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14 Facts You May Not Know About Johnny Carson
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Johnny was fun.
It’s on Antenna TV out here and I’ve been watching it. Still pretty funny.
You felt like you were hanging out with some buddies getting drunk.
Then, you got to Tom Snyder who was the Shatner of the talk show circuit.
He didn’t realize he was funny but his show was awesome.
To the extant that for years I ‘remembered’ a Tom Snyder show where he interviewed Mick Jagger only it was Dan Akroyd on SNL.
Yeah, Johnny Carson was kinda swell. I would watch when I was a kid and later on too.
And after he died, David Letterman said that Johnny Carson would send him jokes from time to time, but he wasn’t suppose to tell who they came from.
I actually have a Johnny Carson joke; not a joke that Johnny Carson wrote, but one that I think that I wrote that has Johnny Carson in it. I say I think because a year or so later I read it in Reader’s Digest. Maybe I stole it from someone that later gave it Reader’s Digest; maybe someone heard my joke and gave it to Reader’s Digest. It’s rather long for a comment—I ran out of room writing it to friend on an airmail envelope, and this may be longer than that, but it is Friday night so if you will indulge me here goes:
There were these two old boys sitting around the store playing checkers one day. One fella was named Bubba, and I can’t remember the other guy’s name; probably Bill. Well, everybody walked in the store called Bubba by name and nodded politely to other fellow. (By the way, both these guys didn’t have to work for a living ‘cause they’d sold land to Dupont or Weyerhaeuser or someboody like that and took a big chuck of the payment in stock and traded it for one thing and another.) Bill wasn’t from around here; he and Bubba had met at ag school.
After awhile Bill said, “I declare, Bubba, it seems like everybody in these parts knows you.” Another fella sitting around watching them play chimed in from the peanut gallery, “Sure, everybody knows Bubba, and Bubba knows everybody. Ain’t that right, Bubba?”
I reckon so, replied Bubba.
Awww come on replied Bill. I betcha don’t know this fella walking in.
Oh, shoot, replied Bubba, he’s my second cousin.
Anyway, they went back and forth like this for a little bit. Finally, Bill says. I tell you what. I bet you ten dollars you don’t know Johnny Carson.
Oh, yeah, I know Johnny. We were in the Navy together; we were in the same training division. Oh, come, on, you’re pulling my leg. By and by, they decide to fly out to California and settle the matter. They go to Bubba’s house, and Bubba calls out to airport and has his pilot get the plane ready (see what I mean). They fly out to California. Johnny Carson is taping that day so they rent a car and drive to the studio. Bubba doesn’t wait in line; he goes around to the side door and talks to guard. The guard shakes Bubba’s hand, and Bubba introduces Bill to the guard. Sure enough, they get front row seats. During one of the breaks, Johnny walks over and talks to Bubba and invites him back to his house to spend the night. Bubba and his friend from college spend the night at Johnny Carson’s house; get up in the morning and play up a little tennis, drive back to airport, and fly back home. Bill pays Bubba ten dollars.
Not long afterwards, the two men get to talking, and Bill bets Bubba fifty dollars that he doesn’t know President Reagan. (I shoulda mentioned that this was an old joke.) Well, the same thing happens. They get on Bubba’s plane, fly into National, and rent a car. They go on the White House tour. During the tour, Bubba gives the high sign to one of the guards and leans in for a private word. After the tour, one of President Reagan’s aides comes and gets Bubba and his friend Bill. The guy shakes Bubba’s hand; the Secret Service pats Bill down and shakes Bubba’s hand. They go up to the oval office and spend a few minutes with President Reagan; the President shakes Bill’s hand and hugs Bubba; so does Mrs. Reagan. They wind up getting invited to spend the night, so of course they do. The next morning, they drive back to National and fly home in Bubba’s plane. Bill pays Bubba fifty dollars.
Bubba’s friend from college goes back home. After thinking it over for a few days, he calls Bubba and the phone and they get to talking. He can’t let it go, and he winds up betting Bubba a hundred dollar bill that Bubba doesn’t know the pope. Bubba flies his airplane up to where his friend from college lives, and they take a 747 to Rome. They walk over to Vatican City where His Holiness is addressing the crowd. Bubba says to Bill, “Look, the pope is really, really, busy and there is no way he can see us. But if I can get him to point at you, will that be OK?” Yeah, I guess so. So Bubba works his way around the crowd to the little door beneath the balcony from where the pope is speaking. Bubba nods to the Swiss guard; the guard almost smiles and opens the door for Bubba. Bubba disappears for a minute. He reappears on the balcony as he speaks very softly into His Holiness’s ear. The pope nods and points distinctly at Bubba’s friend from back home. Immediately, Bill falls down like he was dead.
Bubba runs down the stairs and out the little door and over to his old friend. By now Bill has recovered from his shock. He speaks: “It was one thing when you knew Johnny Carson ‘cause y’all’d been in the Navy together, and another thing when you knew the President. I mean, hey, there’re both Americans and they’ve been around for awhile. But, when we get here, thousands of miles from home, in Europe. And you get up there on the balcony with the pope, and this lady beside me says ‘Hey, who’s that up there with Bubba?’ It was more than I could take.”
What’s really funny is several (many even?) years ago some folks from home were up in Chicago. They bumped into someone famous; a sport announcer if I recall correctly. They told him where they were from. He asked them if they knew x; x is my brother-in-law’s brother.
Aside from the fact that he had trouble keeping his dick in his pants ( and who could blame him….women LITERALLY threw themselves at him) he was a fundamentally decent person. A man who was loyal to those who were loyal to him, a man who understood how people thought. His success was a result of great talent and hard work. He is the gold standard all television hosts are compared to and it’s highly unlikely he will ever be surpassed.
When Johnny retired, I never thought Leno was a good replacement choice. Seemed too goofy. But I think he matured nicely into the role and made it his own. It’s always hard to replace a legend.