Have comedians forgotten how to make people laugh? Red Skelton thought so, and his death this week is notable for many reasons, not the least of which is that the world has lost a spokesman for decent, uplifting humor.
In his later years, Skelton accused today's comics of using "four-letter words as a shortcut to thinking," substituting shock value for humor. He branded this kind of comedy as lazy and cheap, becoming one of the few people with clout to speak out against a degenerating sense of public morals.Skelton never went for shock value. He used his unique face to mimic and enlarge human characteristics common in life. He created characters that, for awhile, became household words in America: Clem Kaddiddlehopper, Gertrude and Heathcliff, Freddie the Freeloader, San Fernando Red, Willie Lump-Lump and the Mean Widdle Kid, to name a few.
But Skelton had more to offer than a bunch of silly characters. He had a quality of sadness, manifest in his eyes and always lurking near the surface. It was a sadness that told of a man who had experienced life, from the triumph of a successful career to the tragedy of losing a 9-year-old son to leukemia. It was a quality that gave him license to poke fun.
The best comics have depth. They understand that laughter and tears are closely related and that life's funniest stories often scrape the surface of greater human meaning.
Skelton had depth. If nothing else, his famous paintings of clowns testify to this. He was a clown at heart. His father, who died two months before Skelton was born, also had been a clown, and clowns can emit many emotions besides laughter.
One of the ironies of Skelton's career is that his popular television show was canceled in 1971 even though it still was highly rated. Network executives - the geniuses who nowadays look solely to the bathroom or the sewer for humor - thought he didn't appeal to younger viewers.
They were wrong. His appeal was universal, and the audiences he once made laugh are now crying. The tears are for the loss of a great comedian, and for the realization that no one seem to remember how to take his place.