Bad news / Good news

The ol' emotions went on a bit of a roller coaster today. After a nice nap, I woke up at 2:30 to find that the King of Late Night had died. Then, not four hours later, the Eagles made it into the Superbowl for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century. And I was speaking with my mom today, I realized that both of those things had a pretty close connection with my dad (as many things seem to be doing these days).

Johnny, R.I.P. I love Johnny Carson. Of all the comedians I enjoy and respect for their talent, Johnny was at (or very nearly so) the top of the heap. I only started being able to watch him regularly in the mid 1980's, but received much more exposure to him via the syndicated "Carson's Comedy Classics" series ("My name is Floyd R. Turbo, American"), and later by the four-tape series of his best-of moments (Albert Brooks with a Speak-n-Spell... doesn't get much better than that). I remember watching his final several weeks of shows, hoping to soak as much of him in as I could, knowing then that something very special and important was passing out of the American landscape.

I remember catching rare glimpses of Johnny back in my childhood, back when bedtime was 9:00 or 10:00 o'clock. If I was staying up that late, chances are I was pretty sick or I'd had a bad dream. My parents would be down in the living room watching Johnny and reading the paper, and I'd stay down there until I was ready to go back to bed. Later, in the mid-80's I was allowed to stay up and watch Johnny, and even Letterman, over the summer, and that's when I really started to enjoy him, even if all I really enjoyed at the time was his slapstick. As I grew up and got more exposure to him, I was able to appreciate the more nuanced aspects of his talent, the way he had mastery over a uniquely American style of comedy. He also was a hell of an interviewer. And, as many people have said today, it felt like he belonged in our living rooms.

As many people have also said today, someone like Johnny may never come around again, or at least not be as popular as he was. More than that, though, is that there's no one who wants to be the style of comedian Johnny was or represented. I greatly enjoy the Jim Nortons and Lewis Blacks of the world. But they are not, nor do they want to be, the type of comedian Johnny was. They are honest comics, but for a different era. Johnny's passing marks a passing of his era of simple, tell-the-joke observational humor.

The world just got a little less funny today, but they're having a hell of a roast in Heaven this evening.

In other news, the mo-fo Eagles are going to the Super Bowl. In a year when it's alright for Boston to win the World Series, it really shouldn't surprise anyone that Eagles fans can sense that their tenure as the World's Most Aggrieved Sports Fans might be short. (Dad was around the last time the Eagles even got into the Super Bowl, which is how I'm tying this whole entry together. Don't like it? Deal.)