October 27, 2009

Professor Irwin Corey screwed up the Soupy Sales funeral!

"Professor Irwin Corey had to be removed from the podium after his eulogy turned into a diatribe about health-care reform, in which he insisted that Soupy — along with Odetta, Eartha Kitt and Miriam Makeba — died prematurely because of inadequate treatment."

Maybe you don't care about Professor Irwin Corey — or Soupy Sales — but I do.

64 comments:

Shanna said...

WTF? What is wrong with people lately, arguing politics at a funeral.

wv: whince.

Automatic_Wing said...

Shame on Professor Irwin Corey. This kind of made up for it, though:

And a female rabbi told the crowd that Soupy's parents, Irving and Sadie Supman, the only Jewish family in Franklinton, NC, owned a dry-goods store and sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan.

I LOL'd.

MadisonMan said...

Someone should have hit him in the face with a pie.

MayBee said...

Eartha was 81.
Soupy was 85.
Odetta 77.
Miriam Makeba 76.

Not saying they were ready to die, but Obama is the guy who used to like to talk about expensive end-of-life care, and just taking the painkiller. Extending the lives of people already past the average life expectancy doesn't seem to be Obama's top priority.

Maybe it was a really twisted attempt at humor.

Ann Althouse said...

"Maybe it was a really twisted attempt at humor."

I bet it was, actually.

It seems like something he'd do.

BTW, Corey is 95 years old.

John said...

Leftists are just unmitigated jackasses. If I were one of Sales friends or family, I would have beaten the shit out of the little turd ball. What the hell is wrong with people?

J. Cricket said...

Separated at birth: Corey and Meade.

AllenS said...

It all started with the Wellstone funeral.

MayBee said...

I bet it was, actually.

I'm with you -it was a gag.
Maybe something Soupy would have enjoyed. A 95-year old man, worried about the youngsters.

traditionalguy said...

The blood flow to the brain gets reduced without expensive and risky artery surgery done to the neck area at 80+ years. They need to keep these guys from making fools of themselves in public. Too bad for Soupy Sales who tried so hard to entertain others that others cannot try hard and honor his last services.

Meade said...

Ha ha! Nice observation, Jerry Mathers.

And look... even at our advanced age, we're both still getting the girls!

Kansas City said...

Glad to see another post on my man Soupy. Not quite yet relegated to the dustbin of comedy history - which is where I thought Irwin Corey was.

I assume Corey must have been a friend of Soupy and that this must have been an attempt at humor. Hey, the guy is 95 years old and apparently still puts on shows and gets people to pay $10 to come in. Let's give him some credit.

My bet is that Soupy laughed. I wish it was on you tube.

Robert Cook said...

I suspect Prof. Corey was quite earnest in his remarks; he's a long-time left-wing activist and was a victim of the 1950s blacklisting.

Michael Haz said...

I didn't know that Irwin Corey was still alive. I remember watching him on black and white television when I was an early teen, usually in my Granddad's living room.

An off-camera voice would announce

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the World's Greatest Authority, Professor Irwin Corey!"

Corey would amble to the lecturn, looking confused and befuddled. Then he'd stare into the camera, clear his throat and gesture, pointing one arm up, with index finger extended and begin by proclaiming "However!" and launch into a lecture that soon had me on the floor, laughing, holding my ribs.

One decade later, my sophomore year roommate and I took some classes together at university. We would whisper "However!" to each other, every class day, when a pompous TA began his usual amble into a lecture in a philosophy class. We laughed every time.

I still think "However!" when I see a gasbag politician start to answer a question on television.

former law student said...

We should all listen to Corey -- his status as The World's Foremost Authority has gone unchallenged for decades.

Meade said...

Hey, Robert Cook,

Believe it or not, there *are* still one or two lefties left with a sense of humor.

Methadras said...

This is called Wellstone Syndrome. It strikes leftists at their most vulnerable time of grief.

Widmerpool said...

Christ, Cookie.

KCFleming said...

I have to give a eulogy tomorrow; my third in 6 months.

I'm gonna pull an Irwin Corey and rant about health care, too. They won't be able to pull me away however, because I plan to padlock myself to the podium.

Michael Haz said...

The dude was funny. Can't we just focus on that? Good Lord. Get a grip, it's just a comedian at his comedian buddy's funeral. Enjoy it for what it it, and dig that the dude is still doing standup at age 95.

