Love That Bob

Bob Newhart is one of my favorite comedians. Last Tuesday he busted some myths on the Tonight Show:

There’s a saying in show business, as you know, “Be nice to people on the way up because you’re going to run into the same people on the way down.” They did a survey at the motion picture home, and they asked a thousand former stars, and they said you run into entirely different people on the way down than you do on the way up. So there’s little point in being nice to anyone on the way up.

Everyone knows the saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. We found out, you can make him drink, but you should have a bat. Then they’ll do it.

All this was said in the inimitable Newhart style, with frequent Jack Benny-like pauses, the audience howling because they could see the punch line coming.

I’ve long admired Bob Newhart. He was an accountant who managed to escape the world of cubicles and ten-keys. He made it, he got out of the [green eyeshaded] ‘hood. There’s hope for me yet.