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132-468: Allan Sherman (born Allan Copelon or Allan Gerald Copelon ; November 30, 1924 – November 20, 1973) was an American musician, satirist and television producer who became known as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer (1962), became the fastest-selling record album up to that time. His biggest hit was " Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh ", a comic song in which

264-683: A Star Wars spoof). The British comedy group Monty Python is also famous for its parodies, for example, the King Arthur spoof Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974), and the Jesus satire Life of Brian (1979). In the 1980s the team of David Zucker , Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker parodied well-established genres such as disaster, war and police movies with the Airplane! , Hot Shots! and Naked Gun series respectively. There

396-593: A bootleg recording in 1964, and were officially released in 2005 on My Son, the Box . Alan Jay Lerner did not approve of having the parody being performed; however, he reluctantly settled to allow the performances of "Fairfax Lady", on the strict conditions that the show could be allowed to be performed only inside the Fairfax Theater, without any touring company, and that the musical could not be videotaped or recorded for any album. Although Sherman believed that all

528-461: A game show producer, producing for Mark Goodson during the 1970s and 1980s, including Password Plus , Blockbusters , Body Language and Super Password . - - - Parody The writer and critic John Gross observes in his Oxford Book of Parodies , that parody seems to flourish on territory somewhere between pastiche ("a composition in another artist's manner, without satirical intent") and burlesque (which "fools around with

660-474: A 200-mile-long creature generally interpreted as being a whale. This is a parody of Ctesias ' claims that India has a one-legged race of humans with a single foot so huge it can be used as an umbrella, Homer 's stories of one-eyed giants, and so on. Parody exists in the following related genres: satire , travesty, pastiche , skit , burlesque . Satires and parodies are both derivative works that exaggerate their source material(s) in humorous ways. However,

792-422: A 20th-century Irish context, and T. S. Eliot 's The Waste Land , which incorporates and recontextualizes elements of a vast range of prior texts, including Dante 's The Inferno . The work of Andy Warhol is another prominent example of the modern "recontextualizing" parody. According to French literary theorist Gérard Genette , the most rigorous and elegant form of parody is also the most economical, that

924-447: A 78-rpm single with veteran singer Sylvia Froos which contained "A Satchel and a Seck," parodying " A Bushel and a Peck " from Guys and Dolls , coupled with "Jake's Song", parodying " Sam's Song ", a contemporary hit for Bing Crosby and his son Gary . The single sold poorly and when Sherman wrote his autobiography, he did not mention it. Later, he found that the song parodies he performed to amuse his friends and family were taking on

1056-576: A B.A. in Speech and Drama. Poor eyesight and asthma prevented Fenneman from military action in World War II. Fenneman became a broadcast correspondent for the U.S. Office of War Information , where he met Jack Webb , a fellow staff announcer who would later hire him for Webb's Dragnet radio and TV series. Fenneman's work in the Army included announcing the wartime service show Sound Off! . In

1188-537: A Secret , which was broadcast live, he showed a fondness for large-scale stunts that teetered on the brink of disaster. He once released 100 rabbits onstage as an Easter surprise for the Madison Square Boys Club , whose members were seated in the studio. The boys were invited to come up onstage to collect their prize. Although the resultant melee made a good story, it did not necessarily make for good television. Fates saw that host Garry Moore , "who

1320-456: A Symphony", spotlighting Arthur Fiedler 's Boston Pops Orchestra , reached #113 on the "Bubbling Under" chart in 1964, but did not make the Hot 100. The songs on Sherman's next album My Name Is Allan (1965) were thematically connected: except for a couple of original novelty songs with music by Sherman and Busch, all the songs on the album are parodies of songs that had won, or were nominated for,

1452-536: A boy describes his summer camp experiences to the tune of Ponchielli 's Dance of the Hours . Sherman was born on November 30, 1924, in Chicago , Illinois , to Percy Copelon and Rose Sherman. Percy was an auto mechanic and race car driver from Birmingham, Alabama who suffered from obesity (he weighed over 350 pounds) and died while attempting a 100-day diet. Sherman's family was Jewish . His parents divorced when he

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1584-514: A celebrity panel offered advice to contestants about how to handle personal problems. In 1966 he hosted two pilot episodes for Crossword , a game show that would be renamed The Cross-Wits in 1975 and aired with Jack Clark as host. Fenneman formed the "George Fenneman Productions (Ltd.)" commercial production company in 1962. His first client was the Douglas Fir Plywood Association. He also created commercials for

1716-584: A chamber pot. We have 'Research on Why Men Have Beards and Women Don't,' 'A Telegram from the Thunder God to His Mother Resigning His Post,' and 'A Public Notice from the King of Whoring Prohibiting Playboys from Skipping Debts.'" Jorge Luis Borges 's (1939) short story " Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote ", is often regarded as predicting postmodernism and conceiving the ideal of the ultimate parody. In

1848-470: A critique or commentary upon it. In Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. , the Supreme Court ruled that a rap parody of " Oh, Pretty Woman " by 2 Live Crew was fair use, as the parody was a distinctive, transformative work designed to ridicule the original song, and that "even if 2 Live Crew's copying of the original's first line of lyrics and characteristic opening bass riff may be said to go to

1980-530: A different, often incongruous, context. Musical parodies may imitate or refer to the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. For example, "The Ritz Roll and Rock", a song and dance number performed by Fred Astaire in the movie Silk Stockings , parodies the rock and roll genre. Conversely, while the best-known work of "Weird Al" Yankovic is based on particular popular songs, it also often utilises wildly incongruous elements of pop culture for comedic effect. The first usage of

2112-509: A famous example of which is the Silloi by Pyrrhonist philosopher Timon of Phlius which parodied philosophers living and dead. The style was a rhetorical mainstay of the Cynics and was the most common tone of the works made by Menippus and Meleager of Gadara . In the 2nd century CE, Lucian of Samosata created a parody of travel texts such as Indica and The Odyssey . He described

2244-651: A glutton and the God of Drama Dionysus as cowardly and unintelligent. The traditional trip to the Underworld story is parodied as Dionysus dresses as Heracles to go to the Underworld, in an attempt to bring back a poet to save Athens. The Ancient Greeks created satyr plays which parodied tragic plays , often with performers dressed like satyrs . Parody was used in early Greek philosophical texts to make philosophical points. Such texts are known as spoudaiogeloion ,

