THE FUNNIEST MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION

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• Wyatt Cox/KELY Radio May 8, 2010, 8:39 am

  “Don’t touch me Ralph, I’m Sterile.”

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• Thomas Verba May 8, 2010, 9:11 am

  Oh, the Golden Era of TV! I knew the punchline,yet laughed through the whole bit!

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• Dennis McAtee May 8, 2010, 9:12 am

  In my opinion, it’s the second-funniest moment, behind Ed Ames’ tomahawk demonstration on The Tonight Show.

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• Lana Wilder May 8, 2010, 10:07 am

  Yes, Dennis, I agree! Carson rules! Oh, and when Carol Burnett came down the stairs in the “Gone With The Wind” skit and she had the curtain rod across her shoulders as part of the dress…that one has to be in the top 5!

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• Matthew Kendrick May 8, 2010, 11:25 am

  Yes, Lana! A favorite of mine, too. “I saw it in the window and couldn’t resist.”

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• George R. Francis Jr. May 8, 2010, 12:01 pm

  But Dan, this was back when TV was entertaining and often times funny. . . .

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• Peter Katt May 8, 2010, 1:36 pm

  @Lana: Of course Carol’s line was perfect: “I just saw it in the window and couldn’t resist!”

  Don’t forget the episode of M*A*S*H where a tank runs out of control through the camp, running over Col. Potter’s jeep — and he pulls out his pistol and shoots it, as if it were an injured horse. My dad must have laughed for 5 minutes when he saw that!

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• Bob Goff May 9, 2010, 9:38 am

  I was just at the Smithsonian where Carol’s actual dress from the skit is on display!
  I was standing next to it with people I didn’t even know and all at once we all said “I just saw it in the window…!” and then stood there just laughing!
  A great moment from a grand lady of comedy!

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• Blaine Parker May 9, 2010, 6:13 pm

  OK. There’s a lot of crap on TV now, just as there was a lot of crap on TV then. I love the Honeymooners. It doesn’t invalidate things like Everybody Loves Raymond, when his mother takes up sculpture and sculpts giant female genitals and doesn’t realize it, Seinfeld’s “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” episode, or the repeated squirm-worthy episodes of The Office. Gleason & Carney were geniuses, as was Carol Burnett and Red Skelton–but there is plenty of extraordinary writing (comic and dramatic) that continues to come out of TV. It has always been and will remain a writer’s medium.

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