If Henny Youngman arose from the dead, walked into a bar and said "Take my wife, please!", someone here would scream about how lefties view women.

Just laugh, for crying out loud.

rosebud said...

Did the KKK really purchase its sheets for the members? I'd've guessed each clansman had to bring their own.

reader_iam said...

Michael: Did you read the comments attached to the NY Post story? There's a joke there at which I'm certain you'll laugh. I sure did.

Michael Haz said...

@reader_iam Ribbit!

Rialby said...

"Irwin Corey was a target of blacklisting.."

It's a damn shame we couldn't have exported all of the Marxists to the Soviet Union before they took over our universities, indoctrinated our children and gave rise to the Obama administration

Robert Cook said...

???

Why the exaggerated faux-dismay? (That's a rhetorical question...I realize this is the default state for rightwingers.) I didn't suggest Prof. Corey had lost his sense of humor, and he may very well have had humorous intent in his eulogy, but that doesn't mean he wasn't also in earnest. One can be both humorous and serious...in fact, the best humorists usually are. I say Bravo to Prof. Corey for his remarks. (I notice no one seemed horrified at "John's" desire to "beat the shit out of the little turdball.")

Robert Cook said...

"It's a damn shame we couldn't have exported all of the Marxists to the Soviet Union before they took over our universities, indoctrinated our children and gave rise to the Obama administration."

THAT's real Americanism for you...deport all the folks you don't like!

michaele said...

I don't understand what the point of Prof. Corey's rant would have been. Everyone he cited was on Medicare so they were in the hands of gov't run healthcre already. Frankly, the only way the passing of Obamacare would have impacted those senior citizens would be in a negative way because of all the cuts in funding to Medicare that will probably take place.

Rialby said...

It's better than marching them into the killing fields as your fellow Leftists would do, no?

Widmerpool said...

Christ on a crutch, Cookie.

knox said...

Politics aside, it's only polite not to bring an "It's all about me!!!" spirit to one's eulogy.

Drew W said...

I remember seeing Prof. Irwin Corey on lots of entertainment shows in the ’60s and ’70s, but the one performance of his I wish I’d seen was in 1974, when a mischievous Thomas Pynchon sent Corey to accept his National Book Award for “Gravity’s Rainbow.”

Among Corey’s remarks was this: “Now Gravity’s Rainbow is a token of this man’s genius . . . he told me so himself.”

knox said...

... but then, comedians are a breed apart. So maybe Soupy would have approved.

Automatic_Wing said...

Since the old man actually had to be pulled off the podium, the whole thing was probably kind of awful and not very funny. Maybe he's gone senile or something.

Unknown said...

Ann Althouse --

"Maybe it was a really twisted attempt at humor."

I bet it was, actually.

Probably not. Watch him on youtube to see how bitter and twisted he's become.

BTW, Corey is 95 years old.

OK, he's an old asshole.

Nickname unavailable said...

Tex Antoine was missed at this service.

joated said...

Just wondering...But do you people even know the kind of convoluted illogical rambling that Professor Corey is/was known for? I'm sure that Soupy was indeed rolling in his coffin...in laughter! And, considering the ages of those named (as well as Corey's) it was a right good gag! (Although I like MadisonMan's suggestion at the top of these comments. It would have been perfect!)

Chris Arabia said...

This just in: Abe Vigoda is still alive.

knox said...

This post/thread has got me thinking... imagine when all the "Codys" and "Cobys" and "Coreys" of today are old men. Won't it be weird to have seniors with those sorts of names! Not to mention the "Britneys" and "Heathers." Creepy!

Cugel said...

I don't know this Corey fellow from Adam, but Soupy Sales was one funny fellow. He's probably too raunchy for Paradiso, but the hopeless in Inferno are probably experience a moment of "comic" relief.

Cugel said...

substitute "experiencing" for "experience" in my post above

Peter Hoh said...

Of course one could point out that Michael Jackson died prematurely because of too much treatment.

Methadras said...

Robert Cook said...

"It's a damn shame we couldn't have exported all of the Marxists to the Soviet Union before they took over our universities, indoctrinated our children and gave rise to the Obama administration."

THAT's real Americanism for you...deport all the folks you don't like!


