Vintage laughs! Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the greatest times when the “Carol Burnett” ensemble broke.
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00:00Well, yeah, they're all in the shape of a...
00:02Guava.
00:03LAUGHTER
00:07Welcome to Ms. Mojo,
00:08and today we're counting down our picks for the greatest times when the Carol Burnett ensemble broke.
00:13Well, I guess we'll, uh, get right to it.
00:16LAUGHTER
00:19Number 10, Mary Worthless.
00:21A parody of the Mary Worth comic strip sees Carol Burnett as a wide-eyed, dopey, busybody
00:26terrorizing everyone with her annoying optimism.
00:29But the biggest laughs in this sketch start with a delayed sound cue.
00:32Harvey Korman accidentally says his line before the ringing doorbell goes,
00:36and things just fall apart from there.
00:39You've got a lot of explaining to do.
00:40So do you, you lush...
00:42Lush!
00:43I'm ta...
00:44Was that the...
00:45Oh, yeah, it was the...
00:47Lyle Waggoner can't hold onto his prop.
00:49Everyone is smirking and giggling.
00:51There's no saving this segment.
00:53Hi, Bill.
00:55Hey, I, uh, I hope...
00:56LAUGHTER
00:59Yeah!
01:02By the time Korman jumps out the window, we have no idea what's scripted and what's not.
01:06By the end, Burnett just gives up and breaks the fourth wall.
01:10So don't be surprised if I show up on your unhappy doorstep someday.
01:15Better yet, be surprised because I'm not doing this again.
01:18Number 9, Carol and Sis, House for Sale.
01:21Carol Burnett breaks with tradition and addresses the audience,
01:24telling them that this sketch isn't going to go on as scripted.
01:28She lets us in on the secret.
01:29While they've been rehearsing the sketch one way all week,
01:32she's decided to play a little prank on her co-star, Harvey Korman.
01:35He bends over like this and says,
01:37Carol, I'm supposed to come out and hit him in the head with the door,
01:40and that's the end of the sketch.
01:41And tonight, I'm not going to do it.
01:44We just want to see what he does.
01:45She's going to leave him hanging on the big punchline.
01:48She's supposed to push the door into him,
01:50but she decides instead to make him sweat a little.
01:54And you, Laffy, get into the kitchen and stay there until I call you, all right?
01:59The audience can barely contain their excitement,
02:02and somehow, it ends up being even funnier this way.
02:15Number 8, The Dresser.
02:17Some of Tim Conway's best sketches are the ones that make you laugh.
02:21Some of Tim Conway's best sketches on The Carol Burnett Show
02:24are just him pretending to be the oldest person ever.
02:26In this one, he plays a backstage dresser trying to help an actor through a costume change.
02:34Conway's antics have Korman going up on his lines halfway through.
02:37Once the old man starts getting dragged away by the moving clothesline,
02:40there's no hope.
02:42You want to stop fooling around?
02:48Each time he reappears,
02:49Conway is hanging from the clothesline in increasingly ridiculous poses.
02:53Korman does what he can,
02:54but he's barely managing to get his lines out as he's seized by laughter.
02:59Come on!
03:00I'm kind of gonna have to do this.
03:09Number 7, Houdini's Daughter.
03:11It's difficult to play off like things are going well
03:14when even the audience can see something has gone wrong.
03:16Burnett plays an escape artist being interviewed by Korman's character.
03:29Surprisingly this time,
03:30Korman is the one who stays in character,
03:32and we're really not sure how.
03:34There are a few prop malfunctions,
03:36and credit where it's due,
03:37Burnett does her best not to get so thrown off by them.
03:41Not really.
03:44Are you all right?
03:45No.
03:45I hear something cracking.
03:46Yeah, I hear it too.
03:49I think it's my rear end.
03:51At a certain point though,
03:52she's powerless to keep from cracking up,
03:54particularly when the crate that was initially supposed to break
03:58ends up stuck to her rear end.
03:59The whole thing goes astray,
04:01but we get a ton more laughs out of it that way.
04:03I'm gonna try to get out of this.
04:06I'm gonna distract myself from this.
04:09Number 6, Dog's Life.
