Harvey Korman RIP

Harvey Korman died Thursday at the age of 81.

There is no way that the family history could be written without mentioning Harvey Korman (and, of course, Tim Conway). My parents were avid watchers of "The Carol Burnett Show," and, by default, so were me and my sister. I was never a superfan of the show, but I would pay a little closer attention when Harvey Korman and Tim Conway were in a sketch. And, as the years went on, I became a bigger and bigger fan of the show until I finally had to admit that my parents were on to something (the same eventually happened with "Fawlty Towers"). And that's why a few years ago I was actually kind of excited to see Korman and Conway live at the State Theater in New Brunswick. It ended up being a little less than great, but it was worth it to see the pair do the famous dentist sketch live.



I guess it's easy to take issue with the fact that Korman cracked up too much, but, unlike Jimmy Fallon, whose crackups were frequently at things that weren't all that funny and therefore frequently seemed disingenuous, Korman's outbursts always seemed to come right from the gut. And they always made my mom and dad laugh right along.

Of course, Korman also made a name for himself in Mel Brooks's movies, most memorably in our household as Count de Monet in "HIstory of the World Part I." It was in this movie that he utttered the Korman line most quoted around the house: "You look like the piss boy" (6:43 in in the clip below):



So, rest in peace, Harvey Korman. Thanks (from the whole family) for the laughs.