Gilda Radner - Why?

Im depressed, my face broke out, I'm constipated, I got heart burn, I'm cranky and I got gas! One of my favorite lines, I repeat it often.

JESUS H CHRIST ENOUGH WITH THESE FUCKING "LET'S TEAR APART A WOMAN" THREADS!

She was very lovable.

R3, so you're saying it was more of a "charm" thing, rather than possessing a great comedic talent?

Gilda was an original, and I think it's likely there's been no one since her death that could come close to her comedic style, which might account for why there may not seem to be much similarity in subsequent sketch comedians, although Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph, among others, have said they were influenced by Gilda. Based on reading Gilda's autobiography and other writings about her life, I got the sense that Gilda had a wondrous, childlike component to her personality. I think that's why she was able to bring out the funny aspects of being a child in some of her sketch characters and even be childishly impertinent when playing an adult character, such as Rosanne Rosannadanna. She and her SNL characters were so popular that at 34 years old she went from SNL to her one-woman Broadway show. I was in college and grad school in those days, and I can say that many of us loved Gilda and wouldn't miss her on SNL for anything. Had she lived longer, I think she could have gotten to the stature of Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett, but alas it was not to be.

Yes OP. You are alone.

Gilda was adored in her day and quite funny.

I still can't hear a news anchor say "let's listen in" which they often do when a press conference is starting without thinking of Gilda's Baba Wawa and her this is Baba Wawa weporting to you live from the nuclear reactor. Whets wisten in.

I got her autograph when I was a kid. Such a kind woman. Made such warm direct eye contact to a shy child approaching a star.

That's a great story, R7,

Yes, OP, you're alone.

Gilda was an original. She DID have a childlike quality (it's why her characters Judy Miller and introvert Colleen were among my favorites).

It wasn't fake.

There's one revered SNL female cast member who I just don't get. She seemed angry all the time. Don't even want to say her name.

Gilda was a love.

This clip is a great example of Gilda's genius and the connection she had with her audience; plus Candy Bergen is beautiful here.

I didn't dislike her, in fact there was something likeable about her despite a little bit of her humor going a very long way with me. She's not alone in that time period of, "yes, yes, I 'get' your humor exactly, only it isn't funny, and I see the sustained discomfort of stretching out this thin concept to an impossible thinness, yes, that's part of it too, and the audience discomfort, yes. I fucking get it. And yet the relentlessness and the 'craziness' it still doesn't make it funny past the split-second in which you anticipate the malaprorpism.

John Belushi, Steve Martin, Andy Kauffman, a lot of comedians of the time used that relentlessness assault, that "sweet Jesus is he still not done with this stupid shit, yet?" For me it's like a somewhat dim child telling a very dim joke, and for ten minutes, he keeps telling you why it's so funny, breaking down the parts of the joke, explaining the punchline or the gag ad nauseum... For me, not funny.

R9, that's exactly what I feel. Sure, I "get" it, but apart from an initial chuckle, it quickly becomes tedious.

Fuck you OP. Die in a fire of grease.

Gilda as Olga Korbut (referring to Nadia Comaneci):

I would like to shove the balance beam in her eye.

You have no brains, no soul and no sense of humor, OP.

[quote] I don't mean to be rude.

Then why start a thread? You meant to be rude. It also seems like you're struggling to troll if this is all you can come up with.

[quote] Am I alone in thinking this?

Yes. Yes you are, OP.

She was fugly, but she had the personality and talent that made you love her anyway. Same goes for Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Imogene Coca, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Phyllis Diller and others.

That type of performers is missing today. Fugly women have to do something to make themselves sexy in some way. It's too bad they aren't just accepted for their talents.

She also spoke often of being a “fat kid” (her words) growing up. I loved her.

[quote] Am I alone in thinking this?

Yes.

R16. I agree with you. All of what you said but then I thought of Sandra Bernhard.

She was really pretty. Gene Wilder was a dick to her.

All comedy is very much about its time. OP can list their favorite comedians and 20 years from now younger people will not "get" them either

r19 Sandra Bernhard is an outlier -- homely and untalented and she still made it.

Got to meet her, just her and I and I have the "Gilda Live From New York" Broadway cast album signed. She was very sweet. There used to be the clip of her singing this song in the show which was filmed for theaters online but I can't find it. It's a really pretty song which she wrote and seemed touched when I told how much I loved it.

How was she any different than the dead Fatty whatshisface? He gets universal praise.

Gene Wilder bragged that when Gilda was too ill to have sex with him he never once demanded she satisfy him orally. He also had another woman on the side while Gilda was dying.

Wilder was a real mensch.

How can you not love this??

A lot of the comedy from SNL in the 70's doesn't really hold up. Landshark? Fishomatic? The cheeseburger skit?

There was a lot of crap on that show - a lot of frat boy humor and white male ego for stuff that just wasn't that funny.

Gilda had some great moments, but it was very hard for the women to stand out. SNL was, admittedly, a boys club and that only changed a bit with Tina Fey.

[quote] so you're saying it was more of a "charm" thing, rather than possessing a great comedic talent?

nope, she had flawless comedic timing.

I'd love to know what passes for humor for the neighing prisspots.

Carol Burnett and Golden Girls R30

They seem to like that.

And things they can tag with the all-encompassing term "cunty" -- being a "cunty" woman seems to be high on their list of aspirations.

OP you are not alone. Her one woman broadway show proved that she was best in small doses. She was always hit or miss and she made very little impression in films. That being said she was reported to be a lovely human and her early passing was a tragedy.

If you're going to be that way about it, none of the original SNL cast were terribly funny.

Loved her so much. She is missed.

I think the OP is just trolling. Gilda Radner was very funny and talented.

I read her memoir. It was so infuriating, what happened to her. She was having troubling symptoms; unusual fatigue, low grade fever, stomach cramps, bloating, constipation. The doctors she went to brushed her off. She was told to take Tylenol to bring down the fever. She was told she had Epstein Barr virus, whatever that was, and that it would probably go away on its own. She was told she had "mittelschmerz" or pain during ovulation. She was told she was a highly strung, depressed, stressed out, neurotic Jewish comedienne and just needed to relax. Finally, when she had pains in her legs and upper thighs and a distended belly, she was brought in for extensive tests. Fluid was taken from her belly and it was finally confirmed: she had four stage ovarian cancer. Her memoir is very honest and painful to read; she really went through hell with all the chemotherapy and treatments she endured to combat the cancer. But she truly believed she would survive it. But unbeknownst to her a doctor told Gene Wilder after her diagnosis "she doesn't have much chance."

I read Gene Wilder's memoir. His and Radner's relationship was a strange one. They didn't really get along very well, but they LOVED each other. Wilder describes how clingy she was, constantly pressuring him to marry her. He finally decided he needed to get away from her and when he did he said he realized that he was "addicted" to her and couldn't be away from her. So they married. He said she was "the most extraordinary woman I had ever met...not the prettiest, not the sexiest, not the most considerate, but the most generous and compassionate and original person I had ever known. She was a firefly who glowed in the dark and in the the light." He was with her all the way through her cancer ordeal and it was very difficult. During that time he became attracted to another woman, Karen Webb, who was helping him with some research about the deaf (he was doing a stupid movie called "See No Evil, Hear No Evil", where he played a deaf person). They didn't have an affair while Gilda was still alive, but he hooked up with her after Gilda's death and they eventually married and stayed married until his death. He had described her as "lovely" and a "vision" but I always thought she looked like a man in drag.

IMO, most of the SNL skits from that era don't hold up. Radner & Laraine Newman got lumped together in skits and they both looked anorexic to me. I think Gilda probably had more talent than was required of her at SNL.

The only thing I could probably still watch from that era of SNL is Bill Murray stuff, e.g., Nick the lounge singer.

OP, you ignorant slut.

Dumbass

There is a subset of DLers that only likes drag queen style humor

Check mate, OP

She was NOT fugly, she was cute - a cute Jewish girl.

I always loved Gilda as Rhonda Weiss, the ultimate JAP. If you've lived in the NYC Metro area, you've totally known these women.

[quote]He said she was "the most extraordinary woman I had ever met...not the prettiest, not the sexiest, not the most considerate...

I can't imagine a FUG like Gene Wilder not knowing how stupid that sounds.