It's Americanism when it's voluntary. I'd love to see you be the first to go on your own. Certainly your celebrity brethren haven't kept their promises. Cookie, you do understand the utter distaste, dislike, and animosity that real Americans have for leftism and leftists don't you? Your ilk are despised for what you are and what you represent. A belief in an ideology that is rooted in death, dismay, misery, supplication, and fealty to the state. Your ideology is anathema to the principals that make/made this country great because it wasn't your ideology that's for sure. So is it any wonder why you are perplexed by why real americans would want to see your kind leave this country to real Americans? You certainly aren't, but you sure do take advantage of it's goodness to promote your filthy ideology whenever you can and like real Americans we tolerate it. We don't like it, but we tolerate it. It would be better if you weren't here, but we tolerate it.

John Richardson said...

I never realized Soupy Sales was a Tar Heel born and a Tar Heel bred if not a Tar Heel dead.

You just learn something new every day!

FWIW there is a long history of Jewish dry-goods merchants (as well as Lebanese merchants) in small eastern North Carolina towns.

Eric said...

I don't understand what the point of Prof. Corey's rant would have been. Everyone he cited was on Medicare so they were in the hands of gov't run healthcre already.

Whenever it snowed my grandfather, who was well into his '80s, would get out the snowblower and do his own place as well as the neighbors on both sides. The neighbors were probably a year or two older than he was. When we asked him why he would say, with a twinkle, "I'd feel guilty leaving those old people to fend for themselves."

The whole thing sounds like a botched attempt at humor, as in "I'm so old to me it seems like Soupy was cut down in his youth". If so, then kudos to him for giving it a shot at his age. If he was serious then he's probably just gone senile and it's hard for me to get too upset.

J Lee said...

When it comes to funny old socialists, Al Lewis had it over Professor Corey hands down.

save_the_rustbelt said...

Corey is still alive?!?!?

Corey was funny in a weird way.

Soupy was very, very funny.

(Soupy used to do a lot of interviews on Detroit radio stations. He would do a bit, "give me a topic and I will tell ten jokes about that topic." Some would say "baseball" and Soupy would fire off ten baseball jokes. No one ever stumped him.)

Robert W. said...

We can only hope that the ghost of Natasha Richardson haunts the dopey "professor".

Remember the good old days when words like "professor" and "academic" actually connoted wisdom and intelligence?!

William said...

How could an outsider tell if Corey was doing his act or indulging in a senile rant?

Penny said...

"How could an outsider tell if Corey was doing his act or indulging in a senile rant?"

William, even the insiders couldn't tell for sure, but someone in charge made a decision to press the "OFF" button.

Except that these days...there really IS no "OFF" button. Hence this post and a dozen more to follow elsewhere.

Jeff with one 'f' said...

Wikipedia sez: "Corey became so synonymous with comic erudition that, when a Rhode Island TV station wanted a spokesman to explain changes in network affiliations, Corey got the job. Lecturing with pointer in hand, Corey manipulated magnetic signs to demonstrate how TV schedules would be disrupted. By the end of the announcement, the visual aids were in shambles and the professor, as usual, had meandered from his original point."

I think the Dems have found their new point man in the fight to socialize medicine...

Randy said...

From the link provided in Althouse's post:

Words of wisdom from the professor:
I would rather be a son of a bitch than a son of a BUSH!

mtrobertsattorney said...

I once took a course in Marxism at the University of Wisconsin and to this day I am unable to distinguish what I learned there from Professor Corey's "However" lectures.

Douglas2 said...

I detected a hole in my cultural knowledge. I looked to youtube for help. I did not find it there.
Would someone direct me to a good clip?

Penny said...

Sure, Doc. Over there. >>>>>>>

Well, that's just my favorite. If you don't like what you see there, go over here. <<<<<<<<

Methadras said...

mtrobertsattorney said...

I once took a course in Marxism at the University of Wisconsin and to this day I am unable to distinguish what I learned there from Professor Corey's "However" lectures.


Did you actually read Das Kapital? And if you did, what did you learn from it?

reader_iam said...

I once took a course in Marxism at the University of Wisconsin and to this day I am unable to distinguish what I learned there from Professor Corey's "However" lectures.


Great.

Now we're at the point where people claim, on behalf of their college educations, that they can't tell the difference between 1) Marx's "Das Kapital" and its serious, actual effects on history and 2) Corey's appeal to various sorts (despite his affinity for leftist politics)--you can look it up!

Sheesh.

former law student said...

Irwin Corey was funny in small doses. Any prolonged exposure was like trying to make a meal of olives.

