May

ALIGNMENT CHART! The Golden Age of TV Comedy

Posted by MGK Published in D&D Explains Everything, General Nerd Crap, TV

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jeffwik said on May 25th, 2011 at 9:17 am

I’m shocked — shocked! — that I don’t recognize LN, TN, CN, or NE. I feel like I oughta, that recognition is just a half-second away for each of them.

DataShade said on May 25th, 2011 at 9:26 am

@jeffwik
Yeah, there should be a new rule of the internet: alignment charts come with “spoilers” re: who the images are, or at least citations of exactly where the images are taken from.

MGK said on May 25th, 2011 at 9:48 am

Try mousing over the picture, guys.

guayec said on May 25th, 2011 at 9:50 am

boy, AM I YOUNG

John W said on May 25th, 2011 at 10:07 am

Boy AM I OLD. I recognized all but Sid.

NCallahan said on May 25th, 2011 at 10:13 am

The weird thing is, I recognize all of the names, but only a third of the faces.

MIB said on May 25th, 2011 at 10:31 am

NCallahan, I had a similar reaction: it took me a minute to recognize George Burns, Phyllis Diller, and Jerry Lewis. (The first two I think I was able to place only because I’ve been Netflixing The Muppet Show.) The only one I didn’t get at all was Sid Caeser.

Tim McGaha said on May 25th, 2011 at 10:31 am

@John W: Same here. Although, I’m slightly sad that Ernie Kovacs didn’t make the cut.

Cespinarve said on May 25th, 2011 at 10:46 am

Reading the spoiler tag, it bothers me that I know who all those people are, I’m just used to seeing them twenty to thirty years older. The only ones I recognized on sight were Groucho and Lucille Ball.

malakim2099 said on May 25th, 2011 at 10:48 am

Of course God was LG. What did you expect?

Holly said on May 25th, 2011 at 10:55 am

I recognized them all. Old, or unusually versed in the Golden Age of TV Comedy? (Let’s be honest: both.)

Prankster said on May 25th, 2011 at 11:21 am

@malakim2099, wasn’t he also the devil?

And Groucho Marx as good, but Bob Hope as evil? I guess I don’t know enough about these guys. (Though I know Miltie and Jerry Lewis definitely belong in the “evil” category, so maybe I’m not a total ignoramus…

Brendan said on May 25th, 2011 at 11:48 am

My father once worked as a bellhop when he was younger. One time, Bob Hope stayed at the hotel. He walked in with two beautiful women hanging off his arms.

Late that night, my dad was stuck with running the front desk as well. While he was there, one of Mr. Hope’s handlers called the front desk and asked if my dad knew where they could acquire some ladies of questionable virtue. He insisted that he did not, and they didn’t call back.

Not much to it, but whenever I hear a discussion about Mr. Hope I always think about my family’s experience with him.

Cookie McCool said on May 25th, 2011 at 11:53 am

On the one hand, I’m devastated that Jack Benny isn’t pictured. On the other hand, this makes me feel so warm and fuzzy and OLD inside, I guess I can settle for the joy of seeing Sid Caesar. I love that guy.

I’m going to go listen to some Rudy Vallee now. You kids better stay off of my lawn in the meantime.

Snap Wilson said on May 25th, 2011 at 12:09 pm

Can’t really see some of the alignments, but this was very entertaining to look at nonetheless.

R.A. Bartlett said on May 25th, 2011 at 12:15 pm

As I understand it, Bob Hope was opportunist who bought up property left Japanese citizens put in internment camps during WWII.

Menamebephil said on May 25th, 2011 at 12:22 pm

Feckless youth that I am, the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Bob Hope is this: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-comics-from-when-sexual-assault-was-considered-hilarious/

Which would probably drop him into Chaotic Evil.

Mitchell Hundred said on May 25th, 2011 at 1:43 pm

Jack Benny would probably fall under Lawful Evil. The man had morals, but there were some crazy lengths to which he would go to save a buck.

Tever said on May 25th, 2011 at 1:59 pm

Wait, why is Jerry Lewis in Chaotic Evil?

Prodigal said on May 25th, 2011 at 2:26 pm

Sid Caesar being TN makes perfect sense. Who better than a Druid to punch out a horse, after all?

Cespinarve said on May 25th, 2011 at 3:31 pm

“Wait, why is Jerry Lewis in Chaotic Evil?”

Three words: “The Big Mouth”

Doc Green said on May 25th, 2011 at 4:13 pm

Apart from Groucho and Lucille, none of these is fit to shine the shoes of Phil Silvers.

