Kings of Comedy, narrated by George Burns (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Kings of Comedy

Narrator name: George Burns

Artist name: Various, including George Burns, Abbott & Costello, Will Rogers, Jackie Gleason, Jack Benny, Smith & Dale, Al Jolson, Groucho Marx

Year: 1969

Number of discs: one

Label: Longines Symphonette Society

Collection: Selman

Buy it on Ebay: $7.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never heard of this comedy record, but I previously reviewed all five discs of The Golden Age of Comedy: 50 Years of Great Humor… From Vaudeville to Video, which was also narrated by George Burns and produced by the Longines Symphonette Society.

What I expected

I guess the same style of humor as The Golden Age of Comedy.

What it was actually like

The first side was a series of snippets of comedy routines, presumably all famous enough to be recognizable to a general comedy-loving audience, lasting anywhere from around five to 45 seconds. The LP said:

Guess Who These Comedians Are? The answers are listed on the back of the album jacket.

I was not able to guess any of them.

Here’s a sample joke: “This town was so dull that one day, the tide went out, and never came back.”

Ha ha.

The second side started with Abbott & Costello’s classic Who’s On First and somehow, hearing it now was the least funny it has ever been (the crowd went wild for it, though). It was the only bit that I recognized, even though George Burns described another one as “the most famous Jack Benny scene of all time.”

Here’s another sample joke: “I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in them, I’ll never know.”

Ha ha.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing