Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/13/jimmy-kimmel-remembers-super-d.html
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In my mind I think he is doing a new stunt, cornadated by Fuji, where he’s supposed to come back from the dead. It goes as we expect it to. We’d here the announcer saying his name, hoping Super Dave will answer. Those present would hear only silence and the announcer, yet the audience and only the audience would hear an ethereal voice say
New pain!
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Will be sorely missed.
Got the pun. RIP
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Sadly, no. That was Andy Kaufman.
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Super Dave played Linus dad in Ocean’s 11, or was it 12, or maybe 13?
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I still remember Super Dave from John Byner’s early 80’s sketch comedy show Bizarre. Funny stuff, and pretty weird too.
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I loved the Super Dave visits to Letterman, but my favorite thing that Bob did was when he played Marty Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
This joke was probably the best scene. It is however NSFW!
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I always liked the guy personally but thought most of his jokes weren’t very funny.
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I think that was the point.
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Not Balloon Ball?
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It was brilliant in that it was the most universal kind of accatable humor. It was self deprecating. It mocked the character. It mocked the network. It mocked sports announcing and the odd resurgence of the “stunt” special. It mocked America. It gave the viewers exactly what they expected to see, a failed stunt. If comedy relies on a victim and on breaking or reversing expectations, then watching this there really wasn’t a victim, nor was there any real breaking of an expectation. For most people, the comedy was mild, and it was inoffensive, and inoffensive is sellable to the masses.
I was a kid when I first saw Super Dave’s stunts. I think one could play a clip most anywhere in the world, and get a chuckle out of somebody without translating a thing. It’s funny because it isn’t really funny. It’s a pratfall with a lot of pomp and circumstance, something that a simple self caused comedic injury should need. I don’t think I’ll ever have the want to watch all of his material, but I’ll look for a few clips to wake some neurons up.
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The extra factor that helped in this regard was that he always swore and cursed explicitly after the stunt went wrong, in contrast to the character’s calm demeanour and attempt to be a wholesome role model for the kids during the intro portion. He could do that because the sketches appeared on Bizarre, which was run uncensored on Showtime in the U.S. It was never quite as funny when bleeped.
Like any other comedy, it’s a matter of personal taste. I always loved Super Dave, and Bob Einstein was a brilliant comic’s comic for exactly some of the reasons you discussed.
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This is another key to Super Dave. As a one-off joke, a lousy stuntman isn’t that funny. But Bob Einstein never broke character as Super Dave and kept the joke going, always announced as the greatest stuntman alive, for almost 50 years. That’s a level of commitment that made it progressively funnier every time he’d pop up and almost die, even if you knew what was coming.
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