John W said on May 25th, 2011 at 5:08 pm

Will there be a Silver Age of TV Comedy chart? Charles Nelson Reilley as Chaotic Neutral!

Robin said on May 25th, 2011 at 5:40 pm

Is it wrong that I saw the picture of Jerry Lee Lewis and thought “That looks like John Krasinski?”

AJ said on May 25th, 2011 at 5:59 pm

Wow, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen young George Burns.

Kevin Moore said on May 25th, 2011 at 9:09 pm

No Ernie Kovacs? He’d vie for Chaotic Good, IMHO.

malakim2099 said on May 25th, 2011 at 9:23 pm

@Prankster: The Devil always wants to look like God. 😉

DataShade said on May 25th, 2011 at 10:50 pm

MGK said on May 25th, 2011 at 9:48 am
Try mousing over the picture, guys.

I obeyed the instructions to “click on thumbnail” and then mouseover just gave me a zoom cursor.

MirrorMan said on May 25th, 2011 at 11:01 pm

DataShade, DON’T click on the thumbnail, then mouseover to see the names.

Mary Warner said on May 26th, 2011 at 12:16 am

I recognised everybody instantly (except Jerry Lewis, who took a second because it’s a bad picture with his head turned).
Come on, people, three of them are still alive! It shouldn’t be so hard.

But Jack Benny really should be on there.

Diego Ibarra said on May 26th, 2011 at 12:26 am

If we’re honestly picking on their personal lives, then Groucho doesn’t rate a Good alignment, either.

THEREFORE:
George Burns as Chaotic Good. On his old show, he would turn on his television, watch the live broadcast, and figure out what his supporting cast was up to. He was meta before there was meta.

THEREFORE:
Steve Allen as Lawful Good. I simply do not need to explain this.

Brad Hanon said on May 26th, 2011 at 7:40 am

The ethos of most of Groucho’s comedy was “Fuck the Man”, which I personally tend to think of as the Chaotic Good credo.

But yeah, I miss seeing my man Ernie Kovacs. That guy was 10-15 years ahead of his time.

Cookie McCool said on May 26th, 2011 at 11:14 am

In all fairness, there’s only 9 available alignments, and none of them are The Apotheosis of Awesome, so I guess it makes sense there’s no room for Jack Benny.

Scavenger said on May 26th, 2011 at 12:15 pm

Only didn’t recognize Sid and Jerry.
Only recognized Burns because of his cigar.
Don’t know enough about the history of any of them to comment on their placing, or if it’s based on their comedy, don’t know enough of their comedy either.

Lessa said on May 26th, 2011 at 5:20 pm

Weirdly enough, I didn’t recognize the photo of Sid Caeser because he’s so young. But I guess who it was when I read the quote, even though I never heard him tell that particular joke.

I think the Phyllis Diller photo may throw people because of the outfit. It looks like the Carol Burnett cleaning lady outfit, and it caused me a very confused moment.

I was disappointed that Lucy wasn’t Chaotic. Her characters personified chaos perfectly.

lise said on May 26th, 2011 at 11:08 pm

Jerry Lewis is disturbingly hot in that picture.

BunnyM said on May 27th, 2011 at 12:05 am

Wait, George Burns was young once?

Aisling said on May 27th, 2011 at 7:58 am

@lise: agreed. There is something very wrong with this.

frag said on May 28th, 2011 at 3:05 pm

Jack Benny and George Burns were old friends, from the Vaudeville circuit. The penny-pinching was purely shtick, and if the stories are true he’d be a better LG than Burns.

Brian Smith said on May 28th, 2011 at 10:01 pm

When I was little watching those Bob Hope specials, I never understood how every single one of his monologue jokes got laughter and applause; it took a lot for Johnny Carson to get both. So my best-loved Bob Hope bit came on one of his last specials, and I’ll never know if it was a deliberate acknowledgment of the artifice or just a screw-up in the editing:

Hope tells a joke; laughter, followed by applause. Hope (paraphrasing): “I don’t care WHAT you thought of that joke — NBC’s going to edit it to make it look like you loved it.” Laughter, followed by applause.

kaisius said on May 29th, 2011 at 3:58 pm

@BunnyM: Yes, he was. Once. His Social Security number was 1. No, really.

ladypeyton said on June 1st, 2011 at 10:51 pm

I recognize everyone. I strongly disagree with Bob Hope as evil. He was my hero in the 70s. He always made me laugh and I just love him.

I suggest we replace him with Bing Crosby who IIRC beat his kids.

ALIGNMENT CHART! The Golden Age of TV Comedy

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