Johnny Carson--Blessed Be - died of emphysema Sunday 1/23/05

Johnny Carson passed away this morning of emphysema. Story on cnn:

Obituary

What a sad day. I have to believe that his career of bringing laughter and joy to so many will bring him many rewards.

Bright Blessings, Johnny.

It is a measure of how loved Johnny was that there is such an incredible outpouring of national affection and grief at his death. This in spite of not seeing him perform for over a decade now.

I remember after 9/11 when the late night comedy/talk shows resumed the comedians were almost apologetic and derided what they do in light of such a grave tragedy. I remember thinking that they underestimate the service they perform in helping us bear our burdens of suffering things like poverty, death, old age, disability, and tragic loss. They bring light into darkness in their own special way. Johnny Carson was a master at it, and had the unique position of doing so on a daily basis for many years. No matter how difficult life was you could count on seeing Johnny and sharing in his laughter for a little while. Then you were ready to pick up your burden again and continue on your path.

One of my understandings of God has always been that He has a great sense of humor. From my childhood I instinctively knew this. I think that no matter their lifestyle, people who perform the service of bringing laughter are especially dear to Him.

Laughter has been proven to provide even mundane beneficial effects like strengthening our immune system and reducing or eliminating the effects of stress. In addition to that, I think it allows us to keep our hearts open and able to give and receive love--including love of God.

In honor of Johnny, let's all go out and make someone laugh. (Madhava is off to a good start with his gentle joke about JD.)

Blessed Be--

Tapati

On a visit to Harvard to receive an award Johny Carson was asked by a reporter what he would like his epitaph to be.

"I'll be right back," he replied.

That settles it then, I have to come back too just to watch him!

Thank you for that delightful quote!

This is a belated tribute to funny man Johnny Carson, who succumbed to emphysema several days ago at the age of 79. He on occasion would throw a joke into the monologue about ISKCON, referring to them as the "Hair Krishnas". Also, don't forget the Karnak character with the wild turban. Why mention his passing on this forum? Because he uttered harinam to millions on television every time he told one of those jokes. Plus, they were pretty good jokes too.

Wherever you are now, Johnny, you will undoubtedly benefit from that inadvertant propagation of the holy name.

If anyone remembers any of those "Hair Krishna" jokes, kindly post them here so we can laugh at them once again.

I see we're on the same wavelength. I started a topic here.

I had forgotten about those jokes--that was one period in my life I wasn't watching him. Ah, the missed years...

I'm not familar with any of the Johny Carson jokes but devotees gave them lots of material like them claiming not to be materialistic and then both men and woman running around airports (other comedy shows liked to depict them with flowers) and tackling travelers with an intensity that would be the envy of any NFL linebacker to get their money.

Aside from our behavior, just our appearance provided lots of material for any good comedian.

Really, it would have been impossible for Johnny to have ignored us, as he was a mirror for everything going on in the country during any given time. We in fact knew we had gotten somewhere when we were parodied by comedians.

And didn't we ever snag anyone from the NFL?

Apparently, Johnny had kept up his friendship with David Letterman and even sent him jokes over the years for his monologue. Dave did a tribute monologue recently of Johnny's jokes, and revealed after the fact where they came from. What a beautiful tribute.

Johnny's Last Monologue

There is even some political humor that I wished we could have heard during the campaign.

There was the nation's leading rusher in football for a division III school, The University of Delaware, who was a devotee and a leading book airport book distributor at L.A.X. I can't recall the name of this black devotee but maybe someone out there does.