Classic Carson Moment – IOTW Report

Classic Carson Moment

This is one of the all time greatest “impromptu” moments on the Carson show.

It involves Don Rickles accidentally breaking Carson’s beloved cigarette box.

People in the YouTube comments are calling this clip, and Johnny Carson, racist.

Opinion?

18 Comments on Classic Carson Moment

  1. Neither was a racist, although both were born and grew up in the pre-civil rights era. Rickles insulted everyone, and his uncensored comedy routines were hysterical. The black actor, Harrison Page, actually played Rickles’ closest friend on CPO Sharkey. Similarly, there is nothing on Carson’s resume to indicate that he was racist.

    In the cigarette box episode, Carson treated Page as an equal – mocking Rickles and his show and playing to the 1970s black stereotype for laughs. Carson didn’t ignore Page, nor did he patronize him or insult him; he was a fellow entertainer included in an impromptu sketch.

    Our modern snowflakes need to get over themselves. Their complaints aren’t about Carson or Rickles – they are using a 40 year old television clip to make themselves feel more important than they are. Carson and Rickles are both gone, and Harrison Page seems to have had a pretty decent career.

    24
  2. My sister used to valet park at a restaurant that Rickles frequented. She says he was the nicest guy ever, big tipper.

    Not surprised at all. You can see the kindness beneath the insult routine.

    19
  3. the first “Hey, a black man” was a Rickles impersonation
    the second ‘Cotton Mill’ was a joke, by today’s standards, a bit cringe-worthy. but, the overall joke was pretty funny.

    I actually find it funny that so many are so upset over the past (it was over 40 years ago) … get over yourselves & quit your perpetual whining snowflakes … life’s gonna be a bumpy ride once you are forced to crawl out of Mom’s basement

    12
  4. If the snowflakes want to be insulted by the comedy routines of Messers Rickles and Carson, they’d best bring a BIG lunch. Because those were two very funny entertainers in a galaxy of entertainers back-in-the-day. And the mores (sp?) then are not the mores now. A pity.
    And if you ain’t laughing, you’re a Libtard. And we all know Libtards have no sense of humor.

    10
  5. Yelling, “ Racist” all of the time reminds me of:

    “Aesop For Children (The Shepherd Boy and The Wolf)

    Boy Cried Wolf
    Milo Winter (1919)
    A Shepherd Boy tended his master’s Sheep near a dark forest not far from the village. Soon he found life in the pasture very dull. All he could do to amuse himself was to talk to his dog or play on his shepherd’s pipe.

    One day as he sat watching the Sheep and the quiet forest, and thinking what he would do should he see a Wolf, he thought of a plan to amuse himself.

    His Master had told him to call for help should a Wolf attack the flock, and the Villagers would drive it away. So now, though he had not seen anything that even looked like a Wolf, he ran toward the village shouting at the top of his voice, “Wolf! Wolf!”

    As he expected, the Villagers who heard the cry dropped their work and ran in great excitement to the pasture. But when they got there they found the Boy doubled up with laughter at the trick he had played on them.

    A few days later the Shepherd Boy again shouted, “Wolf! Wolf!” Again the Villagers ran to help him, only to be laughed at again.

    Then one evening as the sun was setting behind the forest and the shadows were creeping out over the pasture, a Wolf really did spring from the underbrush and fall upon the Sheep.

    In terror the Boy ran toward the village shouting “Wolf! Wolf!” But though the Villagers heard the cry, they did not run to help him as they had before. “He cannot fool us again,” they said.

    The Wolf killed a great many of the Boy’s sheep and then slipped away into the forest.

    Moral

    Liars are not believed even when they speak the truth.”

    5

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