2376-423: A good lawyer" Fenneman said. "Instead of the usual residuals, I get a percentage of the gross revenues (from You Bet Your Life )". Fenneman also received residual payments for Dragnet . "Every time you see the show and hear me say 'The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent', I get a paycheck. A small one, but they add up". Oft-repeated statements that Fenneman

2508-443: A huge shipment of old film prints from an NBC warehouse. Producer John Guedel, anxious to see if there was still a market for the show, sold it on a trial basis to a local station for less than $ 50 for each night. The show became an instant success, prompting Guedel to send the reruns into syndication almost immediately. George Fenneman remained friends with Marx until the latter's death in 1977. During that year, Fenneman recalled he

2640-524: A lack of independence while embracing codependency . In Flann O'Brien 's novel At Swim-Two-Birds , for example, mad King Sweeney , Finn MacCool , a pookah , and an assortment of cowboys all assemble in an inn in Dublin : the mixture of mythic characters, characters from genre fiction, and a quotidian setting combine for a humor that is not directed at any of the characters or their authors. This combination of established and identifiable characters in

2772-642: A larger audience. Sherman wrote his parody lyrics in collaboration with Lou Busch . A few of the Sherman/Busch songs are completely original creations, featuring original music as well as lyrics, rather than new lyrics applied to an existing melody. However, Sherman had trouble in getting permission to record for profit from some well-known composers and lyricists, who did not tolerate parodies or satires of their melodies and lyrics, including Irving Berlin , Richard Rodgers , Ira Gershwin , Meredith Willson , Alan Jay Lerner , and Frederick Loewe , as well as

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2904-435: A legend. I was 30 years old and working with this man who was 60 at the time, who'd been the biggest star of all the media". It was customary practice, established in radio, for a successful network series to take the summer months off and return in the fall. A summer-replacement series, usually a musical or comedy half-hour, would fill the established time slot for 13 weeks until the parent program returned. You Bet Your Life

3036-512: A life of their own. Sherman lived in the Brentwood section of West Los Angeles next door to Harpo Marx , who invited him to perform his song parodies at parties attended by Marx's show-biz friends. After one party, George Burns phoned an executive at Warner Bros. Records and persuaded him to sign Sherman to a contract. The result was an LP of these parodies, My Son, the Folk Singer , released in 1962. It sold over one million copies, and

3168-605: A live studio audience – or in the case of Live, Hoping You Are the Same , recorded during a Las Vegas performance – but Togetherness was purely a studio recording, and the lack of an audience and their response affected the result, as did the nondescript backup singers and studio orchestra. On November 13, 1965, Sherman made a rare primetime television acting appearance in "The Sheriff of Fetterman's Crossing," an episode of Rod Serling's short-lived Western series The Loner (1965–1966). Sherman played Walton Peterson Tetley,

3300-405: A local schnook who went off to war and rose to regiment cook before returning home a hero, thanks to tall tales and yarn-spinning. The town hails its conquering hero and Tetley is appointed sheriff. Series star Lloyd Bridges as William Colton, a wandering Union veteran, comes to town and signs on to be Tetley's deputy, discovering quickly his boss' utter incompetence in the office. Tetley receives

3432-446: A local Emmy award in 1974. Fenneman was the announcer for a number of radio shows, including Pete Kelly's Blues , The Orson Welles Show , The Eddie Albert Show and The Hedda Hopper Show . He was also an announcer on television shows as well, including The Life of Riley , The Jim Nabors Hour and The Donny & Marie Show . He was also an announcer on the radio program Go Navy! The Navy Swings . Fenneman described

3564-404: A minor character (Fenneman). The scene was "the most difficult to shoot" in the science fiction film. Fellow cast member Kenneth Tobey said "George didn't even know what he was talking about, and it took him thirty takes to get through the speech". As a radio performer accustomed to reading from a script and not used to quick memorization, Fenneman stumbled over the technical gobbledegook ("We have

3696-445: A moment, the results of that trial. Now, here is our star, Jack Webb , for (sponsor)". (Webb frequently took the cue with "Thank you, George" or "Thank you, George Fenneman," as Fenneman was not identified in the show's credits, which were read by Gibney and ended with "Hal Gibney speaking".) He was the principal commercial announcer for the radio version of Gunsmoke , and frequently introduced "Matt Dillon" ( William Conrad ) after

3828-466: A natural development in the life cycle of any genre ; this idea has proven especially fruitful for genre film theorists. Such theorists note that Western movies , for example, after the classic stage defined the conventions of the genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those same conventions were ridiculed and critiqued. Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns, they had expectations for any new Westerns, and when these expectations were inverted,

3960-481: A naturally good voice". One day, Fenneman met Dwan at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles during his lunch hour. Dwan told Fenneman to immediately go to a studio where auditions were being held for a new Groucho Marx program. Dwan said Fenneman's demeanor made him the perfect straight man for the show. Initially hired for $ 55 per week, Fenneman's salary reportedly grew to "more than $ 50,000 per year". Dwan said "He

4092-412: A new setting is not the same as the post-modernist trope of using historical characters in fiction out of context to provide a metaphoric element. Sometimes the reputation of a parody outlasts the reputation of what is being parodied. For example, Don Quixote , which mocks the traditional knight errant tales, is much better known than the novel that inspired it, Amadis de Gaula (although Amadis

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4224-719: A parody of You Bet Your Life , on the broadcast of October 14, 1952, "Groucho Martin" (Dean Martin) asks Fenneman to remind listeners about how "the other couple" is doing. Fenneman said "The sponsor and the sponsor's wife are way ahead with eighteen million dollars". Fenneman also hosted many game shows: in 1953, Your Claim To Fame , a panel quiz show sponsored by the Regal Amber Brewing Company of San Francisco, Anybody Can Play in 1958 with Dolores Reed, The Perfect Husband , Who In The World and Your Surprise Package in 1961. Fenneman hosted an un-aired pilot episode of Take My Advice , an NBC game show where

4356-445: A parody, pastiche is neither transformative of the original work, nor is it humorous. Literary critic Fredric Jameson has referred to the pastiche as a "blank parody", or "parody that has lost its sense of humor". Skits imitate works "in a satirical regime". But unlike travesties, skits do not transform the source material. The burlesque primarily targets heroic poems and theater to degrade popular heroes and gods, as well as mock

