Cindy Williams did an interview for my radio show a few years ago. She played Shirley to Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the classic 70s TV sit-com aptly named “Laverne and Shirley.” It was a spin-off of another 70s TV classic “Happy Days.” When I asked her why...
Comedy is in the eye of the beholder, but not the beheader as self-described comedian Kathy Griffin learned last week. Griffin’s image holding a “prop” bloodied severed head of the President made the rounds on social media creating a political backlash resulting...
Comedian Lewis Black was asked where he gets his material for jokes. He replied “what jokes? I just read the news.” For the last few weeks I’ve been trying to find the funny. I stayed away from the news. Big mistake. The Tom Sumner Program weekly round table...
The late comedian Henny Youngman was known for “one-liners” like his signature line “Take my wife – please.” He starts out as if he’s going to say “take my wife, for example…” then realizes that whatever awful tale he’s about to tell...
I want to write something funny and topical. It should be easy. But I’m stumped. It used to be easy for me to find the funny in a wide range of topical events. These days most of what’s topical surfs back and forth between fleeting trends and alternating...
Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette is “on-duty” to protect law abiding cold and allergy sufferers in the state from a practice known as “smurfing.” Last week, the AG teamed with Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark Reene, the Michigan Retailers Association,...
I like my Presidents funny. So, every year, I am one of a small number of people who watch The White House Correspondents Dinner to watch the President be funny. But this year, as Daily Show Senior Correspondent comedian Hasan Minhaj observed, there was “an elephant...
Three years ago state and local officials in Flint, Michigan switched the municipal water system from treated water (piped from Detroit) to drawing its water from The Flint River. That decision, and the fact that Flint’s water treatment facility was not equipped to...
I love bacon. I don’t even mind makin’ bacon. “Makin’ bacon” used to be (for some) a euphemism for having sex. I love that too. The sex – not the euphemism. Now that I’m over 50, according to some, I should probably be watching my diet – which...
There are life-altering moments in every one’s life. Each of these can be accompanied by sadness, pain, realization, discovery, growth and thankfully humor. I prefer the humor and often I prefer it at inappropriate times. But for me (probably too often) that’s when...