The inspiration for Roseanne Roseanneadanna was Rose Ann Scamardella, a reporter for the local WABC channel 7 news in NYC at the time.

I wish I'd never read Gene Wilder's autobiography "Kiss Me Like a Stranger." He revealed himself to be a sociopathic narcissist to the extent that it's forever changed the way I view him and even taints my enjoyment of his film work. He was TOTALLY different from the image he projected onscreen, and Gilda was far too good for him (though he was sure he was too good for her).

[quote]Gilda as Olga Korbut

"Many young Romanian girls lose our chichnos to the parallel bars."

[quote]He was TOTALLY different from the image he projected onscreen

How different? You mean he wasn't the freaky looking dull asshole he was on the screen?

Yeah he was a complete asshole. Bill Murray was in love with her. I wish they'd ended up together. And then if Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman had been a couple, they'd all still be alive. Belushi can stay dead

He projected kindness, gentleness, and vulnerability, R47. In real life he was none of those things.

Exactly r49.

I never thought the Roseanna bit was funny. She reminds me of Ruth Buzzi. Nothing funny about them, IMO

Lots of Carrot Top and Gallagher fans on this thread too it seems!

[quote] Yeah he was a complete asshole. Bill Murray was in love with her. I wish they'd ended up together. And then if Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman had been a couple, they'd all still be alive. Belushi can stay dead

Bill Murray was in love with Gilda Radner? Aww, that's sweet! Bill seems like an asshole as well, but nice to know he "got" (understood and appreciate) Gilda.

Gene Wilder is cancelled!

All the viciousness at the OP for daring to question the sanctity of a sacred cow? I'm sure Gilda Radner was indeed a lovely person, and it's great that she brought/brings so much joy to so many people. But I've never found her particularly amusing either. Jan Hooks is far more my speed, when you're talking SNL women.

R53: You might enjoy this Bill Murray interview with Tom Snyder. They start talking about Gilda at 14:30-ish.

No you’re not alone op, and Gilda was not alone in not being funny.

I think Gilda was a gifted comedic actor, but the material she was given to work with has not worn well over the years. It's weird, to me SCTV is still really funny, but old SNL is mostly old hat.

Mad TV is also still funny, IMO.

Thanks, R56!

Was she cut or uncut?

I thought Gilda was extremely talented and funny. If you wanted the opposite, look up that hack Will Ferrell.

Gilda Radner and Bill Murray dated for a while but I don't know if he was "in love" with her. I don't know if she was in love with him. They probably did have fun together for a while.

Someone who is barely mentioned in Gilda Radner's story is G. E. Smith the guitarist who was her first husband. He's barely mentioned in her memoir. Why did she marry him? I guess because she just wanted to be married, to somebody. While still married to Smith she tried to start an affair with Wilder, according to him. They were doing that movie "Hanky Panky" and he was walking back to his hotel with her, where he knew she could get a cab and go to hers. He got a delivery of script changes for the next day's filming and Gilda wanted to know if there were any in there for her. So they go up to his room; just as he's about to escort her to the lobby she "threw me onto the king size bed and jumped on top of me." Then she says "I have a plan for some fun!" He jumps up and tells her "And I have a plan for an adorable little girl who's going home." She says "Come on, come on, you'll like it!" But he demurs saying "Maybe I would....actually it's very possible. But I don't wish to be an adulterer. Vous comprenez?"

Later she tells him she's unhappy in her marriage: "I've only been married a little over a year and he's a dear, sweet man and I care about him, I really do care about him, but he's very troubled right now, and I'm starting to go crazy. When he drove me to the movie location the night that you and I met, I cried the whole way in, all the way from Connecticut, because I knew I was going to fall in love with you and leave my husband." He's astonished and tells her "you don't know me and I don't know you...don't you meet any nice men who make you happy?" She tells him she only meets dumb jerks who want her to go to England, or Brazil or on their yacht where they drink champagne, snort coke and introduce her to their girlfriends and friends to the famous Gilda Radner.

Wilder asks her "If your marriage is so bad why don't you get our of it?" And she says "I'm afraid to be alone." I think it was amazing Wilder married her if she were that needy and neurotic. I guess it was a kind of co-dependence going on between them. An "addiction", it would seem.