4488-420: A pre-existing, copyrighted work, some countries have ruled that parodies can fall under copyright limitations such as fair dealing , or otherwise have fair dealing laws that include parody in their scope. Parodies are protected under the fair use doctrine of United States copyright law , but the defense is more successful if the usage of an existing copyrighted work is transformative in nature, such as being

4620-544: A radio announcer and actor at KGO (AM) , increasing his salary to $ 55 per week. His first acting role on the station was the early California bandit Joaquin Murrieta in the production Golden Days . Returning to broadcasting in 1946 following World War II, he moved to Los Angeles. "I figured if you're going to be in this business, you've got to be in southern California". In 1948, the George Fenneman Show

4752-409: A reworking of one kind of composition into another (for example, a motet into a keyboard work as Girolamo Cavazzoni , Antonio de Cabezón , and Alonso Mudarra all did to Josquin des Prez motets ). More commonly, a parody mass ( missa parodia ) or an oratorio used extensive quotation from other vocal works such as motets or cantatas ; Victoria , Palestrina , Lassus , and other composers of

4884-515: A satire is meant to make fun of the real world, whereas a parody is a derivative of a specific work ("specific parody") or a general genre ("general parody" or "spoof"). Furthermore, satires are provocative and critical as they point to a specific vice associated with an individual or a group of people to mock them into correction or as a form of punishment. In contrast, parodies are more focused on producing playful humor and do not always attack or criticize its targeted work and/or genre. Of course, it

5016-544: A satirical comedy about Adolf Hitler with the film The Great Dictator , following the first-ever Hollywood parody of the Nazis, the Three Stooges ' short subject You Nazty Spy! . About 20 years later Mel Brooks started his career with a Hitler parody as well. After his 1967 film The Producers won both an Academy Award and a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay, Brooks became one of

5148-430: A serious film, but decided that it would not be able to compete with the established series of Bond films. Hence, he decided to parody the series. Kenneth Baker considered poetic parody to take five main forms. A further, more constructive form of poetic parody is one that links the contemporary poet with past forms and past masters through affectionate parodying – thus sharing poetic codes while avoiding some of

5280-575: A short period at least, he was culturally ubiquitous. He sang on and guest-hosted The Tonight Show , was involved in the production of Bill Cosby 's first three albums, appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade , and sang "The Dropouts' March" on the March 6, 1964, edition of the NBC satirical program That Was The Week That Was . Also in 1964, Sherman narrated his own version of Prokofiev 's Peter and

5412-489: A substitute for the show's stuffed duck that was dropped from overhead with a $ 100 payoff in its beak when a contestant said the secret word during every episode. Fenneman's wife said "Everyone had told Groucho 47 times before the show, 'Don't touch him', so George came down, and Groucho immediately came over and pushed him; and he turned upside down. He was absolutely terrified". Fenneman said of working with Marx, "I can't impress on you too much what it meant to be working with

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5544-528: A television series in Melbourne, Victoria, for a live audience. During the performance, he sang a parody of "Molly Malone." It included a play on the word "but" (butt) which did not elicit a laugh. What Sherman did not know is that Australians use the word "bum" where Americans would say "butt" (although usage of the word "butt" has since become widespread in Australia). Otherwise, Sherman was well received by

5676-428: A threatening note from a gunslinger challenging this purported hero to a gunfight when he arrives on the noon stage, at which point the story becomes a parody of iconic Western movie High Noon (1952). Colton sets to teaching the shivering-in-his-boots sheriff courage and gunmanship. Sherman's semi-serious and sympathetic performance was strong and his presence an affable one. In 1966, Sherman visited Australia. He did

5808-550: A time and moved into the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital for a short time to lose weight. He died while entertaining his friends during the night of November 20, 1973, at his home in Los Angeles , California , ten days shy of his 49th birthday. According to sheriff's officers, Sherman, who had been undergoing treatment for emphysema , asthma , and obesity , died of respiratory failure . He

5940-411: A week to start. Groucho frequently encouraged contestants to bet odd amounts, making the arithmetic difficult to keep straight on the fly during a live show. Dwan said "Groucho had a tendency to get them (the show's contestants) to bet odd amounts, like $ 17.36. So George had a bit of a task". Fenneman said he was " a spring-board of interplay" between him and Marx. "I was the foil for a lot of his wit. It

6072-607: A work for humorous or satirical effect. See also Fair dealing in United Kingdom law . Some countries do not like parodies and the parodies can be considered insulting. The person who makes the parody can be fined or even jailed. For instance in the UAE and North Korea, this is not allowed. Parody is a prominent genre in online culture, thanks in part to the ease with which digital texts may be altered, appropriated, and shared. Japanese kuso and Chinese e'gao are emblematic of

6204-452: A year off-off-Broadway ; other productions ran Off-Broadway for four months in 2001 and toured in 2003. A children's book based on the song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh", with illustrations by Syd Hoff , was published in 2004. On March 14, 2006, National Public Radio profiled Sherman on All Things Considered . In 2010, eight of Allan Sherman's Warner Records albums were individually released on CD: Sherman's son, Robert, later became

6336-670: A young girl. During his brief heyday, Sherman's parodies were so popular that he had at least one contemporary imitator: My Son the Copycat was an album of song parodies performed by Stanley Ralph Ross , co-written by Ross and Bob Arbogast . Lest there be any doubt of whom Ross is copying, his album's cover bears a crossed-out photo of Sherman. One of the songs on this album is a fat man's lament, "I'm Called Little Butterball", parodying "I'm Called Little Buttercup" from Gilbert and Sullivan 's operetta HMS Pinafore . Sherman would later parody this same song as "Little Butterball" – with

6468-411: Is a minimal parody , the one that literally reprises a known text and gives it a new meaning. Blank parody, in which an artist takes the skeletal form of an art work and places it in a new context without ridiculing it, is common. Pastiche is a closely related genre , and parody can also occur when characters or settings belonging to one work are used in a humorous or ironic way in another, such as

