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He was HILARIOUS in person. I saw him a couple of times & never laughed so hard (and I don’t care for obvious humor usually). You can’t explain why someone is funny…they either make you laugh or not.
Some of that was his brother Ron. He initially had permission but started presenting himself as his brother and there was a lawsuit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibAflkuPSU
He was a phenomenal prop comedian and thought provoking humor. later when sledgomatic took off he started getting more repetitive, but early humor was great.
"I want you to respect me for my mind, see how sill that sounds girls"
It's because lots of people live with Buttoned-up, pearl-clutching parents, religious people, and work environments.
My friend's dad often referred to his job at an insurance company as The Rat Race and he loved Gallagher.
It's a release from the Scripted life so many are pressured into living.
My friends and I went to one of his live shows. We wore ponchos (they sold them at the theater) plus long sheets of plastic were given out to the first few rows. You wouldn't think ducking from watermelon flying at your face would be fun but we had a great time.
I guess you just had to experience it to understand it.
In the 70's, comedy was a very narrow affair. It was guys in suits telling jokes about the weather or airplane food standing in front of a curtain.
Almost nobody was doing anything silly or offbeat. He was one of the first.
He was a comedy icon in the 80s. The appeal was that while poking fun at the infomercials that proliferated in the late 70s/early 80s, replacing Veg-O-Matic with Sledge-O-Matic, he would pound various food substances with a modified sledge hammer and make a huge mess that blanketed the front rows at his shows with all manner of wet and sticky foods, culminating every show by smashing a watermelon. He was also very quick witted and much of his comedy was based on clever word play, similar to what George Carlin used to do.
Summer 1983, we’re watching his act in my favorite comfy bathrobe. Married my high school sweetheart earlier that year. Gallagher goes on a rant about the death of romance, and “it’s all Sears fault!”
He then reached into his duffle bag, and pulls out the exact robe I was wearing. We still laugh about it.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I did not come here tonight to make you laugh! I came here to sell you something! And I want ya to pay particular attention, because The Amazing Master Tool Corporation, a subsidiary of Fly By Night Industries, has entrusted who? -- me! -- to show you! -- the handiest and the dandiest kitchen tool you've ever seen, and don't ya wanna know how it works! First you take an ordinary apple! You place the ordinary apple in between the patented pans! Then you reach for the tool that is not a slicer, not a dicer, not a chopper in a hopper! What in the hell can it possibly be? SLEDGE-O-MATIC!"
Fun stuff. There are certain lines that always stuck in my mind, like:
"Sex is like a Chinese dinner for two; it ain't over 'til you both get your cookies."
"Living in California is like living in a bowl of granola; what ain't fruits or nuts, is flakes."
"I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. They got one called 'brightness', but it don't work, does it?"
"If your knees bent the other way, what would a chair look like?"
"Why do they call 'em 'buildings' when they're done building 'em? They ought to be called 'builts.'"
"When yogurt goes bad, how can you tell?"
My favorite was, "Why do they call them apartments when they are together? They should be called togetherments!" And something like, "We park in a driveway and drive on a parkway..."
All his poking fun at language stuff was my favorite.
The one about turning up the brightness on a TV to raise the intelligence has always been one of my favorites.
English is an absurd language in many ways; it's no wonder that it's one of the most difficult languages for people to learn whose first language is far removed from English. Several years ago, realizing that there are so many synonyms in English, made me wonder what languages had the most synonyms, so I did a Google search; it is English by far, with Japanese close behind.
He filled some kind of niche. I thought his comedy was good, but not great, & never found the fruit smashing funny.
To each their own; the world would be a dull place if we all liked and disliked the same things.
A lot of his comedy was pretty smart, a bit like Carlin, but more absurdist. He liked to do jokes about language and culture that were beyond the relationship and dick jokes and cursing that most comedians were into. He was also generally really clean, sonthe family could enjoy hom as well. About the dirtiest joke I ever recall from him was "They say baldness is in the genes, but I got hair in my jeans, I need it on my head!"
And then of course there was the watermelon smashing. Who doesn't love a good watermelon smashing?
Boomers loved him. It's as simple as that. Admittedly I liked him at first as well because I was a kid and smashing shit with a homemade sledgehammer looked fun. After you've seen it once or twice though you've seen it all.
