How Comedy Shaped American History

Intentionally or not, Funny Stuff succeeds in reclaiming the now degraded term, “influencer.” Here are the real influencers: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Johnny Carson, the cast of In Living Color, Ernie Kovacs, David Letterman, Bob Newhart, Richard Pryor, the cast of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, Mae West—and so many more.

The book also resurrects now undiscovered artists who were superstars in their day, including Rusty Warren (real name Ilene Goldman), who is represented in Funny Stuff with a hand-annotated piece of sheet music and the gold record for one of her biggest hits, “Knockers Up,” an early—wait for it—offensive in the fledgling sexual revolution.

“One of my favorite things about building an archive from scratch has been elevating artists who aren’t household names,” Dr. LaPlaca says. “Rusty Warren performed at the same time as Lenny Bruce. She was heavily censored, and her albums were relegated to the X-rated party-bin. She was still one of the bestselling artists of her time.”

As Herman Melville observed in Moby-Dick, “A good laugh is a mighty good thing.” Burnett is the supreme embodiment of that sentiment. She is represented in Funny Stuff with an essay about The Carol Burnett Show. This year marks the 50th anniversary of “Went With the Wind,” Burnett’s 1976 parody of Gone With the Wind that aired in the 10th season of her show. Never not amusing is the moment in the sketch when Burnett emerges as Starlett O’Hara wearing a makeshift dress made from curtains—with the curtain rod still inserted. “That gown is gorgeous,” Harvey Korman’s Ratt Butler exclaims. “Thank you,” Starlett replies. “I saw it in the window, and I couldn’t resist it.”

When the dress was unveiled at the Smithsonian, Burnett said she mainly felt cheerful for Bob Mackie, the dress’s designer. “He designed 17,000 costumes for us in 11 years,” she said. “For that sketch, the writers had me coming down the stairs with the draperies just hanging on me. I went in for my fitting, and Bob said he had an idea for the curtain dress. When I saw it mounted on a mannequin, I literally fell to the floor laughing. I said, ‘This is going to be one of the greatest sight gags in the history of television.’”