Cultureshark Remembers Ed McMahon

I admired Ed McMahon's "Ho ho ho'ing" as the ultimate sidekick on "The Tonight Show," but even at a young age I was intrigued by his other roles. It's not like Ed was choosy about what he did to pay the bills. The guy started out as a clown, so why would he get haughty about gigs like playing emcee on the godawful "Legends of the Superheroes" roast or taking a pie in the face in a "Masterjoke Theatre" segment on "The Captain and Tennille"?

I hope bloggers out there are covering those roles, as well as his fascinating work as a heel in "Slaughter's Big Rip-Off," but I want to talk a bit about what for me was the epitome of Ed McMahon in the 1980s: TV's Practical Jokes and Bloopers.

OK, I know it wasn't really equivalent to his "Tonight Show" work, but I was young, and when I was up late enough to watch Johnny Carson, I was watching Ralph Kramden instead on WPIX. But I did watch "Bloopers," and as to why, I can only repeat: I was young. It's one of those shows that seemed like it was always on, and on for years, but really wasn't, as opposed to "America's Funniest Videos," which seems like it has always been on and HAS.

The show was the epitome of inane, really, but it did give us one of the 1980s' unheralded comedy teams: Dick Clark and Ed McMahon. For once, Ed was the funnyman to Dick's straight man. Even then I recognized this as a novelty. The formula was simple: The guys would come out on stage and banter a little bit as they introduced a set of miscues, a short film, or one of the fabled practical jokes (that name was more appropriate in the kinder, gentler pre-"Punk'd" era). This banter consisted of Dick setting things up so that Ed could make a joke. All we had to do as viewers was sit back and watch the comedy unfold.

You won't get much argument if you claim McMahon had the best fake laugh in the business, but he left that in the holster on this show, instead delivering the punchlines so that Clark could let go with his own version, a patented wheeze/wince combo that often left him doubled over. Of course, Clark always recovered quickly enough to lead us into the segment when necessary.

It was one of the oddest pairings in eighties TV, a blend of old-school corniness and solid professionalism. It was amusing to see Ed as the irrepressible cut-up, with Dick as the one gently reigning him like a tipsy uncle who was funny at first but liable to embarrass everyone if he was allowed to continue. Ed usually stood with his hands together, not in a "You, sir, are correct," bow, but in a serene "I am master of this stage" pose. Meanwhile, Dick delivered endless variations of, "Oh, will you stop?" or "Aw, come on."

Yes, as a youth, the notion of Ed McMahon as an unpredictable comic who had to be reined in fascinated me. Maybe the show was crap--OK, the show was crap--but it deserves a special place in the history for television for presenting the immortal comedy team of Dick and Ed, a duo that should have done more and maybe could have if the members weren't so darned busy. So let's remember the "Here's Johnny" side of the late Ed McMahon, but let's also remember when he was the go-to laugh getter.