Strictly for Laffs

"Strictly For Laughs" (which can be found on the Net if one looks hard enough) was an unsold TV pilot in which a lot of aging comedians and/or comic actors sit around and tell each other jokes. It looks as though the idea was to create a kind of cross between Hefner's "Playboy's Penthouse" and Mike Stokey's "Stump the Stars." The result, however, is very, very strange. Not unentertaining, just...strange. The assembled comics are a disparate bunch, with the best known probably Rose Marie and Mel Blanc. Least known is likely Jack Durant, who in the 1930s had been part of the acrobatic comedy team Mitchell and Durant, widely regarded as the worst comedy team ever. The reason to watch it today is to see Moe Howard, of the Three Stooges, in stand-up mode, and he acquits himself quite well. Blanc is also funny, telling a joke in Porky Pig-ese. But while the comics--four at a time--are seated around a table, there are plants in the background who try to laugh uproariously at everything that is said, and the laughter begins to sound forced. What makes the show truly strange, though, is that the assembly of comedians, from host Dave Barry (not the humorist) on down, look more like gangsters than gagsters. This is one sober, stern, dour-looking bunch of joke-tellers, who exhibit very little looseness or chemistry between one another. Instead the effect is more like a meeting of crime families with punchlines. Barry in particular is charmless and rather intimidating. Maybe the idea would have worked better with up-and-coming comics.

"Strictly for Laffs" is a pilot episode for a television series that was never picked up by any of the networks. I found it on YouTube...where there are quite a few old pilots waiting to be discovered.

The show consists of the host, Dave Barry (no relation to the writer), sitting down with various B and C-list comics and they tell jokes. It's a very simple sort of show and the likes of Sid Melton, Rose Marie, Alan Reed and Moe Howard are among the MANY guests. Had the show been approved, perhaps they would have only had a roundtable with Barry and three comics...but in this pilot, the three comics keeps changing throughout the show.

So is it any good? At times, it is humorous...but frankly the comics on the show just weren't all that funny. Had they been funnier and more familiar, I am pretty sure the show would have been better received. As if was, it seemed like they scoured the more lowly resorts and venues to find these guys.

This one's a quick flicker of TV past - an unsold pilot that's sort of a D-list Algonquin Round Table...a collection of, mostly, past-their-primes Borscht Belt comics gathered 'round to try to crack each other up. I'd have to agree with network execs that long-term weekly appeal might have been limited. BUT: This particular collection gathered for the pilot is surely worth 22min. of your time (check out the cast list on this page...Mel Blanc, Alan 'Fred Flintstone' Reed, Rose Marie and more). For me, a LONGtime Stooge-o-phile, the highlight is Moe Howard. While there's a pretty fair amount of non-Stooge footage of him available (if you look for it), this might be the only time I've seen him being funny (HILARIOUS, in fact), as HIMSELF. He's riffing off funny stories with veteran, expert stand-up timing, and his 3 or 4 minutes are A JOY! It's available on the Pub-D-Hub channel, and maybe elsewhere, and is absolutely worth seeking out.