Tim Conway, in a 1977 outtake from “The Carol Burnett Show”, hilariously refuses to let the scene continue. Carol, Vicki Lawrence and Dick Van Dyke try to keep from laughing as he improvises an insane story about circus elephants.
Tim Conway, in a 1977 outtake from "The Carol Burnett Show", hilariously refuses to let the scene continue. Carol, Vicki Lawrence and Dick Van Dyke try to keep from laughing as he improvises an insane story about circus elephants. from OldSchoolCool
[ad_2]
View Reddit by MulciberTenebras – View Source
His timing is insane. He has the cast and the audience eating out of the palm of his hand
Hilarious!
Pure comedy gold !
Snorghan!
Story from Vicky Lawrence is before this episode everyone was directed not to improv as much – and of course Tim Conway took it the other direction. Love the clip and her at the end topping him with one line.
I realized last night that Dick Van Dyke is still with us! Born in 1925, he’s 97 years old.
This is one of the funniest thing ever put to film.
“The other one’s eyes would get real big.”
The subtle owning of his fellow comedians is awesome!
Imagine being in the studio audience that night for this and not being able to move you are crying laughing so hard? When actors/comedians fall out of roll it’s so funny to me because it’s pure at that point. Love it.
I can just picture Tim Conway thinking about what two elephants conjoined at the trunk might sound like.
That had me in tears.
What’s a Tim Conway?
Oh…. About 175 pounds
Poor Carol. She’s trying so hard to maintain and Tim just keeps stepping on the gas.
The Carol Burnett show filmed their sketches twice in front of two different audiences and they’d pick the best ones for broadcast. The first performance was “straight” as-scripted, and the second one the performers were allowed to play loose. These second performances were where Tim Conway would often improv and ad-lib with the intention of making his fellow cast members “break”, which always became comedy gold.
Tim Conway was amazing. I could never sit there with a deadpan look while everyone else was losing it.
Thank you for this: I saw this on TV (on a show about funny outtakes and bloopers) sometime in the late 80s and I still giggle every time i get the mental image that goes with:
“…one of them sneezed and the other one’s eyes got reaaal big!”
I loved this show growing up, and it got me thinking about the greatest improve comics.
Can you imagine Robin Williams and Tim Conway going head to head? When I die, I want to go to their Comedy Club. Probably die all over again from laughter.
What did that person say at the very end? I’ve replayed it several times but I’ve not been able to make it out.
Genius
I remember watching this clip with my dad, & just hearing him roar with laughter, until he cried. We always watched the original show, with both of my parents, who would be in tears at the end, from the laughing, but this was on a blooper show, & was just so funny!!
His son Tim Conway Jr has a nightly radio show on KFI AM640 if anyone is interested. Super funny!
Still the funniest sketch/blooper in Televisual history.
I used to love that show. Every one of the cast members was first rate on their own but together they were gold. It was absolutely a favorite in my house as a kid.
One of Cleveland’s best. Tim Conway
An amazing talent. I wish I could have been in that audience.
When I was in grade 3 for Drama class, my friend and I would regularly do a skit involving two goofy old men – total rip off of Conway’s old man character. We’d also imitate the “mosquito in the hotel” skit . Conway was a genius and this routine had me in tears. Thanks for posting!
I’ve watched this SO many times. Conway FTW.
Flashback to my childhood. My grandma and I would watch The Carol Burnett Show and I still remember how funny it was to watch Tim Conway and Harvey Korman break each other
I remember Tim Conway talking about this in an interview.
“People seem to think it actually aired on the show, but it didn’t. It was one of Dick Clark’s favourite bloopers, so he’d show it constantly on his Bloopers specials.”
Hands down one of the greatest, if not the greatest, moments in television history.
The good old days of television
This was one of the most hilarious television shows of all time. Tim Conway was constantly cracking up his co-performers.
I remember hoping, at the beginning of each episode, that one of the audience members would ask her to do the ‘Tarzan’ yell. As a small child I was always THRILLED when she graciously complied.
All the gratitude in the world to my Dad for making me come inside every night and sit down and watch reruns of The Carol Burnett Show and Sanford & Son on TBS every week night. And then we’d watch the Braves game.
Best sketch comedy/variety show ever. 10/10. Many have tried, none have surpassed it.
I use this clip as an example of how comedic timing can completely make a skit. Conway’s ability to remain almost perfectly straight-faced helps, and it’s just hilarious to watch everybody else try to stay in character.
I just learned he did the original voice for Barnacle Boy on SpongeBob. My mind was blown that they got a legend like him and Ernest Borgnine (Mermaid Man) to do voices on a (at the time) obscure cartoon on Nickelodeon.
Seeing a real professional mess with other professionals is a real treat.
My dad’s favorite scene, ever. Rip pops, “Siamese elephants” will always make me laugh, too.
Vicki Lawrence is viscously underrated across the board. She is wickedly funny in any environment she’s dropped in and will carry people across the line with ease. Miss seeing her around.
His son, Tim Conway Jr has a talk show on KFI AM 640 and tells stories about his dad often. He seems like he was a pretty amazing guy all around. Apparently there was no one he couldn’t break.
I will never not watch this
Fun Fact: Vicki Lawrence at the time was the youngest and least seasoned member of the cast. As such she did not feel comfortable breaking and did her best to stay in character and be professional.
The reason everyone falls on the floor at the end with laughter is partly because it’s funny but probably more so because this was completely unexpected and out of character for her to do something like that and say “Are you sure that little asshole’s through?”
It’s not even what he’s saying that’s funny, it’s seeing the other cast members trying to contain themselves from busting up laughing lol
***Edit to thank you for the award****
It was very nice of you Dependent Square!
​
This skit is responsible for my greatest social TIFU moment. My wife and I loved the show long before we ever met and really enjoyed the PBS throw back shows, she bought me the boxed DVD collection. This skit was always our favorite for most of the reasons noted already. Vicki, Tim breaking people, the warmth and so on.
​
We were at the funeral of a friend’s mom…. Sitting there in the pew my wife was starting to break down, but it was more of a sympathetic thing than actual grief. In a moment of brilliant stupidity, I put her fist up to mine, conjoined trunk style, with a little finger guy walking on top and whispered, “gnorf” in her ear. The surprised LAUGHSNORTGUFFAW caught her by surprise and was loud enough that people for rows around us, in the church, turned to look. She buried her head in my jacket, heaving and shaking but with laughter while I’m stuck holding the bag. Nobody can tell she’s laughing there, it just looks like uncontrolled sobbing while I’m read faced, “soothing” her hair and feeling my neck burn up.
​
I couldn’t tell you if I did a passable job at hiding my humour, I was embarrassed as fuck but I had brought it on myself really. She got a lot of sympathy during the wake and I was borderline shunned by most…
​
TLDR/ made my wife laugh at an inappropriate time, in a church during a funeral