There was something so special about the way Bob Newhart told jokes, and it has a lot to do with how he could get a laugh from something as simple as a pause or a country song.
He wasn’t the loud kid in class
You’d think that a guy as funny as Newhart was the class clown. You’d be wrong, though, because he once said, ‘I was never the class clown. I was the guy in the group who’d say something.’
A comment like that really sums up Newhart’s approach to comedy because he wasn’t the sort of funny guy who demanded attention. He didn’t say things to try and be funny. It just sort of happened because his observations were that hilarious.
He insulted country fans with perfect manners
Bob Newhart wasn’t afraid to insult people, and some of his best one-liners prove that. Take this one, for example. He once said, ‘I don’t like country music, but I don’t mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means ‘put down.’’Â
He managed to sound apologetic and also insulting in one breath. That’s pretty smart. He was the kind of guy who was fine with leaving insults sitting there, almost like everyone should be grateful for them.Â
He reduced an entire music genre to one song
That’s not all for country music, because he also said, ‘The country-and-Western songs – and I’m going to offend a lot of people – but I think it’s one song.’ He then went on to name the typical parts of country music.
You know, like the dog, the wife, the train, the lonely man, probably some coffee. He had a theory that country songs sound way too similar to each other, and he had no worries about insulting people with his theory. He was just that kind of fearless comedian.
He knew exactly what his stammer was worth
There was a time when a producer asked Newhart whether he could speak a little faster, mostly because the episode was running too long. But Newhart refused. No, he responded with the line, ‘This stammer got me a home in Beverly Hills, and I’m not about to change it.’
He really put the producer in his place. There are some retellings of the story that include Newhart saying, ‘screw with it now,’ but that isn’t what he said. Newhart understood that his pauses were part of his whole routine. They weren’t some mistake to be edited out, no way.
He treated procrastination like a professional skill
Newhart was the sort of comedian who was open about his own flaws, even during his routines. He once said, ‘I am one of the great wasters of time. I have made it an art form.’ Now that’s what we call a professional procrastinator.
He could leave the house and do all sorts of things, but somehow, he’d get to the evening without having done the thing he needed to. That kind of honesty is pretty refreshing.
He didn’t want comedy getting too honest
Newhart was a popular guy with interviewers, and his 2008 Esquire interview was one of his best. It’s the one that gave us the line, ‘You shouldn’t get too close to the truth, because then maybe you stop being funny.’ That line just shows how much he understood comedy.
He knew what would make people laugh, and when it was best to back off. He really understood the point where the laugh could simply disappear. There are very few comedians who really get that, unfortunately, but Newhart was one of those who did.
He brought accounting into places it didn’t belong
Newhart won many awards, and one of those was the Mark Twain Prize. He accepted it in 2002 and said, ‘You can take the boy out of accounting, but you can’t take the accounting out of the boy. It’s not a very funny saying.’
It’s kind of a contradiction. A line like that isn’t that funny, yet somehow, that makes it sound even funnier. It’s a reference to how he studied accounting at Loyola University Chicago and worked in the field before comedy took over. Truth and humor, mixed in typical Newhart fashion.
His bookkeeping standards were slightly relaxed
That’s not all for accounting, as he once said, ‘My theory of accounting was that as long as you got within two or three bucks of it, you were all right.’ His explanation of his bookkeeping standard does help to explain why he didn’t stay in accounting forever.Â
Newhart worked for quite a few companies before becoming a comedian. He’d worked for U.S. Gypsum and Glidden, but never quite fit, and one boss apparently told him he wasn’t cut out for the profession. He was right. He was born to be a comedian instead.
Vacations with Don Rickles required recovery time
Here’s a surprising fact for you. Don Rickles and Bob Newhart were close friends for decades. Yes, that Don Rickles. Their comedy styles couldn’t have been more different, but still, they were pretty close. Newhart actually spoke about Rickles during a Friars Club tribute in 2013.
He said, ‘We vacation with Don, and then after that, we take a vacation so we can enjoy ourselves.’ Newhart was someone who could deal with Rickles’ famous loudness and relentlessness. He held his own, and that’s part of what made Newhart such a funny guy.
Turning 90 didn’t quiet his brain
He made another joke about age after someone asked him about being 90. They asked Newhart whether he felt 90, and he replied with, ‘My mind doesn’t. I can’t turn it off.’ He never let his age define or limit him in any way.
He was talking about new material and television appearances, well into his 90s. Maybe we could all learn something from that kind of approach to aging. It’s a pretty positive way of looking at things.
He recommended delaying adulthood
Newhart had some pretty solid advice for young people, too. He said, ‘I think you should be a child for as long as you can. I have been successful for 74 years being able to do that.’
He’d built a lot of his career around looking at adult life like it was slightly ridiculous. It is. He knew all about how serious adulthood could get, and part of his incredible comedy skills centered around refusing to accept that.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
10 one-liners every grandpa uses that might scare the room into silence
Most grandparents have a way of saying some rather surprising things, and here are ten one-liners that tend to scare entire rooms into silence.Â
10 one-liners every grandpa uses that might scare the room into silence
