A Put-On Is Not a Put-Down

What happens when you fling together a dozen wild young comedy writers, throw in a bunch of nuts right off the funny farm, and toss a friendly little riot? You get a wild, nutty riot of laughs.

It's called Laugh-In, and the hosts are a pair of 40-year-old manics in monkey suits named Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. They devised the idea for the show last year, but its viability wasn't certain until it was given the sure kiss of success: all the Hollywood hotshots said it couldn't be done. A full hour of nothing but comedy? No dancers? No guest crooners? No lavish production numbers? Impossible. So, when the show debuted six weeks ago during the deep doldrums of TV's midseason, it came on like a fanfare at a funeral. Ever since, like a giggle building to a guffaw, it has gained momentum until it now threatens to knock off its top-rated competition, Gunsmoke and The Lucy Show, in the ratings race.

Bang Bang. What makes Laugh-In laughable is not so much the material as the freewheeling, pell-mell pace at which it is dished out. One-liners fly like ack-ack, and if there are more than a few duds it is hard to tell in the thick of the barrage. Everybody wings it, and in that spirit the show's resident cast of bright young kooks often make the lines seem funnier than they really are. "If one gag goes completely over your head," says Martin, "there'll be another along in a few seconds that'll crack you up." Sprinkled throughout are quick flashes of famous faces (Peter Lawford, winking broadly: "You don't have to be happy to be gay"), and a variety of sight gags, such as Teletype streamers that chug across the bottom of the screen ("Eartha Kitt--call your draft board").

Much of what goes on between is vintage burlesque--blackouts, slapstick, even knock-knock jokes. Yet, by exploiting the full range of such technical possibilities as zooming closeups and quick cuts, the show has fashioned a fresh new form of rapid-fire TV comedy.

Good News. The show's producers like to say that the format follows an old trusted formula--something old and new, borrowed and blue. But Laugh-In has something far better than formula jokes: topical satire that is biting without being bitter.

"The President may not always be right," says one girl, "but you have to admit one thing: he's consistent!" Adds another: "Boris says he won't believe it till he hears L.B.J. deny it." In one skit, Rowan interviews Moses as he demonstrates against the pharaoh, who is "discriminating against us just because we've got long hair, beards and wear sandals." Rowan: "Gee, I can't imagine anyone feeling that way. How is it going?" Moses: "Badly! The pharaoh says it's O.K. to dissent so long as you don't disagree with him. It's hard to argue with a man who thinks he's descended from God." Rowan: "We have somewhat the same problem where I come from. Do the police bother you?" Moses: "Yes. We are harassed all the time by the fez."

The show is put together in a party atmosphere in which everyone is invited to contribute. Almost anything goes. Among the few bits scissored from last week's show by the NBC censor was Comedienne Ruth Buzzi wailing: "Harry said I ought to be a cover girl. Then he covered me!"

The zingers that do get through may bruise tender sensibilities, but as Rowan says: "We put everybody on, but we never put anybody down." Rather than be put out, the other networks should learn to put up with such put-ons.

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