What the world needs now

Trio has been showing “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” every night. I saw it when I was a kid and it made a huge impression. It was on cable again when I was in my twenties, but I didn’t find that it had held up well. Now, in my forties, I’m stunned by what they could get away with on TV then that probably wouldn’t make it on screen now, especially some of the stuff that really addressed race in ways we just don’t try to do anymore. Do you think that today anyone would use the term “darkie” as a joke, and have someone as prominent as Sammy Davis Jr. play along with it? But more than anything, seeing these old shows with their cross between vaudeville and high-speed sketch comedy has made me realize that what the world needs now (at least the comedy world) is more Joanne Worley.