6600-634: Is a 1989 film parody from Spain of the TV series The A-Team called El equipo Aahhgg directed by José Truchado. More recently, parodies have taken on whole film genres at once. One of the first was Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood and the Scary Movie franchise. Other recent genre parodies include. Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The 13th , Not Another Teen Movie , Date Movie , Epic Movie , Meet

6732-419: Is clearly aimed at a popular (and usually lucrative) subject. The spy film craze of the 1960s, fuelled by the popularity of James Bond is such an example. In this genre a rare, and possibly unique, example of a parody film taking aim at a non-comedic subject over which it actually holds copyright is the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale . In this case, producer Charles K. Feldman initially intended to make

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6864-528: Is entombed in Culver City, California 's Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery . Sherman was the inspiration for a new generation of developing parodists such as "Weird Al" Yankovic , who pays homage to Sherman on the cover of his first LP . Sherman's hit song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" has been translated into other languages. In one notable example, the Dutch–Swedish poet Cornelis Vreeswijk translated

6996-455: Is mentioned in the book). Another case is the novel Shamela by Henry Fielding (1742), which was a parody of the gloomy epistolary novel Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) by Samuel Richardson . Many of Lewis Carroll 's parodies of Victorian didactic verse for children, such as " You Are Old, Father William ", are much better known than the (largely forgotten) originals. Stella Gibbons 's comic novel Cold Comfort Farm has eclipsed

7128-405: Is not required under law to get permission to parody; as a personal rule, however, he does seek permission to parody a person's song before recording it. Several artists, such as rapper Chamillionaire and Seattle-based grunge band Nirvana stated that Yankovic's parodies of their respective songs were excellent, and many artists have considered being parodied by him to be a badge of honor. In

7260-408: Is often used to make a social or political statement. Examples include Swift 's " A Modest Proposal ", which satirized English neglect of Ireland by parodying emotionally disengaged political tracts; and, recently, The Daily Show , The Larry Sanders Show and The Colbert Report , which parody a news broadcast and a talk show to satirize political and social trends and events. On the other hand,

7392-424: Is possible for a parody to maintain satiric elements without crossing into satire itself, as long as its "light verse with modest aspirations" ultimately dominates the work. A travesty imitates and transforms a work, but focuses more on the satirization of it. Because satire is meant to attack someone or something, the harmless playfulness of parody is lost. A pastiche imitates a work as a parody does, but unlike

7524-582: Is protection for Fair Dealing , there is no explicit protection for parody and satire. In Canwest v. Horizon , the publisher of the Vancouver Sun launched a lawsuit against a group which had published a pro- Palestinian parody of the paper. Alan Donaldson, the judge in the case, ruled that parody is not a defence to a copyright claim. As of the implementation of the Copyright Modernization Act 2012, "Fair dealing for

7656-418: Is set against the original. The Oxford English Dictionary , for example, defines parody as imitation "turned as to produce a ridiculous effect". Because par- also has the non-antagonistic meaning of beside , "there is nothing in parodia to necessitate the inclusion of a concept of ridicule." In Greek Old Comedy even the gods could be made fun of. The Frogs portrays the hero-turned-god Heracles as

7788-572: Is the voice of the US Naval Observatory Master Clock or the National Institute of Standards and Technology 's radio station WWV are untrue. Those announcements were actually performed by Fred Covington (1928–1993). Fenneman played Buzz, the co-pilot on the radio show I Fly Anything , a radio adventure drama, broadcast on ABC from November 29, 1950, until July 19, 1951. He appeared on screen in

7920-468: The Academy Award for Best Song . They included " That Old Black Magic ", " Secret Love ", " The Continental ", " Chim Chim Cher-ee " and " Call Me Irresponsible ". The cover of the album bore a childhood photograph of Sherman. That, and the album's title, were references to Barbra Streisand 's album My Name Is Barbra , released earlier that year, which featured a cover photograph of the singer as

8052-617: The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 , now provides an exception to infringement where there is fair dealing of the original work for the purpose of parody (or alternatively for the purpose of caricature or pastiche). The legislation does not define what is meant by "parody", but the UK IPO ;– the Intellectual Property Office (United Kingdom)  – suggests that a "parody" is something that imitates

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8184-507: The Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon . Parody generators are computer programs which generate text that is syntactically correct , but usually meaningless , often in the style of a technical paper or a particular writer. They are also called travesty generators and random text generators. Their purpose is often satirical , intending to show that there is little difference between the generated text and real examples. Parody

8316-680: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a fair use defense in the Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. Penguin Books case. Citing the Campbell v. Acuff-Rose decision, they found that a satire of the O.J. Simpson murder trial and parody of The Cat in the Hat had infringed upon the children's book because it did not provide a commentary function upon that work. Under Canadian law , although there

8448-489: The Paper Mate pen company. He was the commercial spokesman for Lipton Tea during much of the 1960s, and in that role appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show when The Beatles made their second U.S. TV appearance on February 16, 1964. The entire episode (including commercials) had been taped at Miami Beach, Florida's Hotel Deauville prior to broadcast. Fenneman also recorded commercials for Philip Morris. From 1978 to

8580-750: The Scott Paper Company for distribution to its vendors and customers. It consisted of the tracks "Makin' Coffee" (a parody of " Makin' Whoopee "), "Vending Machines", "There Are Cups", "That's How the Change Is Made", "The Wonderful Tree in the Forest" and "Scott Cups". Sherman also created a group of eight "public education" radio spots for Encron carpet fibers, singing their praises to the tunes of old public-domain songs. Entitled Allan Sherman Pours It On for Carpets Made with Encron Polyester , it featured an introduction by Sherman and comprised

8712-479: The anxiety of influence . More aggressive in tone are playground poetry parodies, often attacking authority, values and culture itself in a carnivalesque rebellion: "Twinkle, Twinkle little star,/ Who the hell do you think you are?" A subset of parody is self-parody in which artists parody their own work (as in Ricky Gervais 's Extras ). Although a parody can be considered a derivative work of

8844-530: The 16th century used this technique. The term is also sometimes applied to procedures common in the Baroque period , such as when Bach reworks music from cantatas in his Christmas Oratorio . The musicological definition of the term parody has now generally been supplanted by a more general meaning of the word. In its more contemporary usage, musical parody usually has humorous, even satirical intent, in which familiar musical ideas or lyrics are lifted into