Unknown said...

Soupy Sales was a comic genius. Many do not know that he wrote much of what was on his show and improvised the rest.
I've always said that is what he did best; improvisation; he lived in the moment and the moment was his.
As far as Professor Irwin Coreys rant; hes 95 years old; if he and Kirk Douglas and Eli Wallach want to complain about the quality of egg salad these days, let them.
We owe them that much.
-Dennis Visco

Anonymous said...

Someone said:

> I notice no one seemed horrified at John's" desire to "beat the shit out of the little turdball."

The guy who wants to beat people up is a repiglican. That pretty much goes without saying. The party of filthy, wealthy garbage says evil things like that so often that it doesn't even raise eyebrows anymore.

They changed Iowa votes as they passed through an 'piglican internet server and stole the election (again).

The computer guy who did it wanted to confess, but Rove told him if he did, he'd have him killed. He asked for protection but no one did anything.

His private plane mysteriously blew up as he was flying to testify to congress.

THAT'S what the Rethuglicans do. They have some kind of "sickness", probably from when they were little and treated cold by their mother and hit by their father.

-- faye kane homeless brain
more of my smartass smartmouth

Anonymous said...

A rethuglican said:

> "It's a damn shame we couldn't have exported all of the Marxists to the Soviet Union before they took over our universities, indoctrinated our children "

That's the right-wing way of saying that most intelligent people are democrats (which is true). THEIR supporters are ignotant, uneducated blue-collar white trash.

We didn't "take over" the universities; academia has ALWAYS been Liberal. That's the way smart, thoughtful people ARE.

Obama could have shut that party down for good by exposing the criminal things they did during their "permanent majority". But America's house nee-gro ignored their crimes. Instead, the New Lincoln Concilliator figured that if he gave away every single concession year after year, demanding nothing in return, that the greedy evil would see the light, repent, and Sit With him at The Table of Brotherhood where Together they could Forge a New Tomorrow for all the Children of Earth.

Instead of thanking him for falling over at their every demand, they spit in his face, called him a "Nazi" and distributed posters of him with a Hitler mustache because healthcare is "socialist medicine" and the Nazis called themselves "Socialists" (which they weren't).

Every single good thing, they're against it--starting with sex. They not only want to outlaw abortion, they want to outlaw CONTRACEPTION.

Does that make sense to you? What's the logic behind that, anyway?

Anonymous said...

Universal healthcare costs HALF as much for far better care and everyone is covered. That's why every single civilized country in the world does it that way, except America and Burma.

But the capitalist pigs don't feel they ought to pay the same tax rate as everybody else, see, so they polluted the public debate with lies about "communism" and "death panels". As always, they won and humanity lost when they herded their zombie army of retarded trailer jethros with lies, buzzwords, meaningless slogans, fear, greed,jingoistic songs, and shiny objects.

How many of those angry 'necks who were laid off by Bush's "pro-rich and fuck everybody else" policies don't even HAVE medical insurance for their kids?

How many of them know that Grandma's Medicare is classic "socialist medicine"?

And after the piggies destroyed our economy with psychotic greed, Obama bailed them out by handing over billions in taxpayer money. The scum took that money and immediately stuffed it in their own pockets as "bonuses" for doing such a good job running the failed banks into the ground.

Then they badmouthed Obama for a plan that the republicans came up with before "We the People" threw them out on their asses.

Another one of 'em said here: "I don't understand what the point of Prof. Corey's rant would have been. Everyone he cited was on Medicare so they were in the hands of gov't run healthacre already."

See? They genuinely don't understand that SOME people (like Corey) are motivated by more than "what's in it for ME?"

Or this one:

> "Cookie, you do understand the utter distaste, dislike, and animosity that real Americans have for leftism and leftists don't you?"

The half of america who votes democrat aren't "real" citizens, see?

Media Watch said...

i think soupy would have laughed at professor c... normally it wouldn't have been funny but with him it is....and ok ,,,people have to expect this great humor we miss today

Roger Owen Green said...

Irwin will be 100 (at least) at the month. I saw him riff on Nixon at his sister-in-law's birthday 20 years ago. (His sister-in-law was my great aunt.)

Roger Owen Green said...

Irwin will be 100 (at least) at the month. I saw him riff on Nixon at his sister-in-law's birthday 20 years ago. (His sister-in-law was my great aunt.)