A few years ago a woman came up to me and said..."I was in bed with you last night". I checked my daytimer. I had no record of such an event. I tapped my memory. Nothing there. Then she said..."I listen to the Sunday Funnies every Sunday night in bed". Ah, relief. Although I was tempted to ask her for her phone number. I didn't...I didn't!
I get asked about the Sunday Funnies (on Chum FM but not anymore) a lot. More questions about that show than just about anything else I did when I was there. And I loved doing the show. I loved finding new comics I hadn't heard of before. I'd comb all the record stores for new material and would make a trip to Buffalo every couple of months and come back with bag fulls of material. Hearing Eddie Izzard, Jeff Foxworthy, Mitch Hedberg, Richard Jeni, Maria Bamford and Lewis Black for the first time was a revelation.
Who ever came up with the time slot for the funnies nailed it. Bed time on Sunday night. Between the sheets, lights off, it's quiet and the comics, if they're good ones, paint mental pictures for you. People also told me they'd listen to the show on their way back from a weekend at the cottage when they could concentrate on what you were listening to.
I was told the Funnies didn't fit the demographic of the radio station. A lot of the people who tuned in weren't there for the morning show on Monday. I could never admit it then but I was proud of that.
The one regret is that I never had the opprotunity to do much with Canadian comics. If they didn't have recorded material I couldn't play them. Most Canadian comics didn't. Frank Spadone and Gerry Dee did. I played them as often as possible and got great reaction.
Near the end of the run of the Funnies a programming decision was made to get rid of the older comics, which also got rid of a lot of that picture painting story telling. My arguement was that most of the younger, hipper comics don't work without dropping the "F" bomb. We struck a deal. The "F" bomb is in but the show moves from 10 to 11.
Even though that opened things up to a lot of material I had never been able to play, it wasn't the same after that. I only got one complaint about language. I got a ton of complaints about the change in time. People couldn't hang in until midnight and go to work the next day.
I'm sure the woman who approached me was in bed by 10 as usual on Sundays. But not with me.
I loved the Funnies, but you already know that.
You're the perfect example. Listened to the Funnies but not the morning show.
I used to listen to the Funnies every week, even though I was too young to stay up that late. I'd sneak a radio under my pillow in case my parents came in to check on me -- which wasn't easy since my radio was about the size of shoebox. It wasn't rare for me to fall asleep, then wake up the whole house at 3:00 am when I'd accidentally send five pounds of radio bouncing off a wall when I tried to roll over.
Sunday Funnies was my introduction to guys like Robert Klein, Emo Phillips, Steven Wright and especially George Carlin. The show probably did more to shape my sense of humor than any other influence I had growing up.
Thanks for that, Rick.
The Funnies fell into my lap by accident. Best accident that ever happened to me. I'm glad you enjoyed them and you're very welcome.
I'd love to see you continue the Funnies on this blog, at least in spirit. Maybe a regular feature that would spotlight a lesser known comedian? I'd hate for the next generation to grow up thinking it didn't get any better than Jeff Dunham and Frank Caliendo.
Not sure how I'd do that. A very good showcase for Canadian comics is Laugh Out Loud,
Saturday, 6:30 pm on CBC 1.