04:11Physical comedy was Tim Conway's strong suit.
04:13Once again playing opposite Harvey Korman,
04:15this time he's a man's best friend.
04:17No, he plays a man who thinks he's a dog.
04:20He sniffs,
04:21pants,
04:22and licks at Korman throughout the sketch.
04:23The more I see of your work Benson,
04:25the more I like it.
04:34Conway's scene partner is almost able to play off his laughter.
04:38He has the advantage of looking down for part of the scene,
04:41but then you hear his unmistakable whimper of laughter.
04:49I've, uh, I've been feeling it.
04:52Conway is merciless,
04:54never giving Korman a chance to recover.
04:56There's plenty of footage of Korman breaking character,
04:59but this is one of the few times we see Conway break too.
05:02They think I'm gonna fall apart,
05:04but you know what I'm going to do?
05:08Tim Conway plays a very slow fireman called to the scene of a fire.
05:13Then Harvey Korman's character,
05:15the homeowner experiencing the fire,
05:17inhales smoke and requires mouth-to-mouth resuscitation,
05:20at least according to Korman.
05:22Color in your cheeks.
05:27Oh, I can't breathe.
05:28I, I, I, I choked it.
05:30It's not working, I need oxygen.
05:32What ensues is an apparent shift in genre as Korman's character
05:36is an apparent shift in genre as Conway starts flirting.
05:39Even more hilarious is how Korman tries to cover his laughter with cries of pain.
05:43It fools no one.
05:51He's hopeless to get through the rest of the sketch,
05:53and you can tell Conway is loving every second of making him squirm.
06:06Number four, The Family.
06:08Mama and Eunice Harper are two of the Carol Burnett show's most enduring characters.
06:12Their relationship, which you could call strained,
06:15makes for some of the show's most withering insults.
06:26Here, a heated board game night at the Harper house gets out of hand.
06:29As she unleashes a tirade of insults in this particular sketch,
06:33Carol Burnett makes it clear that some of the jokes were not in the script.
06:43Vicki Lawrence seems completely at home in the role of Mama as she stays stony-faced,
06:47but Burnett's resolve isn't so strong.
07:01Number three, The Dentist.
07:02In yet another sketch about a Tim Conway character being completely inept at his job,
07:07we find ourselves at the dentist.
07:08Conway's character keeps accidentally injecting himself with Novocaine,
07:13and as he continues with the exam, parts of his body keep going dead.
07:25Could it be fair to say it tests the limits of his physical comedy?
07:29But Conway doesn't seem to have limits.
07:31He almost manages to stay completely in character,
07:34while a helpless and captive Corman can only desperately try to hide how affected he is.
07:44But, as more of the dentist's limbs fail him,
07:47Corman ends up laughing harder than the audience.
07:57Number two, Number one or number two?
08:00Here's one big mistake that didn't make it to air.
08:03Originally, this spoof of an old-fashioned Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney musical
08:06featured a horse standing behind Carol Burnett while she sang her number.
08:18She tries her best, but when the horse, um, leaves a present on stage for Burnett,
08:23everything grinds to a halt.
08:30I know how you love me
08:36Burnett, after cracking up herself, makes a joke that leaves the audience in stitches.
08:41Is he through?
08:48You wanna pick it up from number one or number two?
08:51The imagery might have been worth the trouble, but the smell probably wasn't,
08:55and once the show aired, the horse was gone.
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09:14Number one, the elephant story.
09:16Breaking character was a hazard of the trade when Tim Conway was on stage.
09:20The ensemble knew he could improvise and throw in any ridiculous flair he wanted,
09:25and he would always be the last to break.
09:27But Vicki Lawrence, in character as Mama Harper, finally got him.
09:33As his character tells a story about sideshow elephants conjoined at the trunk,
09:37the entire cast is having a hard time keeping it together.
09:40Even Conway is stifling a smile at his own performance.
09:43By the end, Lawrence has finally had enough.
09:56Mama's primetime unfriendly punchline puts a perfect button on the scene.
10:00Conway falls off the couch, finally bested at his own game.
10:08Which blooper got you? Let us know in the comments.
10:13Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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