Jerry Lewis - The Typewriter

Jerry Lewis - Typewriter - video powered by Metacafe

Many of the things that have made me laugh over the years will have been British. However, I still have vivid memories of American humour from watching television in the late sixties and early seventies and in particular Saturday morning viewing. The highlight of Saturday was in fact Grandstand as I was sports mad. That programme started between midday and twelve thirty with first item normally Football Focus with Sam Leitch. But immediately before this, the BBC would show American black and white comedy films such as Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplain. I can also remember 'movie seasons'. The Marx Brothers, Bob Hope, Abbott and Costello all had time on the Beeb on a Saturday morning. And the one who cracked me up most.................Jerry Lewis.

As indeed he still does today. I found these clips recently and think they are hilarious. It is the same joke of course but with one glaring difference! The first clip dates from the early/mid fifties and is therefore before my time. It comes from The Colgate Comedy Hour which was an American variety show on the NBC network. It was hosted by various entertainers including Lewis and his stage partner at the time, Dean Martin.The show was a huge success in America (and yes the Colgate part of the title was that Colgate..............as in toothpaste - they were the shows sponsors).The joke was then re-worked by Lewis in 1963 in the Paramount film Who's Minding The Store? and it is this version I remember. Lewis played the role of Norman Phiffier, a rather worthless guy who is unwittingly in love with the heiress of a wealthy department store. Future mother in law sets out to disgrace him by setting him up in jobs she knows he will fail in. In the clip, Jerry is paying a visit to the store's Personnel Department.

Jerry Lewis's film output in the 50's and 60's was prolific (with Dean Martin until 1956 then on his own after an acrimonious splitting of the double act which led to the pair not talking to one another again until the 1980's). His style was magnificent slapstick. It was highly chaotic, zany and , I guess, infuriating to those who did not like it. His facial clowning was without equal and it gave him the ability to make just about any situation funny. It was easy to get tired just watching him for a short while as he was high energy from start to finish. His characters were often nerdy ( although he is silent in both these clips, believe me he had a wonderful nerdy voice when he needed to use it), accident prone, sad and vulnerable. His popularity in Britain had largely fizzled out by the start of the 80's and I can't remember the last time I watched a Jerry Lewis film on UK TV. He has remained in the limelight in America to this day largely due to his charity work which he began in the early 50's. In 1966 he hosted a national telethon on Labor Day and in 2005 did the same again for the 40th time! Next birthday he will be 81 years old.