remember seeing it; neither Hope nor Martin was supposed to be on. "Did you ever feel like the world was a tuxedo, and you were a pair of brown shoes?" - George Goebel.

LMAO

Little George was a pretty funny guy. He wasn't rowdy enough for Hollywood at the time.

"What is the sound of a sheep blowing up?" from one of his Karnak (sp?) routines. I saw that as a kid and it just killed me.

Baaah!

I used to try to look 18 to go to the tapings -- of course when I WAS 18, I was too busy to go. You have to start lining up around 3:30 and they taped around 7:30...

My Tonight Show phase was mid-70's. I loved all the cornball guests...Dom DeLuise or whoever, and Johnny's Art Fern stuff, and it was always a thrill when he came into the audience although I was never brave enough to volunteer for "Stump The Band" or anything.

moment is Bette Midler singing "You Are The Wing Beneath my Wings" to Johnny.

*sniff* :-(

I have permanantly boycotted the Tonight Show since Johnny left.

Johnny sang with Pearl Bailey, and she had a wild, bawdy sense of humor.

And once Johnny was doing his "Art Fern Tea Time Movies," trying to talk about a car repair place.
"We'll clean your points! Charge your battery, lube your joints..."
And Johnny completely lost it, he totally cracked up laughing.

Or the time Robin Williams started in by saying he had just come back rom San Francisco, where "God save the Queen" means something else, and just went on a roll with that.

used to doing comedy just crack up cause the bit was so funny. The saddest thing on TV now is watching the dorks on the man show laughing at their stupid bits. Well...I lost the remote one night and it sorta came on.

as he was getting a rubdown . . . there was a hottub on the set, and Carson got up, grabbed Rickles, and gave him a dunking, clothes and all . . .

Rickles could ABSOLUTELY not believe Johnny did that. But his clothes were always the worst so they need to get ruined. I'm sure Johnny probably had several suits made for him after that.

I always waited for the answers to tank just to hear him vent his ire on the audience.

And of course when Ed said, "I hold in my hand the last envelope."

The first thing ever recorded on a video recorder at the moof hut was JC's 14th anniversary show. There are tons of Carson moments in the files here now but one of the best is still when he jumped into Ed's arms when a cheetah jumped at him. A close second would be the time when his Art Fern mustache was hanging half off his lip & everyone knew it but him.

on a lot with the animals. He was from the Mutual of Omahas "Wild Kingdom" with Marlin Perkins.

when Johnny Carson lampooned Glen Campbell by singing Rhinestone Cowboy decked out in a ridiculous cowboy outfit. Pretty camp, I mean, it was so bad it was funny, and it just stuck in my head...

Joe Six Pack was fun too...

and I thought of that again when Glen Campbell was arrested for DUI.

He's in a cardigan singing "I'll be home for Christmas." It was just a hilarious send up the mushy Christmas special.