Category: Humor

28 Facts You Might Not Know About “The Munsters”

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John Farrier and Neatorama present 28 Facts You Might Not Know About The Munsters.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. Although the first pilot episode was shot in color, the rest of the series was shot in black and white to save money. It certainly adds to the horror ambiance, don’t you think?

6. Grandpa was Lily’s father, but Al Lewis was a year younger than Yvonne De Carlo.

9. Al Lewis’s long prosthetic nose was eliminated after a few episodes because he kept getting it wet in his cups of coffee.

15 Fun Fact About “There’s Something About Mary”

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 15 Fun Fact About There’s Something About Mary.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. JON STEWART WAS ALMOST TED.
Ben Stiller won the role of Ted Stroehmann over Owen Wilson and the future host of The Daily Show.

14. PLANTATION, FLORIDA ASKED TO NOT BE THANKED IN THE CREDITS.
Their town’s City Hall was disguised as Rhode Island’s Cumberland High School, and Plantation was paid $2,500 for its services. Unfortunately, the City Council President was a conservative Catholic who refused to see the movie after reading some reviews of it and believed that the council was “misled” by filmmakers.

15. THE STUDIO ASKED FOR A SEQUEL, BUT THE FARRELLYS SAID NO.
According to Peter Farrelly, 20th Century Fox wanted a There’s Something About Mary 2, or a There’s Something More About Mary. The brothers felt that a sequel wouldn’t make sense.

12 Things You May Not Know About Mad

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Jake Rossen and Mental_Floss present 12 Things You May Not Know About Mad.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. No One Knows Who Came Up with Alfred E. Neuman.
Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman was in the offices of a Ballantine Books editor discussing reprints for the fledging publication when he noticed a grinning, gap-toothed imbecile staring back at him from a bulletin board. The unnamed figure was ubiquitous in the early 20th century, appearing in everything from dentistry ads to depictions of diseases. A charmed Kurtzman adopted him as Mad’s mascot beginning in 1954. Neuman later become so recognizable that a letter was delivered from New Zealand to Mad’s New York offices without an address: the envelope simply had a drawing of Alfred.

3. They Predicted John F. Kennedy’s Election in 1960.
But it was a cheat. In the run-up to the 1960 Presidential election, Mad printed a cover that featured Neuman congratulating Kennedy on his victory with a caption that read, “We were with you all the way, Jack!” But the issue was shipped long before votes had been tabulated. The secret? It was a dual cover. Flip it over and Neuman is celebrating Richard Nixon’s appointment to office. Stores were told to display the “right” side of the magazine depending on the outcome.

5. They Didn’t Run Any (Real) Ads for 44 Years.
From the beginning, Gaines felt that printing actual advertisements next to the products they were lampooning would not only dilute their edge but seem more than a little hypocritical. After some back-and-forth, Mad cut ads starting in 1957. The decision was a costly one—most print publications survive on such revenue—but led to the magazine’s keeping a sharp knife against the throat of seductive advertising, including cigarettes. Faced with dwindling circulation in 2001, Mad finally relented and began taking ads to help pay for a switch to color printing.

Every Message Left on Jim Rockford’s Answering Machine

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The Rockford Files always opened with a message left on Rockford’s answering machine.  The message (unrelated to the episode) “…invited the viewer to return to the quirky, down-on-his-luck world of Jim Rockford.”

Here’s a favorite:

“Jim, It’s Norma at the market. It bounced. You want us to tear it up, send it back, or put it with the others?”

Now thanks to That Eric Alper we can listen and download every message used.

27 Groovy Facts About “Austin Powers”

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 27 Groovy Facts About Austin Powers.  Here are three of my favorites, baby.

1. MIKE MYERS STARTED THINKING UP THE AUSTIN POWERS CHARACTER DRIVING HOME ONE DAY.

Burt Bacharach’s “The Look of Love” was playing on the car radio, leading Myers to think about where the “swingers” of the world went off to. This inevitably led to the comedian asking his then-wife Robin Ruzan if she “swung” and if he was “making her horny.” Told to stop and to just write this new character down somewhere, Myers wrote the first draft of Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in three weeks.

2. IT’S WIDELY BELIEVED THAT DR. EVIL IS BASED ON LORNE MICHAELS.

Anonymous former writers and actors from the legendary sketch show claimed that Dr. Evil did an excellent job of mimicking SNL‘s head honcho, from his overall control-freak behavior to the physical mannerisms, including the famous upturned pinkie. It was even rumored that Dana Carvey was angry with Myers for more than a decade because he felt that Myers stole his Lorne Michaels impression for Dr. Evil. A few months after The Spy Who Shagged Me came out, Myers appeared in an SNL sketch insisting to Michaels that Dr. Evil was not based on him.

15. ROB LOWE GOT THE ROLE OF YOUNG NUMBER TWO BY DOING A SPOT-ON ROBERT WAGNER IMPRESSION.

He did the impersonation for Myers one day while the two were golfing. A couple of months later, he was presented with a script with him already cast in the role. Lowe actually appeared in, but was cut out of, the first movie; he played a friend of John Smith, one of Dr. Evil’s henchman, who gets “decapitated by an ill-tempered mutated sea bass.” Lowe is forced to deliver that news at Smith’s bachelor party.

Surely You Can’t Be Serious: An Oral History of “Airplane”

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Will Harris’ Surely You Can’t Be Serious: An Oral History of Airplane takes us behind the scenes of the making of the classic comedy with remembrances from the creators and stars of the film.

Check out the piece to learn about Peter Graves not getting the humor until seeing the film, Leslie Nielsen‘s fart machine, and a whole lot more.

Source: AV Club.

Norm Macdonald Takes Behind the Scenes for the SNL 40th Anniversary

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Like millions of other viewers I enjoyed the recent Saturday Night Live anniversary special.  Like any series that spans 40 years, SNL has had its ups and downs.

Truth be told, I haven’t watched SNL regularly for years… more like decades.  But I sure tuned in to see the special.

My favorite parts were the scenes from the first years with the original cast and Celebrity Jeopardy, but even the stuff that wasn’t great was enjoyable.

Norm Macdonald sent out a series of tweets about preparations in the week leading up to the SNL 40th Special and they’re entertaining and informative.  Thankfully the Gothamist pulled them all together for an easy read.