8976-562: The 1910s and 1920s, writers in China's entertainment market parodied anything and everything.... They parodied speeches, advertisements, confessions, petitions, orders, handbills, notices, policies, regulations, resolutions, discourses, explications, sutras, memorials to the throne, and conference minutes. We have an exchange of letters between the Queue and the Beard and Eyebrows. We have a eulogy for

9108-401: The 1951 film The Thing from Another World as "Dr. Redding", Fenneman was a neighbor of The Thing from Another World ' s director, Christian Nyby . A spontaneous on-set script revision convinced Fenneman his future was not in movie acting. Producer Howard Hawks took a long scientific speech away from Robert O. Cornthwaite 's character Dr. Carrington, preferring to give exposition to

9240-608: The British Invasion, surmised in 2021 that Sherman had been doomed to lose momentum anyway and could not blame the Invasion for his career decline (even as "Crazy Downtown" was a top-40 hit for him). Sherman was often tapped to produce specialty song parodies for corporations. An album of six paper-cup and vending machine related songs, titled Music to Dispense With , was created for the Container Division of

9372-598: The Hours . That December, Sherman's " The Twelve Gifts of Christmas " single appeared on Billboard ' s separate Christmas chart. Sherman had one other Top 40 hit, a 1965 take-off on the Petula Clark hit " Downtown " called " Crazy Downtown ", which spent one week at #40. Two other Sherman singles charted in the lower regions of the Billboard 100: an updated "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh" (#59 in 1964), and "The Drinking Man's Diet" (#98 in 1965). Sherman's "The End of

9504-546: The Name", "Why They Call It Encron" (to the tune of " Let Me Call You Sweetheart "), "Encron, Encron" (to the tune of " Daisy Bell ") and "Encron Is a Great New Fiber" (to the tune of "Take Me to the Fair"). Sherman's career success was short-lived: after peaking in 1963, his popularity declined rather quickly. After the assassination of John F. Kennedy , the public taste for Sherman's type of comedy lessened. Beginning in 1964, Sherman

9636-597: The Spartans , Superhero Movie , Disaster Movie , Vampires Suck , and The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It , all of which have been critically panned. Many parody films have as their target out-of-copyright or non-copyrighted subjects (such as Frankenstein or Robin Hood) whilst others settle for imitation which does not infringe copyright, but

9768-541: The US legal system the point that in most cases a parody of a work constitutes fair use was upheld in the case of Rick Dees , who decided to use 29 seconds of the music from the song When Sonny Gets Blue to parody Johnny Mathis ' singing style even after being refused permission. An appeals court upheld the trial court's decision that this type of parody represents fair use. Fisher v. Dees 794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986) Some genre theorists , following Bakhtin , see parody as

9900-572: The Wolf in a live concert at Tanglewood with the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler . The concert, which was released by RCA Victor Red Seal as the album Peter and the Commissar , also included "Variations on ' How Dry I Am '", with Sherman as conductor , and "The End of a Symphony". In "Variations", Fiedler was the guest soloist, providing solo hiccups. In 2004, Collector's Choice reissued

10032-763: The advantages of a new parody exception were sufficient to override the disadvantages to the creators and owners of the underlying work. There is therefore no proposal to change the current approach to parody, caricature and pastiche in the UK." However, following the Hargreaves Review in May 2011 (which made similar proposals to the Gowers Review) the Government broadly accepted these proposals. The current law (effective from 1 October 2014), namely Section 30A of

10164-537: The audience laughed. An early parody film was the 1922 movie Mud and Sand , a Stan Laurel film that made fun of Rudolph Valentino 's film Blood and Sand . Laurel specialized in parodies in the mid-1920s, writing and acting in a number of them. Some were send-ups of popular films, such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde —parodied in the comic Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1926). Others were spoofs of Broadway plays, such as No, No, Nanette (1925), parodied as Yes, Yes, Nanette (1925). In 1940 Charlie Chaplin created

10296-432: The audience. Afterward, he met with some of his fans and signed at least one autograph. In 1969, Sherman wrote the book and lyrics – with music by Albert Hague  – for The Fig Leaves Are Falling , a flop Broadway musical that ran only four performances, despite direction by George Abbott and a cast that included Barry Nelson , Dorothy Loudon , and David Cassidy . Still creative, in 1973, Sherman published

10428-486: The audition as the radio show's announcer in 1947. Fenneman stayed with the show when it moved to television in 1950, on NBC where it remained for 11 years. Fenneman was known as "Groucho Marx's man Friday, who helps him on Wednesdays (on radio) and Thursdays (on TV)". Fenneman's mellifluous voice, clean-cut good looks, and gentlemanly manner provided the ideal foil for Marx's zany antics and bawdy ad libs. Robert "Bob" Dwan, director of You Bet Your Life said 'He had

10560-520: The authors of such accounts as liars who had never traveled, nor ever talked to any credible person who had. In his ironically named book True History Lucian delivers a story which exaggerates the hyperbole and improbable claims of those stories. Sometimes described as the first science fiction , the characters travel to the Moon, engage in interplanetary war with the help of aliens they meet there, and then return to Earth to experience civilization inside

10692-537: The broader sense of Greek parodia , parody can occur when whole elements of one work are lifted out of their context and reused, not necessarily to be ridiculed. Traditional definitions of parody usually only discuss parody in the stricter sense of something intended to ridicule the text it parodies. There is also a broader, extended sense of parody that may not include ridicule, and may be based on many other uses and intentions. The broader sense of parody, parody done with intent other than ridicule, has become prevalent in

10824-488: The case of the moralistic melodramas in the 1910s, it retains value only as a parody, as demonstrated by the Buster Keaton shorts that mocked that genre. A parody may also be known as a spoof , a satire , a send-up , a take-off , a lampoon , a play on ( something ), or a caricature . According to Aristotle ( Poetics , ii. 5), Hegemon of Thasos was the inventor of a kind of parody; by slightly altering

10956-528: The central and most representative artistic device, the catalysing agent of artistic creation and innovation. This most prominently happened in the second half of the century with postmodernism , but earlier modernism and Russian formalism had anticipated this perspective. For the Russian formalists, parody was a way of liberation from the background text that enables to produce new and autonomous artistic forms. Historian Christopher Rea writes that "In

