On the "Lawman" thread I posted a joke made by Pat Buttram at
a roast for Hugh O'Brian. Most people are not aware that Buttram
was a favorite at Hollywood celebrity roasts. I've found a few
examples of his roastmaster humor:
Milton Berle: "You know, Milton recently switched from comedy to
drama. Unfortunately, it happened while he was still doing comedy."
Mae West: "Do you realize that she went through her life without once
having a man say to her, 'You remind me of my mother'?"
Johnny Carson: "He's an Episcopalian--that's an off-Broadway Catholic."
Dean Martin: "Dean would eat hay if you dipped in in gin."
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans: "The Lunt and Fontanne of the fertilizer set."
(For those who are too young, he's referring to the distinguished husband-
and-wife acting team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.)
Ed McMahon: "It's good that we honor Ed, because I understand that next
week a group of Texas businessmen are going to buy him, tear him down,
and put up a Ramada Inn."
On the TV industry in general: "Television is the only profession where you
can be discovered, starred, and forgotten in one year."
About his own career: "I started back in the old days in Hollywood when
everybody knew where Howard Hughes was and nobody cared. I finally got
my footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I was sitting on a curb
and a bus ran over my feet." But he would turn a bit sour when asked how he
felt about being famous; he would pull out a newspaper clipping from a day in
1950 when he was nearly killed in an explosion on the set of "The Gene Autry
Show." The headline: "Gene Autry Almost Hurt In Explosion."
a roast for Hugh O'Brian. Most people are not aware that Buttram
was a favorite at Hollywood celebrity roasts. I've found a few
examples of his roastmaster humor:
Milton Berle: "You know, Milton recently switched from comedy to
drama. Unfortunately, it happened while he was still doing comedy."
Mae West: "Do you realize that she went through her life without once
having a man say to her, 'You remind me of my mother'?"
Johnny Carson: "He's an Episcopalian--that's an off-Broadway Catholic."
Dean Martin: "Dean would eat hay if you dipped in in gin."
Roy Rogers and Dale Evans: "The Lunt and Fontanne of the fertilizer set."
(For those who are too young, he's referring to the distinguished husband-
and-wife acting team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.)
Ed McMahon: "It's good that we honor Ed, because I understand that next
week a group of Texas businessmen are going to buy him, tear him down,
and put up a Ramada Inn."
On the TV industry in general: "Television is the only profession where you
can be discovered, starred, and forgotten in one year."
About his own career: "I started back in the old days in Hollywood when
everybody knew where Howard Hughes was and nobody cared. I finally got
my footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. I was sitting on a curb
and a bus ran over my feet." But he would turn a bit sour when asked how he
felt about being famous; he would pull out a newspaper clipping from a day in
1950 when he was nearly killed in an explosion on the set of "The Gene Autry
Show." The headline: "Gene Autry Almost Hurt In Explosion."
