In the first clip, it sounded to me like Carson said “Hangin'” rather than “hang him.”
…which, while not racist in of itself, would’ve been completely nonsensical.
The only excuse I can think of is that being in the prescence of Rickles’ comic genius, Johnny totally lost it. Which wouldn’t explain the black face bit in the other clip.
I like where the host is all PC harumphing about seeing blackface on a “Tonight Show” episode “as late as 1976” whereas Billy Crystal did (and would still do) his blacked up Sammy Davis, Jr. impression into the 1990s — and nobody’s even mentioned Ted Danson.
In the clip, the host says he does not think this invasion of Rickles’ show was planned. Why then was there a microphone (with extra long cable) waiting in the wings for Carson to walk over?
In the first clip, it sounded to me like Carson said “Hangin'” rather than “hang him.”
…which, while not racist in of itself, would’ve been completely nonsensical.
The only excuse I can think of is that being in the prescence of Rickles’ comic genius, Johnny totally lost it. Which wouldn’t explain the black face bit in the other clip.
I like where the host is all PC harumphing about seeing blackface on a “Tonight Show” episode “as late as 1976” whereas Billy Crystal did (and would still do) his blacked up Sammy Davis, Jr. impression into the 1990s — and nobody’s even mentioned Ted Danson.
In the clip, the host says he does not think this invasion of Rickles’ show was planned. Why then was there a microphone (with extra long cable) waiting in the wings for Carson to walk over?
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?050124fr_archive03 has a description of incident 1, but no mention of the racial stuff. Infinitely long article, but pretty great.