Tor

Tor Johnson was a professional wrestler (stage name: The Super Swedish Angel) and the inspiration for a hugely popular Halloween mask. He's probably best known for his roles in the movies of Ed Wood; here he emotes in the trailer for Bride of the Monster.



Somebody out there had the common decency to post a clip of him on You Bet Your Life, then had the wit to title the clip "You Bet Tor Life." Listen to the crowd react as he walks in. Needless to say, Groucho runs verbal rings around poor Tor.



And now, as the great man once said, "Time for go to bed."

Groucho and Jacko

Jack Benny and Groucho Marx are two of my favorite comedians of all time. They first knew each other from the vaudeville circuit; Groucho (then known as Julius Marx) would get Benny (then known as violinist Benjamin Kublesky) laughing so hard they'd have to hold up the show and wait for him to calm down.

Four decades or so later, they were performing together on TV.



Jack's doing everything he can to win some money, including wearing a disguise that fools absolutely no one. His look of despondence at Groucho's final question is so wonderful - almost as wonderful as Groucho's look of glee as he asks that question. And you'll note that Groucho can still get Jack to break character with almost no effort.

I'll bet my life - and I'll win, too

Groucho Marx regularly got the best of the contestants on You Bet Your Life. "You're a model?" he asked one of them once. "What do you model - clay?"

But every now and then one would come along that would throw him for a loop. Like this spinster from Suffield, Connecticut.



Or this guy. His size, voice, mannerisms, and eyes completely unnerve Groucho, which is great, because (Groucho being Groucho) his reaction is to make even more jokes. This clip never stops being funny for me.

Say the secret woid and win a hundred dollars.

I'm the sort of person who would rather say funny than do funny. So while I appreciate the visual gags from folks like Chris Farley, Buster Keaton and Harpo Marx, I aspire to the verbal brilliance of Jon Stewart, Woody Allen, and Groucho Marx.

Groucho Marx was my very first favorite comedian. I loved how fast he was with his words, how he could come up with comments in a split second that would never occur to me in a hundred years. The fact that the remarks were scripted dimmed the joy a touch, but then I found out he was just as fast in real life and turned the joy back up again.

Here's a brief clip from "You Bet Your Life," the game show he hosted throughout the '50s. I love the vim with which he delivers the zinger at the end.