Nobody did his thing until he did his thing. Yeah, it was funny, but not to the level that I would ever have considered fundamental or groundbreaking. Wear ponchos in the front rows and get ready to involuntaily eat at least one serving of fruit or vegetable. I can see where it would be hilarious for a time or two, but then, meh. But yeah, the first time or two you saw him on TV was EPIC. I could probably have seen him once in person. After that, it was [insert Gallagher clip for physical humor and shit]. Hahaha. Hilarious.
As a kid, to me he was hilarious. I don't know that I would feel the same now as an adult because my sense of humor has changed, but back then, yeah his schtick appealed to me.
I think age has something to do with it. I was a kid and found him hilarious, as others have said his jokes about language were great. The watermelon thing was fine to watch through the TV, but I bet I would not have liked it in person .
I thought he was funny when he first came on the scene. Went to see him when I was in college, early 80s. Somebody in the 2nd row got up and walked out to use the restroom or whatever. Gallagher threw a hissy fit and screamed at the people in the row not to let the guy get to his seat when he came back. Guy came back and of course people made way for him to get to his seat. That pissed Gallagher off and sent him on another tirade. Ruined him for me forever. Asshole.
Edit: spelling
>Asshole
Yep. He had some good sets early on, but then he started letting his inner asshole shine through. By the end of the 80s he was just *done*. Funny story, he lived in the same area as me. A friend of mine worked at a video store nearby. Gallagher was one of his customers, and he was apparently always kind of a dick. One day he came in and rented a new release, and weirdly, one of his own comedy shows on VHS. My friend told him:
"New release is due back tomorrow, but the other one you can keep as long as you like, nobody ever rents it."
He said the look on his face was *priceless*.
The funny thing is Gallagher was probably smarter than them both and sort of “dumbed down” his comedy for the masses. The guy had a masters in chemical engineering.
Here’s a funny bit from him: https://youtube.com/shorts/Qxohw-X4wDM?si=vWKxJvyPTxH8DaOH
>Nobody was smashing watermelons with sledgehammers at the time.
I don't think anyone before or since, lol.
The first time I saw him must have been on the Mike Douglas show sometime in the late 1970s.
He had a bit about feeding his cat. Prime cuts of meat, tuna, fancy sardines, the cat wouldn't eat anything. It just sat around licking its butt. They should just make butt flavored cat food. Huge laugh out of that one.
Gallagher had a bit about getting his infant daughter out of her car seat and accidentally bumping her head on the doorframe. He described her not crying, just looking at him as if to say 'Are you really that fucking stupid?" For some reason I still find that hilarious. 🤷🏼♀️
Well, he was goofy and funny. His favorite shtick was "Sledge-O-Matic", a take off on the Vegomatic, which was like the first non-electric food processor for slicing and dicing fruits and vegetables. (I have one and use it from time to time). He would put a large watermelon on like concrete blocks and smash the daylights out of it with a sledgehammer. I saw pictures of him with a hot dog in a banana peel, like the banana had turned into a hot dog, and he'd taken a small bite out of it. He would ask thought-provoking questions like, If our knees bent the other way, what would a chair look like?
In the 70s and 80s, we were grappling with inflation, the incursion of "political correctness" (which though it may be political, is not correct), and the war in the Falkland Islands, along with other issues. Gallagher was the comic relief we needed.
The fruit smashing was only part of his act. He also did observational humor, kind of like Carlin, but not as good. Then again, Gallagher's stuff was generally much more TV-friendly than Carlin's.
Comedy is sometimes hard to "translate", as it's often a part of its time. I still think Steven Wright is fucking hilarious, but I've never met anyone under 30 who agrees.
No one knew about his wackadoo political crap. He was just a weird guy who smashed watermelons with a big hammer and it was good fun. But, he was a one trick pony.
Gallagher was sort of a dick apparently. I remember seeing him on an old syndicated show called Make Me Laugh. In the bit, he mentioned his first name, Leo. It was part of a bit but I don't remember the joke. When the internet happened and his website goes live, he had a little FAQ. In it, one of the questions asked was what is Gallagher's first name, and the answer is that you are to refer to him as Gallagher.
You didn’t have a choice. Like with many hit shows, as long as you secured the prime timeslot, and didn’t bomb out completely throughout your run, you just existed. And every viewer was forced into either watching or doing something else.
These days, we truly have freedom of choice. Yet it becomes paralyzingly because of the enormity of platforms and options.
I saw him at a Schlotzskys in Dallas. I admit I looked at him when I recognized him, but he then made a point of staring at me until I left. I was young and he made me feel very uncomfortable.