11088-471: The college newspaper. He was expelled for breaking into the Sigma Delta Tau sorority house with his girlfriend and future wife, Dolores "Dee" Chackes. Sherman devised a game show with comedy writer Howard Merrill he intended to call I Know a Secret . Television producer Mark Goodson adapted Sherman's idea into I've Got a Secret , which ran on CBS from 1952 to 1967. Rather than paying him for

11220-416: The common tropes within the genre. Simon Dentith has described this type of parody as "parodic anti-heroic drama". A parody imitates and mocks a specific, recognizable work (e.g. a book, movie, etc.) or the characteristic style of a particular author. A spoof mocks an entire genre by exaggerating its conventions and cliches for humorous effect. In classical music , as a technical term, parody refers to

11352-464: The complete RCA Victor album on CD. Sherman's later albums grew more pointedly satirical and less light-hearted, skewering protesting students ("The Rebel"), consumer debt ("A Waste of Money", based on " A Taste of Honey "), and the generation gap ("Crazy Downtown" and "Pop Hates the Beatles "). It was for this reason that Ken Barnes, when attempting to analyze American music acts that were harmed by

11484-492: The concept, Mark Goodson- Bill Todman Productions made Sherman the show's producer; Merrill was paid a royalty and withdrew from the project. "You couldn't help but be fond of Allan, as long as you didn't have to work with him," recalled Goodson-Todman executive Gil Fates . "Notice I said with him. He was always kind and understanding to those who worked for him." Sherman clashed with anyone who disagreed with his ideas or tried to restrain his creativity. As producer of I've Got

11616-742: The controversial The Rape of the A*P*E* , which detailed his point of view on American Puritanism and the sexual revolution . In 1971, Sherman was the voice of Dr. Seuss 's The Cat in the Hat for the animated television special . He reprised the role for Dr. Seuss on the Loose , his last project before his death. In his final years, Sherman's alcoholism and weight gain caused severe deterioration of his health; he later developed diabetes and struggled with lung disease . In 1966, his wife Dee filed for divorce and received full custody of their son and daughter. Sherman lived on unemployment benefits for

11748-506: The early part of World War II, he and college classmate Bob Sweeney formed a stand-up comedy team and entertained troops at military bases. In 1941, Fenneman was hired by KSFO (AM) radio for $ 35 per week. He immediately found himself hosting the show Lunch at the Top of the Mark . The 22-year-old Fenneman's first interview that day was the actor Boris Karloff . In 1942, Fenneman took a job as

11880-411: The end of his life in 1995, Fenneman was both the public relations spokesperson and commercial announcer for the Los Angeles, California Home Savings & Loan . In 1963, he hosted an ABC television program called Your Funny, Funny Films , a precursor to America's Funniest Home Videos . He was also host of a highly regarded KCET-TV program, On Campus . On January 14, 1964, Fenneman hosted

12012-565: The episode to extoll the virtues of L&M or Chesterfield cigarettes. Fenneman narrated The Simpsons season 5 episode "Marge on the Lam" broadcast on November 4, 1993. The episode's closing sequence is a reference to Dragnet . Fenneman recorded the episode's ending in a Dragnet -style summation of the three principal characters' fate. Fenneman purchased a 10 percent interest in the You Bet Your Life production company. "I had

12144-532: The estates of Lorenz Hart , Oscar Hammerstein , Kurt Weill , George Gershwin and Bertolt Brecht , which prevented him from releasing parodies or satires of their songs. In the late 1950s, Sherman was inspired by a recording of a nightclub musical show called My Fairfax Lady , a parody of My Fair Lady set in the Jewish section of Los Angeles that was performed at Billy Gray 's Band Box. Sherman then wrote his own song parodies of My Fair Lady , which appeared as

12276-418: The film, he portrayed the host of a new television show who is introduced as "George Fenneman". He is credited at the end as "TV Announcer". Fenneman married his college sweetheart, Margaret "Peggy" Jane Clifford in 1943. They had three children. He died from respiratory failure at his home in Los Angeles, California , on May 29, 1997, at the age of 77. Fenneman's body was cremated, and the location of ashes

12408-480: The first Magilla Gorilla cartoon. The show ended with the completed premiere episode of the cartoon. In 1974, Fenneman co-hosted Talk About Pictures , an Emmy Award-winning program created by Life magazine photographer Leigh Wiener. The show featured a wide-ranging cross-section of photographers and photography collectors including Ansel Adams , Alfred Eisenstaedt and Graham Nash . 130 episodes were broadcast on NBC 's Los Angeles affiliate KNBC . The show won

12540-478: The half-hour special, Here Comes a Star . During the special, Fenneman led the audience on a tour of the then brand new Hanna-Barbera Animation Studio on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood, California. Fenneman interviewed Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera as they readied their newest cartoon show The Magilla Gorilla Show . The show featured story artists, layout men, animators, inkers and painters putting together

12672-548: The importance of parody in online cultures in Asia. Video mash-ups and other parodic memes , such as humorously altered Chinese characters, have been particularly popular as a tool for political protest in the People's Republic of China, the government of which maintains an extensive censorship apparatus. Chinese internet slang makes extensive use of puns and parodies on how Chinese characters are pronounced or written, as illustrated in

12804-458: The material of high literature and adapts it to low ends"). Meanwhile, the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot distinguishes between the parody and the burlesque, "A good parody is a fine amusement, capable of amusing and instructing the most sensible and polished minds; the burlesque is a miserable buffoonery which can only please the populace." Historically, when a formula grows tired, as in

12936-535: The modern parody of the 20th century. In the extended sense, the modern parody does not target the parodied text, but instead uses it as a weapon to target something else. The reason for the prevalence of the extended, recontextualizing type of parody in the 20th century is that artists have sought to connect with the past while registering differences brought by modernity . Major modernist examples of this recontextualizing parody include James Joyce 's Ulysses , which incorporates elements of Homer 's Odyssey in

13068-563: The most famous film parodists and created spoofs in multiple film genres. Blazing Saddles (1974) is a parody of western films, History of the World, Part I (1981) is a historical parody, Robin Hood Men in Tights (1993) is Brooks' take on the classic Robin Hood tale, and his spoofs in the horror, sci-fi and adventure genres include Young Frankenstein (1974), and Spaceballs (1987,