Surprised at the vicious nature of some responses. I just think her comedic "style" hasn't aged well, and she perhaps deserved better material.

OP, it's OK not to be enammoured of a performer everybody else thinks is swell. I think it was Gilda's timing that set her above and apart from many other comedy leads of the day. Noel Coward could never understood how an actor or singer firmly entrenched in the biz could throw a whole production out of kilter in one performane by singing or acting through a laugh.

Wow, I think I would have preferred musician G. E. Smith to Gene Wilder.

G.E. Smith reminds me of a dwarf, although he's a little too tall to qualify.

I remember Steve Martin hosting SNL either the day she passed or a few days after she passed but he paid a loving tribute to Gilda and when they broke for commercial the camera was on G.E. playing his guitar.

[quote]There is a subset of DLers that only likes drag queen style humor

That, and the maudlin subset that only only likes their comedians dead.

And the subset that thinks that life stopped around 1988, the last year they could fit into their "pulling" jeans and have a good night out at the Parliament House, the Golden Age of Shit TV, and when they had the arrival of the new International Male catalogue to look forward to.

Lorne was asked once if SNL was a boy's club and he said it wasn't for Gilda or Jan Hooks or Maya...or Jane

Gilda was a fine sketch comic, but I didn't like her in much else.

Of the three woman, Lauraine was 23 (too young) and Jane Curtin was very funny but in a sitcom way.

This gave Gilda all the choice female parts. The same way Garrett Morris got all the black parts. I think there was even some sketch on SNL, which Garrett throwing a fit, because he said he got ALL THE BLACK parts and should be playing the black woman.

GE Smith looks like Lurch

My mother thought Roseanne Rosanna Danna was hilarious. But then my mother thought Hee Haw was funny, and Minnie Pearl.

R68 The International Male catalogue was nothing to sniff at.

It was a big deal when it passed, because she had gone into a remission and it was reported that she had beaten it. I remember her appearing on It's Garry Shandling's Show and what a big deal it was. It looked like she was on the verge of a big comeback when she found her cancer had returned and passed within a short period.

She was actually supposed to host the season finale of SNL in 1988 but the Writers Strike that spring forced to show the end early.

OP must be Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, New Jersey.

Gilda Radner - why not?

She was hilariously funny.

It's so strange to see SNL skits where no one is reading off cue cards. The actors actually cared and knew their lines.

Say what you want about the original SNL cast, but they were total pros (even when they were stoned out of their minds) and never fucked up on live TV.

I loved the "Nerd of Seduction" sketch where Todd is trying to seduce Lisa. Bill Murray was so funny that Gilda was breaking up in laughter and the audience knew it. It was wonderful.

R74 Mr. Richard Feder is a real person, formerly from Fort Lee, NJ.

Bill Murray is a massive asshole and was an asshole to her. I think since her death he claims he was in love yada yada but while she was alive he was trash to her. All the men were trash to the women on that set and felt women weren’t funny and had no place in comedy.

Bill Murray once said he never found Lucille Ball to be funny. Not once.

Prick.

Maybe Murray didn't find Lucille Ball's brand of humor (broad slapstick) funny. I can see his reasoning that way.

I loved her Christina Crawford and her Claudine Longet.

OP - no sure how old you are, and everyone has their own sense of humor; but one aspect of early SNL and Letterman lost on younger viewers was just the refreshing humor of seeing stupid shit on network TV that was upfront about its own stupidity, instead of all the rest of the stupid shit on TV that took itself very seriously. There were other earlier examples of this: Ernie Kovacs, aspects of Burns & Allen and Green Acres, but the late 70’s was when this particular sensibility really took off. See the “Isn’t It ‘Ironic’” issue of the old Spy Magazine.

Gilda was endearing, OP. Who do you find endearing?

R77, all these years it's been going on and I still can't believe what I'm seeing when they stand there and read off the cue cards. It's simply unprofessional.

[quote] Gilda as Olga Korbut (referring to Nadia Comaneci):

What does this mean, R12? Do you not know who Olga Korbut is?

R82 and he would be right about that.

He said he never found her funny, r88. If he never found her funny, of course he's right about saying that he never found her funny. Why would he say he never found her funny if he *did* find her funny?