Lately I’ve spent a bit of time in front of the computer at home, on the YouTube website. I’ve been looking for some funny highlights from TV shows that are now decades old. You might call it searching for snippets.
My initial goal was to find the “Sis Boom Bah” moment from The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson. Featuring the redoubtable Carnak the Magnificent, in what I always thought was one of the best continuing skits on the show, it is arguably one of the funniest single moments on what was a consistently funny show. (You could argue about other Tonight Show moments, like the Ed Ames tomahawk-throwing incident, but I digress.) Sure enough, I found the entire Sis Boom Bah Carnak sketch on YouTube, and I’ve put it above in all of its early ’80s, totally un-PC glory at the top of its post. The Sis Boom Bah moment is still hilarious.
There’s comedy gold to be found just about everywhere on YouTube, but you have to work to find it. In that sense, it’s a lot more interactive than just watching TV and letting the cathode rays wash over you. Let’s say that you thought the “Norm!” one-liners from Cheers were consistently funny, as I do, and just wanted to check out a few of them. A few deft searches, and voila! One example of what I found, with some of Norm’s choicest rejoinders, is below. And whether it’s great moments from Seinfeld, or the title introduction to Hogan’s Heroes, or a favorite scene from The Dick Van Dyke Show, you can probably find it on YouTube.
Webner House 