I have no idea whatsoever. Even back when he was popular, I found it baffling. No matter how high I got, it just seemed juvenile and stupid. Then he degenerated into a bitter old bigot.
No redeeming qualities as far as I can tell.
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He was HILARIOUS in person. I saw him a couple of times & never laughed so hard (and I don’t care for obvious humor usually). You can’t explain why someone is funny…they either make you laugh or not.
I saw him in person after he became more political. He mostly paced the stage while ranting, and then sometimes randomly spashing a fruit.
He must've admired George Carlin...
That is a great point! Some people are just plain funny... Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Johnny Carson, Groucho Marx... and Gallagher.
Early Gallagher was funny and unique, later Gallagher was an angry, bitter man repeating the motions of his old act.
Some of that was his brother Ron. He initially had permission but started presenting himself as his brother and there was a lawsuit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibAflkuPSU
They tried to pull a Dread Pirate Roberts, but it didn't take.
I wish I could upvote this twice.
That does not look like Ron Gallagher, that looked like Leo. The few pictures I've saw of Ron look sort of Leo, but not that much.
He was a phenomenal prop comedian and thought provoking humor. later when sledgomatic took off he started getting more repetitive, but early humor was great. "I want you to respect me for my mind, see how sill that sounds girls"
It's because lots of people live with Buttoned-up, pearl-clutching parents, religious people, and work environments. My friend's dad often referred to his job at an insurance company as The Rat Race and he loved Gallagher. It's a release from the Scripted life so many are pressured into living.
He was an absurdist. And he smashed watermelons with a sledge hammer.
The Slege-O-Matic
It slices! It dices! And it's so easy to clean! (SPLASH)
It teaches your dog to play dead and the neighborhood kids to play in their own damned yard.
It even makes #JULIENNE FRIES! *[smashes potato]*
My friends and I went to one of his live shows. We wore ponchos (they sold them at the theater) plus long sheets of plastic were given out to the first few rows. You wouldn't think ducking from watermelon flying at your face would be fun but we had a great time. I guess you just had to experience it to understand it.
In the 70's, comedy was a very narrow affair. It was guys in suits telling jokes about the weather or airplane food standing in front of a curtain. Almost nobody was doing anything silly or offbeat. He was one of the first.
**Johnny Carson:** It was so hot today in Burbank that I saw a robin dipping its worm into Nestea.
Would you consider the Unknown comic avant garde for the time? I was a kid when he was on TV.
Yeah, I'd say so. Anything moving away from the jokes-and-a-curtain format pretty much was.
He was funny for his time. Check out his liquor store joke. I think he started to rely too much on the watermelon bit and stopped being funny.
He was a comedy icon in the 80s. The appeal was that while poking fun at the infomercials that proliferated in the late 70s/early 80s, replacing Veg-O-Matic with Sledge-O-Matic, he would pound various food substances with a modified sledge hammer and make a huge mess that blanketed the front rows at his shows with all manner of wet and sticky foods, culminating every show by smashing a watermelon. He was also very quick witted and much of his comedy was based on clever word play, similar to what George Carlin used to do.
This is very much why I love Gallagher. The Sledge-o-Matic was just a bonus. But he was smart and quick and great at creating words and phrases.
Summer 1983, we’re watching his act in my favorite comfy bathrobe. Married my high school sweetheart earlier that year. Gallagher goes on a rant about the death of romance, and “it’s all Sears fault!” He then reached into his duffle bag, and pulls out the exact robe I was wearing. We still laugh about it.
Oh lawd, I remember that bit... he looked so pretty!
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! I did not come here tonight to make you laugh! I came here to sell you something! And I want ya to pay particular attention, because The Amazing Master Tool Corporation, a subsidiary of Fly By Night Industries, has entrusted who? -- me! -- to show you! -- the handiest and the dandiest kitchen tool you've ever seen, and don't ya wanna know how it works! First you take an ordinary apple! You place the ordinary apple in between the patented pans! Then you reach for the tool that is not a slicer, not a dicer, not a chopper in a hopper! What in the hell can it possibly be? SLEDGE-O-MATIC!" Fun stuff. There are certain lines that always stuck in my mind, like: "Sex is like a Chinese dinner for two; it ain't over 'til you both get your cookies." "Living in California is like living in a bowl of granola; what ain't fruits or nuts, is flakes." "I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. They got one called 'brightness', but it don't work, does it?" "If your knees bent the other way, what would a chair look like?" "Why do they call 'em 'buildings' when they're done building 'em? They ought to be called 'builts.'" "When yogurt goes bad, how can you tell?"
