Rich Little on the WH Correspondent's Dinner: "They Know I'm a Safe Bet..."

[NYCGirl]

Robin Williams a "young comedian"?

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/070129ta_talk_goldberg

“Didn’t they know what they were getting?” he asked. “I think if you ask a political satirist like Dennis Miller or—the short little guy?”

Jon Stewart?

“No. Bill Maher, that’s his name. If you ask a political satirist like Dennis Miller or Bill Maher or Mark Russell to come, they’re going to do the political satire.”

Little, who had a variety show on television in the nineteen-seventies, appeared on Letterman not long ago but hasn’t had much other television work in recent years. “My agent tried to get me on Maher’s show, but I was told that Bill said, ‘That Rich Little is a pretty funny guy.’ He didn’t want to take the chance that I would be funnier.” Little said that he does not find Maher and his ilk terribly funny. When asked to name a young comedian he admired, he responded, “Robin Williams. He’s just off the wall.”

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

1. Compared to Little Richard, Robin Williams is young.

[zbdent]

38. I was going to joke that Rich Little does a great George Burns imitation

but then I realized that he wasn't attempting an imitation of George Burns ... he's just getting that old ...

[brentspeak]

40. The best George Burns impersonator was the late Frank Gorshin

The guy who was best known for playing the Riddler on the original 'Batman' TV series.

[RedStateShame]

2. Maher was afraid Rich Little would upstage him?! At least Bush won't be the only liar on stage.

[NYCGirl]

3. LOL! Yes, that one sort of surprised me, too. NT

[KittyWampus]

19. I think it was a joke (honestly)

[NYCGirl]

21. No, I think it's what Little's agent told him to make him feel better.

And, unfortunately, Little believed him.

[Mrs. Overall]

4. Bringing people out of retirement, finding people from the distant

past--this seems to be one of Bush's themes. Everyone he surrounds himself with is from a bygone era, out of touch with current reality. This seems like Little's first gig since 1977. It's really quite creepy....

[MetaTrope]

5. Little does a great 70-year-old Afghan farmer with a car battery clipped to his nads

It will have them rolling on the floor...

[whistle]

9. I'm curious which industrialized country originated the car battery clipped

...to the testicles torture? Was it the U.S., U.K., France, Germany or some other peace loving nation?

[TahitiNut]

13. It's re-volting. It must've been Amp-ghanistan.

:shrug:

[whistle]

26. Badda-boom...chingshhhhh!

[Lerkfish]

6. Odd. why don't they get Colbert?

muwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[SammyWinstonJack]

14. ..

:evilgrin:

[zbdent]

44. I realize that you're joking, but ...

You have to remember how much Repukes really are paying attention when they go with the "PR" stunts ...

Bush43 had Ozzy Osbourne at his party ... great "War on Drugs" reference there ...

Reagan adopted Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" song as his "campaign song" ... apparently never hearing the lyrics, which describe the depression that a person was feeling when trying to make it in Reagan's "rosy" economy ...

Nixon made Elvis Presley a DEA agent (I believe) ... and if anybody can't realize irony there ...

[no_hypocrisy]

7. He must be "safe". Nixon didn't even recognize that Little was

doing an impression of him.

Rich Little: Richard Nixon Impersonation

At a star-studded party at Richard Nixon's home in 1970, Debbie Reynolds announced that Rich Little would do his famous impression of the president.

"Mr Nixon turned around and faced me," Little later recalled, "I wound up saying something inane like, 'Let me make this perfectly clear. I think this is a marvelous party. Make no mistake about that.' And I finished by giving the Nixon V-for-vitory sign.

"There was dead silence when I finished... Mr Nixon simply stared at me. It became painfully obvious to me that he didn't know who I was or what I was doing. Then the president turned to Mrs Nixon and whispered, 'Why is that man talking in that strange voice?'"


http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=18947

[RufusTFirefly]

8. Ouch!

Very clever article. Almost in the spirit of Colbert's speech in fact.

[endarkenment]

10. "a political satirist like Dennis Miller "?

Miller does political satire? Who knew?

[RedStateShame]

11. No, that's not a political satire. They're his actual politics.

I made the same mistake once.

[EstimatedProphet]

12. Oh well. This is what they get.

The correspondents proved last year that they were cowards when they got pissy about Colbert. On and on they went about how he wasn't funny. The only reason he wasn't funny to them is that their egos kept them thinking that they were too important to be lampooned.

Rich Little is a safe bet alright. He won't make them have to undergo any introspection about how they don't do their jobs and spend their time sucking up. Olbermann will (I hope) do a segment on how spineless they look now, and how fragile their egos are that they can't take any criticism.

[nam78_two]

15. Maher upstaged by Little??

He is as delusional as the idiot child in chief...

[WI_DEM]

16. I'll bet Bill Maher was afraid that Little would steal his show!

that's probably what Little's agent told him when he was rejected as a guest.

[Unperson]

17. I hear Goldie Hawn is going to make an appearance as well.

And Bush is going to do a close camera angle shot and say "Sock it to me" and laugh about it. Damn, they had to go all the way back to the seventies to find somebody that wouldn't offend. Pathetic.

[nam78_two]

18. OMG -I just read the article to the end. This guy makes Dennis Miller seem funny...

I just knew him as some lame Nixon impersonator, but he is even lamer than I thought he was..I almost feel bad for the guy:

Talking about the dinner, Little posed a question: “Do you think I could do a little sexual material?” He explained, “Sometimes I get a little too sexual.”

Asked for an example, he offered this joke: “Bill Clinton and his pal George Bush senior were sitting around, and Clinton says”—here he switches to Clinton’s voice—“ ‘George, have you ever tried Viagra?’

“ ‘I can’t say,’ ” Little’s George H. W. Bush answers. “ ‘I don’t even know what the hell it is.’

“ ‘Mr. President,’ Clinton says, ‘it gives you great staying power.’

“ ‘Really?’ Bush says. ‘Can I get it over the counter?’

“Clinton answers, ‘I suppose you can, if you take two or three of them.’

“That’s a funny joke,” Little said.
He promised to use mostly political material, though, along these lines: “They said we’re going to send jets to Israel this year, but what the hell would they do with a bunch of football players?” Iraq jokes, however, are out. “I do have a funny line on that,” he said, and he began to imitate the current President: “George W. Bush here. I tell you, I’m between I-raq and a hard place.”

Little paused, and said, “That’s funny. But, believe me, you won’t hear the word ‘Iraq’ out of my mouth the whole evening. They know I’m a safe bet over there at the White House.”


Yikes! Thats worse than a high school talent show....:wow:

[WI_DEM]

20. the man sounds desperate--"That's funny!" he keeps saying after telling a joke

a good comedian doesn't have to say "That's funny."

[nam78_two]

23. I know...that article is actually kinda funny because of that.

:D...

[theboss]

22. I still can't find this answer: Why is Rich Little's Christmas Carol no longer on tv?

I loved that when I was a kid.

[stevietheman]

24. I have a feeling that Rich Little is cooking something up...

that's *very* unexpected. This is no idiot, folks.

[NYCGirl]

25. Was Rich Little EVER edgy? NT

[Starbucks Anarchist]

29. Maybe compared to Pat Boone.

[NYCGirl]

30. But Pat Boone did a heavy metal album...

:evilgrin:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

35. He rocked the hell out of his SS check.

:evilgrin:

[stevietheman]

33. I seem to recall he wasn't too kind to Nixon in the 70's.

And I think he's going to resurrect the Nixon routine to make that his statement about Bush.

[NYCGirl]

34. I hope so. It'd sure be a surprise! NT

[stevietheman]

36. Three things contribute to my hunch about Little...

1) Little does the *best* Nixon impression. Odd then that he was singled out from a wide array of comedians to do this dinner.

2) Little is somewhat a has-been. And has-beens seize opportunities to make comebacks. He will never again have this good a shot to make a big impression and get a second wind in his career.

3) Little seems to be awfully chatty about how soft he is going to be on Bush. My antennae says this is playing the expectations game. He most likely wants to deliver some kind of splash that gets some big headlines.

I smell something a-cooking. :)

[NYCGirl]

37. It would be a great way to make a comeback.

It's sort of sad to see him become out of touch like Bob Hope — a great comedian in the movies and his earlier TV work — who just seemed to be completely clueless about what was funny later in his life. His later TV work was just embarrassing.

[peekaloo]

42. I hope you are correct.

:-)

I posted on a thread this weekend that Little does/did a really good Nixon impersonation. Considering the ties and somewhat similar path the current psychos are following it would be a perfect time to bring back Tricky Dick.

[joeunderdog]

27. Where can I get the Colbert speech? Is it up anywhere?

I know C-Span pulled a fast one with copyright laws or whatever, but I have to imagine someone has it.

[NYCGirl]

28. YouTube has it (here's the first part):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QTWDnPi7W1o

Searched "Stephen Colbert White House Dinner"

[brentspeak]

31. Rich Little can be pretty funny. Unfortunately, there's no celebrities today to impersonate

George Burns, John Wayne, James Mason, Groucho Marx, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe -- the stars of the past had unique, instantly identifiable personalities that made them good targets for impersonators.

Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher, Jake Gyhlanhaal (whatever the heck that guy's name is), Jessica Alba, Julia Roberts -- how do you do impersonations of them? It wouldn't be any different than impersonating the person who just sat down next to you on the bus.

[NYCGirl]

32. Very good point. I love classic film — and I agree with you. Other than

Jack Nicholson, Robin Williams, and a few others, I couldn't think of anyone who could stand out enough to do an impression of.

But I LOVE Bobcat Goldthwait's impression of Bono!

[MetaTrope]

39. It's been like that for decades

There aren't any more character actors in Hollywood, or even actors with character...just a bland sameness (as even one of the producers of GET SMART observes in a commentary on the recent DVD set). I moved to watching Hong Kong movies and then Bollywood movies to get away from that, but the creeping homogenization of stars has overtaken them as well. It's quite unfortunate...

[NYCGirl]

41. I do see some current films from time to time, but I mostly love the movies

from before 1970 or so. (Favorite is film noir; currently into pre-code films from the early 30s.)

[stanwyck]

43. Not Sasha Baron Cohen? Damn

Imagine that....Bush would have been wishing Colbert was back.