Johnny Carson, who was as unlike Twain as you can get, nonetheless had something in common with him that was absolutely not shared by either Leno or Lederman. Like Twain, Carson never explained a joke or a routine. Carson let his performance carry the meaning and shape the experience just as Twain let his written or spoken performance shape the experience. Carson may have laughed enough during the process to fill several studio audience recordings with every laugh he needed -- but Twain's enjoyment of his verbal and written performances clearly is palpable in everything Twain ever wrote ... and really comes across in the autobiography. Twain's piece on German sentence-building is as hilarious as anything Carson ever did and much of both of their material carries high-powered socio-political-cultural commentary. And, as read by Grover Gardner, had me laughing as hard as I ever laughed at Carson, a laugh tinged with infinitely more respect.

Just a thought.

Denis


On Jun 18, 2014, at 1:42 PM, Scott Holmes wrote:

> I don't know about the rest of you, on Twain-L, but I never thought Leno
> was particularly humorous.

Denis M. Donovan, M.D., M.Ed., F.A.P.S.
Director, EOCT Institute

Medical Director, 1983 - 2006
The Children's Center for Developmental Psychiatry
St. Petersburg, Florida

P.O Box 47576
St. Petersburg, FL 33743-7576
Phone:	727-641-8905
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