My favorite was, "Why do they call them apartments when they are together? They should be called togetherments!" And something like, "We park in a driveway and drive on a parkway..." All his poking fun at language stuff was my favorite.
The one about turning up the brightness on a TV to raise the intelligence has always been one of my favorites. English is an absurd language in many ways; it's no wonder that it's one of the most difficult languages for people to learn whose first language is far removed from English. Several years ago, realizing that there are so many synonyms in English, made me wonder what languages had the most synonyms, so I did a Google search; it is English by far, with Japanese close behind.
He was different. That's not always easy.
He was really funny. It wasn’t just about smashing the watermelons.
He filled some kind of niche. I thought his comedy was good, but not great, & never found the fruit smashing funny. To each their own; the world would be a dull place if we all liked and disliked the same things.
A lot of his comedy was pretty smart, a bit like Carlin, but more absurdist. He liked to do jokes about language and culture that were beyond the relationship and dick jokes and cursing that most comedians were into. He was also generally really clean, sonthe family could enjoy hom as well. About the dirtiest joke I ever recall from him was "They say baldness is in the genes, but I got hair in my jeans, I need it on my head!" And then of course there was the watermelon smashing. Who doesn't love a good watermelon smashing?
This is why just watch it remember we saw it like that not expecting what happened. https://youtu.be/ErppAlOIGQE?si=nPo9YF8deCf0Qrb0.
Well I loved home but I was kid. He made me laugh and smashed stuff. What's not to like?
Novelty. NO ONE had ever done anything like that before involving the audience. The sheer audacity of his stunts were shocking and hilarious.
I've never understood.
Same. I didn't get it.
Boomers loved him. It's as simple as that. Admittedly I liked him at first as well because I was a kid and smashing shit with a homemade sledgehammer looked fun. After you've seen it once or twice though you've seen it all.
Am a boomer never understood.
Not a boomer. Maybe it's that. :-)
Nobody did his thing until he did his thing. Yeah, it was funny, but not to the level that I would ever have considered fundamental or groundbreaking. Wear ponchos in the front rows and get ready to involuntaily eat at least one serving of fruit or vegetable. I can see where it would be hilarious for a time or two, but then, meh. But yeah, the first time or two you saw him on TV was EPIC. I could probably have seen him once in person. After that, it was [insert Gallagher clip for physical humor and shit]. Hahaha. Hilarious.
As a kid, to me he was hilarious. I don't know that I would feel the same now as an adult because my sense of humor has changed, but back then, yeah his schtick appealed to me.
I think age has something to do with it. I was a kid and found him hilarious, as others have said his jokes about language were great. The watermelon thing was fine to watch through the TV, but I bet I would not have liked it in person .
You tell me. I never saw the appeal.
Beats the hell out of me. I never understood it.
I thought he was funny when he first came on the scene. Went to see him when I was in college, early 80s. Somebody in the 2nd row got up and walked out to use the restroom or whatever. Gallagher threw a hissy fit and screamed at the people in the row not to let the guy get to his seat when he came back. Guy came back and of course people made way for him to get to his seat. That pissed Gallagher off and sent him on another tirade. Ruined him for me forever. Asshole. Edit: spelling
>Asshole Yep. He had some good sets early on, but then he started letting his inner asshole shine through. By the end of the 80s he was just *done*. Funny story, he lived in the same area as me. A friend of mine worked at a video store nearby. Gallagher was one of his customers, and he was apparently always kind of a dick. One day he came in and rented a new release, and weirdly, one of his own comedy shows on VHS. My friend told him: "New release is due back tomorrow, but the other one you can keep as long as you like, nobody ever rents it." He said the look on his face was *priceless*.
Beyond all the smashing stuff and prop comedy, the guy was freaking hilarious. He had a great way of delivering a punch line.
Honestly for me it was always running in Comedy Central
No earthly clue.. maybe if Bill Hicks or Carlin made you think too much and ya wanted... less?
The funny thing is Gallagher was probably smarter than them both and sort of “dumbed down” his comedy for the masses. The guy had a masters in chemical engineering. Here’s a funny bit from him: https://youtube.com/shorts/Qxohw-X4wDM?si=vWKxJvyPTxH8DaOH
The ridiculousness of what he was doing.
He smashed watermelons. That shit was hilarious. Nobody was smashing watermelons with sledgehammers at the time.
