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June 25, 2022 11:17 AM

Tim Conway's Elephant Story.

Vicki Lawrence (Mamma) on the scene.

posted by MollyRealized (17 comments total)

I had seen that clip before. All this time, I never knew it was Dick Van Dyke at the other end of the couch given the fuzzy image quality (I assumed it was semi-regular Lyle Waggoner).

So knowing that is Dick Van Dyke (still alive at 96!) utterly collapsing in laughter makes it just that much better.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:32 AM on June 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

Such a classic. Tim had an amazing ability to make everyone - especially Harvey Korman - just lose it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:47 AM on June 25, 2022 [6 favorites]

Pardon me, but what did the little asshole do? I couldn’t hear it… Please let me know!
posted by njohnson23 at 12:03 PM on June 25, 2022

One of the best parts is at the beginning where you can see everyone realize, uh oh, here he goes. Then watching them just try and try not to lose it as he keeps going. The line with the conjoined elephants trying to trumpet had me in pain laughing the first several times I watched it. Truly gifted comedy.
posted by azpenguin at 12:17 PM on June 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

The little asshole told an interminable story about elephants that was designed to make the other actors break character and laugh and that made it impossible for the other actors to continue with the sketch. IRL Carol Burnett had just got done lecturing everybody that she wanted the character breaking to stop and everybody to really commit to these characters, and then she proceeded to break up worse than anybody else on set, plus was trying hopelessly to get it back on track by pushing this Password card at Vicki Lawrence (which was exactly what allowed Tim Conway to keep upping the ante at the exact perfect time to make the audience laugh and the cast laugh, as Carol Burnett supposedly did not want him to do, but luckily for posterity, he ignored that).

Vicki Lawrence knew that getting back on track with the scene was hopeless, and she was mildly irritated that Tim Conway kept getting away with these antics, so she took her husband's advice to "get him." So when Carol Burnett shoved the Password card at her for the fifth or sixth time and said "Go ahead, Momma," she said "Are you sure that little asshole's through?" Which was the best because she followed instructions and didn't break character, and she got him good.

It was Dick Van Dyke, not Lyle Waggoner.

Vicki Lawrence says, "It was the last season. It's Dick Van Dyke that went off the other end of the sofa."

From IMDB it looks like it was the seventh episode of the 11th season: "The Family" gets into a tiff over a word game.

Lyle Waggoner was having heart problems by then and not on the show much anymore, apparently.
posted by Don Pepino at 1:05 PM on June 25, 2022 [11 favorites]

Don Rickles had a similar effect on Korman.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 1:19 PM on June 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh man, tears of laughter every time, even to this day. When I first saw that sketch I was visiting my grandmother and was on the floor laughing so hard and so long she thought there might be something wrong with me.
posted by calamari kid at 2:35 PM on June 25, 2022

Tim Conway often had a personal goal of causing his sketchmates to corpse.

When it came to the Dentist sketch, that goal escalated to causing Korman to lose bowel control.
posted by delfin at 2:43 PM on June 25, 2022 [5 favorites]

Tim Conway was one of the funniest human beings ever. I LOVE the dentist sketch. The elephant sketch is 1b.

Of course, Harvey and Carol are terrific too. Vicky Lawrence was so under rated. She was great as well. She reminds me of Ethel Mertz in I Love Lucy. The fourth banana never getting her due.

Thanks for posting this and bringing back a flood of memories and getting me to go down the Carol Burnett Show rabbit hole.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:09 PM on June 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

This was probably the greatest show of its era. I don't remember the elephant sketch (I was in college at the time and wasn't watching basically any TV), but watching the cast even come close to losing it was guaranteed to have me in stitches.
posted by lhauser at 9:55 PM on June 25, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh man, I love Tim Conway. Hadn't seen this sketch before. He does such an amazing job of staying deadpan through the escalating bizarre comments -- which just makes Vicki Lawrence's knockout punch even better. Literally fell off the sofa and rolled on the floor with laughter. (Both him and me.)
posted by basalganglia at 9:08 AM on June 26, 2022 [1 favorite]

You have to admire Vicki Lawrence's ability to NOT corpse when Conway is at work, too.
posted by tavella at 10:03 AM on June 26, 2022 [3 favorites]

Lyle Waggoner was having heart problems by then and not on the show much anymore, apparently.

I don't find anything about heart problems, the consensus seems to be that he was looking to get more roles as a lead actor, and he did land the lead in _Wonder Woman_. Apart from that he was primarily a guest star for the rest of his career, but it didn't matter because he ended up making his fortune in trailer rentals for location shooting.
posted by tavella at 10:13 AM on June 26, 2022 [3 favorites]

According to things I've read, The Carol Burnett Show performed the entire show twice - before separate audiences - then edited together the best takes for broadcast.

Tim Conway would usually stick close to the script for the first run. Then he'd check with the directors and camera crews to make sure they got what they needed from the sketches. Once he knew they had a usable version of the sketch in the can, then he'd go off-script in the second run-thru.
So Conway did his best not to screw the show over - producers could air whichever version was the funnier.

That's why the video clip has two versions of the joke - first from the earlier taping, then from the later.
As Vicki Lawrence says in her interview, she went into the second taping knowing Conway was going to be pushing their buttons, which gave her time to prepare her perfect riposte.
posted by cheshyre at 10:22 AM on June 26, 2022 [5 favorites]

It's just a brilliant scene.

I believe he pulled the story out a few other times here and there, too.
posted by rmd1023 at 10:47 AM on June 26, 2022

I don't find anything about heart problems
Hm. Neither do I now I'm looking again. I thought I read somewhere that he wasn't on that particular episode because he was in the hospital with a heart attack, but now I can't find whatever I read/misread that gave me that impression. Yet another fact error to add to my enormous collection.

"Star Waggons!" Cute!
posted by Don Pepino at 12:39 PM on June 26, 2022

To this day, no one can make me laugh until it hurts the way this crew can. Most modern comedies get a sensible chuckle, if that, but old Carol Burnett reruns just absolutely slay me. <3
posted by xedrik at 6:51 AM on June 27, 2022 [2 favorites]