13200-482: The network and the sponsors was in and Allan was out." Sherman was replaced by associate producer Chester Feldman. Sherman also produced a short-lived 1954 game show, What's Going On ? , which was technologically ambitious, with studio guests interacting with multiple live cameras in remote locations. In 1961, he produced a daytime game show for Al Singer Productions called Your Surprise Package , which aired on CBS with host George Fenneman . In 1951, Sherman recorded

13332-415: The original sponsor removed or cropped out of the picture. Because the reruns had already been established as The Best of Groucho , the syndicated version took that title, and was very successful. Gradually the show fell out of fashion, as faster-paced game shows videotaped in color forced the old, leisurely black-and-white show off the air. The show remained a memory until 1975, when Groucho Marx accepted

13464-640: The original's 'heart,' that heart is what most readily conjures up the song for parody, and it is the heart at which parody takes aim." In 2001, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals , in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin , upheld the right of Alice Randall to publish a parody of Gone with the Wind called The Wind Done Gone , which told the same story from the point of view of Scarlett O'Hara 's slaves, who were glad to be rid of her. In 2007,

13596-445: The pastoral novels of Mary Webb which largely inspired it. In more recent times, the television sitcom 'Allo 'Allo! is perhaps better known than the drama Secret Army which it parodies. Some artists carve out careers by making parodies. One of the best-known examples is that of "Weird Al" Yankovic . His career of parodying other musical acts and their songs has outlasted many of the artists or bands he has parodied. Yankovic

13728-598: The purpose of research, private study, education, parody or satire does not infringe copyright." In 2006 the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property recommended that the UK should "create an exception to copyright for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche by 2008". Following the first stage of a two-part public consultation, the Intellectual Property Office reported that the information received "was not sufficient to persuade us that

13860-566: The same subject matter – on his album Allan in Wonderland . The song may have had more poignancy for Sherman, as he, unlike Stanley Ross, was genuinely overweight. Sherman also parodied Gilbert and Sullivan's "Titwillow" from The Mikado , in the song "The Bronx Bird-Watcher" (on My Son, the Celebrity ), as well as several other Gilbert and Sullivan songs . In 1965, Sherman published an autobiography, A Gift of Laughter , and, for

13992-569: The show as "a labor of love". Fenneman also narrated many commercial and industrial films including work for Lockheed Aviation and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California . Fenneman was one of a pair of announcers on Dragnet . He shared narration duties with Hal Gibney on radio and the original 1951 Dragnet television series , and then with John Stephenson when Dragnet returned to TV in 1967. It

14124-553: The song loosely into Swedish as "Brev från kolonien" (Letter from Summer Camp), which reached fourth on the Swedish popular music chart Svensktoppen in the summer of 1965 and is still popular in Sweden today. A Best of Allan Sherman CD was released in 1990, and a boxed set of most of his songs was released in 2005 under the title My Son, the Box . In 1992 a musical revue of his songs titled Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah ran for over

14256-453: The songs parodied on My Son, the Folk Singer were in the public domain , two of them, " Matilda " and " Water Boy "–parodied as "My Zelda" and " Seltzer Boy", respectively–were actually under copyright, and Sherman was sued for copyright infringement. In 1963's My Son, the Nut , Sherman's pointed parodies of classical and popular tunes dealt with automation in the workplace ("Automation", to

14388-406: The time of arrival on the seismograph..."), resulting in multiple takes of the scene. In the final film, viewers can see the other actors trying not to smile as Fenneman spouts the lines. In the 1950s, he made appearances in serialized science and nature themed segments on The Mickey Mouse Club , including a February 1957 appearance as Dr. Bill Richards, who undertakes a difficult expedition into

14520-555: The tracks "Encron Is a Brand New Fiber" (to the tune of the Michael Renzi- Jack Norworth - Nora Bayes hit " Shine On, Harvest Moon "), "Put Them All Together, They Spell Encron" (to the tune of Theodore Morse and E. Johnson Howard's "M-O-T-H-E-R"), "There's a Fiber Called Encron" (to the tune of William H. Hill's " There is a Tavern in the Town "), "Encron Alive, Alive-O" (to the tune of " Molly Malone "), "Encron's

14652-553: The transformation of minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Shakespeare 's drama Hamlet into the principal characters in a comedic perspective on the same events in the play (and film) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead . Similarly, Mishu Hilmy 's Trapped in the Netflix uses parody to deconstruct contemporary Netflix shows like Mad Men providing commentary through popular characters. Don Draper mansplaining about mansplaining, Luke Danes monologizing about

14784-464: The tune of " Fascination "), space travel ("Eight Foot Two, Solid Blue", to " Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue "), summer camp (" Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh ", to the tune of Dance of the Hours by Ponchielli ), the exodus from the city to the suburbs ("Here's to the Crabgrass", to the tune of " English Country Garden "), and his own bulky physique ("Hail to Thee, Fat Person", which claims his obesity

14916-760: The wilderness in The Secret Of Mystery Lake . Fenneman portrayed Randy Rambo in The Tom Ewell Show episode "The Prying Eye," broadcast on March 28, 1961. On October 20, 1966, he appeared as a newsman in "The Yegg Foes of Gotham", episode 48 of the Batman TV show. In 1967 Fenneman appeared in the film adaptation of the Broadway show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as himself. In

15048-733: The word parody in English cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is in Ben Jonson , in Every Man in His Humour in 1598: "A Parodie, a parodie! to make it absurder than it was." The next citation comes from John Dryden in 1693, who also appended an explanation, suggesting that the word was in common use, meaning to make fun of or re-create what you are doing. Since the 20th century, parody has been heightened as

15180-520: The wording in well-known poems he transformed the sublime into the ridiculous. In ancient Greek literature , a parodia was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of epics "but treating light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects". Indeed, the components of the Greek word are παρά para "beside, counter, against" and ᾠδή oide "song". Thus, the original Greek word παρῳδία parodia has sometimes been taken to mean "counter-song", an imitation that

15312-400: The writer and frequent parodist Vladimir Nabokov made a distinction: "Satire is a lesson, parody is a game." George Fenneman George Watt Fenneman (November 10, 1919 – May 29, 1997) was an American radio and television announcer. Fenneman is best remembered as the show announcer and straight man on Groucho Marx 's You Bet Your Life . Marx, said of Fenneman in 1976, "There never