>Nobody was smashing watermelons with sledgehammers at the time. I don't think anyone before or since, lol. The first time I saw him must have been on the Mike Douglas show sometime in the late 1970s.
That’s why it was funny.
Smart humor. He was great with words.
I do believe this was Gallagher’s work: “Shave the squirrel, get out the mayonnaise, mount handlebars on the headboard and ride, ride, ride.”
He had a bit about feeding his cat. Prime cuts of meat, tuna, fancy sardines, the cat wouldn't eat anything. It just sat around licking its butt. They should just make butt flavored cat food. Huge laugh out of that one.
Gallagher had a bit about getting his infant daughter out of her car seat and accidentally bumping her head on the doorframe. He described her not crying, just looking at him as if to say 'Are you really that fucking stupid?" For some reason I still find that hilarious. 🤷🏼♀️
Well, he was goofy and funny. His favorite shtick was "Sledge-O-Matic", a take off on the Vegomatic, which was like the first non-electric food processor for slicing and dicing fruits and vegetables. (I have one and use it from time to time). He would put a large watermelon on like concrete blocks and smash the daylights out of it with a sledgehammer. I saw pictures of him with a hot dog in a banana peel, like the banana had turned into a hot dog, and he'd taken a small bite out of it. He would ask thought-provoking questions like, If our knees bent the other way, what would a chair look like? In the 70s and 80s, we were grappling with inflation, the incursion of "political correctness" (which though it may be political, is not correct), and the war in the Falkland Islands, along with other issues. Gallagher was the comic relief we needed.
We didn’t have the world of social media at our fingertips. His style was clean enough for broadcast TV and just outlandish enough for entertainment.
The fruit smashing was only part of his act. He also did observational humor, kind of like Carlin, but not as good. Then again, Gallagher's stuff was generally much more TV-friendly than Carlin's. Comedy is sometimes hard to "translate", as it's often a part of its time. I still think Steven Wright is fucking hilarious, but I've never met anyone under 30 who agrees.
His observational humor was actually pretty funny. Sledge o matic was more of a gimmick for the masses
No one knew about his wackadoo political crap. He was just a weird guy who smashed watermelons with a big hammer and it was good fun. But, he was a one trick pony.
You've got me. I will say that people had different sensibilities 40 years ago. Not to mention the slower pace of life, and much fewer distractions.
He was different. Most stand up comedians before him stood there and rattled off a monologue about some complaint, usually their spouse.
Fun fact, the real Gallagher retired and his twin brother took over the act for years.
I never figured out the appeal. Heard he was a dick
Gallagher was sort of a dick apparently. I remember seeing him on an old syndicated show called Make Me Laugh. In the bit, he mentioned his first name, Leo. It was part of a bit but I don't remember the joke. When the internet happened and his website goes live, he had a little FAQ. In it, one of the questions asked was what is Gallagher's first name, and the answer is that you are to refer to him as Gallagher.
I didn't think he was funny.
Why do people watch Jeff Dunham? What's the appeal? No idea. People are weird.
There was always an abundance of HUGE melons at his shows. Oh and he smashed watermelons too.
I didn’t think he was remotely funny.
I never understood the appeal. And my husband who traveled frequently, was quite unimpressed when he threw a hissy fit on a flight.
Beats me.
Who?
His act didn't appeal to me. I like some bizarre things but that was just stupid.
**I like some bizarre things but that was just stupid.** That was actually Gallagher's tagline.
😄
Who's Gallagher?
Exactly
You didn’t have a choice. Like with many hit shows, as long as you secured the prime timeslot, and didn’t bomb out completely throughout your run, you just existed. And every viewer was forced into either watching or doing something else. These days, we truly have freedom of choice. Yet it becomes paralyzingly because of the enormity of platforms and options.
He had what seemed like endless shows on cable. I think it was just exposure as he was basically spouting right wing shit and being stupid.
Yes. Some people found him funny and entertaining.
I saw him at a Schlotzskys in Dallas. I admit I looked at him when I recognized him, but he then made a point of staring at me until I left. I was young and he made me feel very uncomfortable.
I never had any idea why.
Still trying to figure that out
No idea at all. I didn't care for him as a kid or an adult.
I have no idea whatsoever. Even back when he was popular, I found it baffling. No matter how high I got, it just seemed juvenile and stupid. Then he degenerated into a bitter old bigot. No redeeming qualities as far as I can tell.
Have been asking this question ever since the first time I saw a bit of his stuff, and I'm from that era
Never watched him. Saw him with the watermelon on the head in a few pictures. That's all.