"Sock it to me"... yes, it was a big thing, back in the 60s to sock a young woman — repeatedly.
The joke now seems as cruel — and as difficult to explain to millennials — as it seemed hilarious in the 1960s: A young, lithe woman, often in a miniskirt or less, stands onstage. She announces that it’s “sock-it-to-me time.” Then, she is hit with a bucket of water, or dropped through the floor, or otherwise clobbered in some form or fashion. Sure, Richard Nixon famously said the words — but he didn’t have his clothes ripped off.Nor was he hit with anything. He subsequently won the presidency. Meanwhile, Judy Carne, unlike Goldie Hawn, descended into a life of woe.
Between 1977 and 1978, Carne was arrested three times on charges that included drug possession and auto theft.... As Burt Reynolds became a star, Carne arguably became best known as his first wife — the pair were married from 1963 to 1966. When she faced legal trouble in the late 1970s, however, her calls to Reynolds, then on top of the world after his appearance in “Smokey and the Bandit,” were not returned. “At least he could have helped with the legal fees,” Carne said. “After all, I supported him when he was out of work, and I never asked for alimony.”...
“She was a bit of a recluse toward the end,” Jon Barrett, who confirmed her death to the New York Times, said.
“I’m a 1960s flowerchild who has refused to grow up,” she once said, as the Telegraph reported. “‘Mature’ and ‘responsible’ are words I don’t understand.”
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You only said "Sock It To Me" if you thought you could take whatever was being dished out, sexually or violently or intellectually or artistically. It was a statement of defiance, of strength.
That one was often wrong, in life as on Laugh In, about asking for it, was the joke.
That a test of strength can be lost is a lesson the young learn every generation. The young learn this lesson by experimentation with limits imposed by their authoritarian, experienced elders, who grew up with those that suffered from the effects of declaring "Sock It To Me" and losing the contest.
Old people know stuff. Young people learn stuff and if lucky become old people.
Meanwhile, Judy Carne... descended into a life of woe.
I’m a 1960s flowerchild who has refused to grow up... ‘Mature’ and ‘responsible’ are words I don’t understand.
Effect, meet cause. Cause, effect.
After a few decades, this didn’t seem funny anymore.
That's because the present generation is too tightly wrapped to find humor in it.
I think Reynolds commented that being married to Judy Carne was like being married to Tinkerbell.
Don't date actresses, I learned in college.
I mean stage actresses.
All women are actresses.
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry had an early affair with the older Carne. Aside from the debauchery, what struck me most was being reminded of the now extinct low-level local celebrity nightclub circuit that used to exist surrounding Boston and other cities. Read the whole excerpt.
Excerpt from Joe Perry'Joe Perry’s Sexual Awakening With Laugh-in’s Judy Carne
Judy took me to a new dimension of hedonism. She had a doctor’s bag filled with high-quality cocaine, one variety more potent than the next—bottles, pills, powders, syringes, everything 99 percent legal. She had managed to get prescriptions for everything, even the coke. She always looked her best, walking around the house in an X-rated version of the R-rated lingerie she wore in her show. She got a kick out of telling me that her voluptuous redheaded makeup girl — the chick that the men at the club were pining for — was really her makeup boy. Judy loved to laugh. She had a voracious appetite for life’s pleasures. At thirty-three, she had earned her PhD in sex and drugs. At twenty-one, I was her willing pupil.
"Don't date actresses, I learned in college./I mean stage actresses./All women are actresses."
Oh, now, now. Don't understate it. You know they told you to stay away from the women. That's what you said.
... one variety more potent than the next...
So they were decreasing in potency? That must have been disappointing.
"Cruel," forsooth. Imagine the reaction if this fainting flower ever happens across the Three Stooges.
The Laugh In Dead Pool:
Dan Rowan (1987)
Dick Martin (2008)
Judy Carne (2015)
Henry Gibson (2009)
Dave Madden (2014)
Alan Sues (2011)
Richard Dawson (2012)
Theresa Graves (2002)
Larry Hovis (2003)
Pigmeat Markham (1981)
Gary Owens (2015)
Still with us: Arte Johnson, Ruth Buzzi, Goldie Hawn, JoAnne Worley, Johnny Brown, Moosie Drier, Lily Tomlin, and Morgul the Friendly Drelb.
Oh, now, now. Don't understate it. You know they told you to stay away from the women. That's what you said.
That was at work. Don't talk to women. That was corporate fear of the Feds, compromising common sense.
“‘Mature’ and ‘responsible’ are words I don’t understand.”
So she was a Democrat.
Curious George said...
So she was a Democrat.
What do you mean was? The dead overwhelmingly vote Democrat.
“‘Mature’ and ‘responsible’ are words I don’t understand.”
Aaaaand ... scene.
This can be a sad world.
My wife put netting around her tomato plants to keep the birds from poking holes in them. Yesterday I had to use scissors on the netting to cut out the mummified body of a robin. That's a pretty awful way to go.
There's something of a drought going on around here, lately, so I put out a tiny saucer of water for the toad that lives under our back steps. Tough call, because it would be wrong to encourage dependency.
I feel sorry for people, too, and Ms. Carne's story is a sad one.
I think we should all make it a point to be kinder to one another. Often it takes nothing more than a smile, which really doesn't cost all that much, when you stop to think about it.
I never thought sock it to me was funny.
What exactly would millennials find hard to get about "Sock It To Me?" It's a pretty standard joke form. You take an idiom or double entendre and interpret the phrase literally. In this case, the literal translation leads to slapstick. Not exactly the most sophisticated form of humor, but if the trailers for the summer comedies are any indication, it's not foreign to millennials. In fact, we're getting closer to the day when Mike Judge is going to have to pitch, "Ow! My Balls!"
I don't think it was the trauma of "sock it to me" that subverted her life. I don't know if there's any great moral to be drawn from her struggles. It's easy for a rich, famous, beautiful woman to acquire drugs. It's not so easy for a not so rich and not so beautiful woman to acquire drugs......I would advise all who are thinking of transitioning to rich, beautiful woman status to avoid dugs.
Joe Perry had had sex with Carne while she was on drugs? No better than Crosby, Perry is a rapist, right?
"Sure, Richard Nixon famously said the words — but he didn’t have his clothes ripped off."
So, Judy Carne got her clothes ripped off on Laugh-In? I actually watched TV inb those days, and I think I would remember that if it had happened.
So, Judy Carne got her clothes ripped off on Laugh-In? I actually watched TV inb those days, and I think I would remember that if it had happened.
Yeah I watched Laugh-In when it was rerun on Nickelodeon and I don’t recall that happening either. That seems the sort of thing that would happen on a British comedy like The Benny Hill Show.
Plenty of male comedians have been pied in the face, swatted with slapsticks, beaned on the noggin, taken pratfalls, and pantsed over the years, probably in far greater number than have women.
...and taken hits to the groin.
She did make it to the age of 76, not bad at all, considering all the drugs. And it was not all gloom and doom, according to the Telegraph obit:
"In later life, however, Judy Carne did find an element of peace in the village of Pitsford, Northamptonshire, where she lived a quiet life with two dogs and was much liked by her neighbours."
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