15444-552: Was "Sarah Jackman" (pronounced "Jockman"), a takeoff of " Frère Jacques " in which he and a woman (Christine Nelson) exchange family gossip. The popularity of "Sarah Jackman" (as well as the album My Son, the Folk Singer ) was enhanced after President John F. Kennedy was overheard singing the song in the lobby of the Carlyle hotel. By his peak with My Son, the Nut in 1963, however, Sherman had broadened both his subject matter and his choice of parody material and begun to appeal to

15576-523: Was Fenneman's voice which announced, "The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent", while Stephenson would be heard at the end of the episode describing the court trials and verdicts. On radio, Fenneman also provided the intro to the finale (and last commercial): "On (date), trial was held in Department (number), Superior Court of the State of California. In

15708-589: Was a certified public accountant and worked in the import-export business. His mother was an author and a minister of the Divine Art of Living. When Fenneman was eight, he wrote and starred in his own drama before his neighborhood friends in the basement of his home. Fenneman grew up in San Francisco's West Portal district. Fenneman graduated from San Francisco Polytechnic High School . In 1942 he graduated from San Francisco State College with

15840-546: Was a comedian who was any good unless he had a good straight man, and George was straight on all four sides". Fenneman, born in Peking (Beijing), China , died from respiratory failure in Los Angeles, California, on May 29, 1997, at the age of 77. Fenneman was born in Peking (now Beijing), China , the only child of Edgar Warfield and Jessico "Jessie" (née Watt) Fenneman. He was an infant when his parents moved to San Francisco , California , where he grew up. Fenneman's father

15972-474: Was a public service similar to the Marshall Plan ). Six cartoon bears were printed on back of every album. One track from My Son, the Nut , a spoof of summer camp titled " Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh ", became a surprise novelty hit, reaching No. 2 on the national Billboard Hot 100 chart for three weeks in late summer 1963. The lyrics were sung to the tune of one segment of Ponchielli 's Dance of

16104-590: Was among many American acts whose sales were affected badly by the British Invasion (which Sherman skewered in the song "Pop Hates the Beatles", a spoof of " Pop! Goes the Weasel "). By 1965, Sherman had released two albums that did not make the Top 50 and in 1966, Warner Bros. Records dropped him from the roster. His last album for WB, Togetherness , was released in 1967 to poor reviews and poor sales. All of his previous releases had been recorded in front of

16236-503: Was awarded a gold disc . The album was very successful and was quickly followed by My Son, the Celebrity . Capitalizing on his success, in 1962 Jubilee Records re-released Sherman's 1951 single on the album More Folk Songs by Allan Sherman and His Friends , which compiled material by various Borscht Belt comedians such as Sylvia Froos, Fyvush Finkel and Lee Tully. Sherman's first two LPs were mainly reworkings of old folk songs to infuse them with Jewish humor. His first minor hit

16368-689: Was heard weekdays at 4:00 p.m. on KECA (AM) radio in Los Angeles. Fenneman was reported to be "one of the better radio voices". In 1948, Fenneman was an announcer for the Abbott and Costello radio show. He became the announcer on the Coca-Cola Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands , heard on over 168 radio stations on the NBC Blue Network . Fenneman is best remembered as the announcer and good-natured sidekick for Groucho Marx 's comedy/quiz show You Bet Your Life . He won

16500-411: Was left short of scripted material by seven minutes, and that Morgan filled the time by berating Sherman on-air. However, the episode in question does not run short; in fact. Morgan ends it abruptly and says they’ve run out of time. "The spot was not only a fiasco but also a catastrophe," recalled Fates. "That show was Goodson's last straw and Allan's last I've Got a Secret . Within hours the reaction from

16632-485: Was out on stage trying to protect the bunnies as best he could, realized that the spot was beyond salvage. Most of the kids gave back the rabbits." In his autobiography, A Gift of Laughter , Sherman writes that he was fired from I've Got a Secret in 1958, the night guest star Tony Curtis demonstrated childhood street games. First, Curtis had never even heard of the games Sherman wanted to stage, resulting in awkward re-enactments. Then, according to Sherman, Henry Morgan

16764-542: Was seven, and he adopted his mother's maiden name. Because his parents frequently moved to new residences, he attended 21 public schools in Chicago, New York , Los Angeles , and Miami . For his High School years, he attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles where he graduated in 1941. He later attended the University of Illinois , where he earned mostly "C" grades and contributed a humor column to The Daily Illini ,

16896-545: Was sheer trauma for me. I showed up every night and prayed". Fenneman was a resilient target of Marx's frequent mispronunciations of his name ("Feminine") and other light-hearted teasing. "Groucho called Fenneman the male Margaret Dumont ", according to Frank Ferrante , who portrayed Marx onstage in Groucho: A Life in Revue. "George took it as the highest praise. Groucho called him the perfect straight man". Fenneman said "I

17028-419: Was the first network TV series to continue into the summer months, with reruns of some of the previous season's better episodes. To inform the public that these summer broadcasts were repeats and not new programs, the summer show was titled The Best of Groucho . After You Bet Your Life ended its network run in 1961, NBC's syndication department prepared new versions of the 1950s shows, with all mentions of

17160-409: Was the gentleman, the nice fellow. Older ladies who would watch the show would see me as their son. Oh, the letters they used to write, castigating mean old Groucho for being cruel to that nice young man". When a young female contestant referred to Fenneman as "Mr. Fidderman", Marx ordered Fenneman onstage and accused him of leading a "double life". On one episode Fenneman was suspended in a harness as

17292-401: Was the perfect foil for Groucho. We didn't pick him for that reason, however. We picked him because he was very bright, someone who could keep track of the quiz score and do the math on the spot. George's main principle was that he didn't tell the jokes, no matter how good a reply he might have. He knew what his role was, and he was, above all, a gentleman". Fenneman got the job, and was paid $ 55

17424-502: Was walking a frail Groucho Marx back to his bed during one of his last visits and Marx quietly whispered "Fenneman, you always were a lousy dancer". Fenneman also announced the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Comedy Show , sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes. Fenneman said Martin and Lewis would shower him with sheet music or cut off his tie while he was on camera selling cigarettes. On one episode, Fenneman spoofed himself. During

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