Buddy Hackett Live and Uncensored

How often does a stand-up comic make you laugh so hard that tears run down your face? Not that often, I'll wager. Most modern comedians can't even make me laugh out loud. Buddy Hackett could, consistently, even when what he actually said wasn't that funny. It was his delivery, his timing, his personality that made him such a natural comedian. Nobody has ever done it better in the entire history of show business. This show was a ground-breaker for the then-fledgling HBO network, because viewers had never before heard that kind of language coming out of a TV set. It's a piece of comedy history. And hey, we all need a good belly laugh every now and then. (Note: the profanity isn't particularly offensive or jarring by today's standards, but if you have small children you may wish to wait until they are asleep.)

20 years has done nothing to diminish the hilarity of this HBO Special. Even if you're not Jewish and have never visited the Catskills, Buddy Hackett's humour is timeless, tawdry and will have you wiping away the tears pouring down your face.

From his entre-nous-style raunchy recollections to his rapid-fire one-liners to his good-natured harassment of audience members, your abdominal muscles will be hurting for days and there will be a spot on the sofa that needs a shot of fabric cleaner from laughing so hard.

Watching Buddy Hackett's uncensored routines a quarter of a century after they were recorded and when a lot of the taboos that he broke in them are even longer gone is an odd experience. He's tremendously funny, in face and form and voice and his material is very funny.... but how much of its original humor is worthwhile? He tells dirty stories, he does fake Chinese accents, but at least part of the humor is due to taboo words: 'ass' 'dick' 'fart', 'shit'..... most of the taboo words that George Carlin finally laid to rest with his Seven words you can't say on TV' routine.

So what are you left with? A funny voice, a funny face, a manner of speaking to the audience honed in ten thousand night club shows..... yes, even when you discount the fact that I am of an age to understand, to *feel* the fun of saying these words, it's still very funny.