From the CNN.com story on Johnny Carson's death:
The former talk show host did find an outlet for his creativity: He wrote short humor pieces for The New Yorker magazine, including "Recently Discovered Childhood Letters to Santa," which purported to give the youthful wish lists of William Buckley, Don Rickles and others.
Well whaddaya know. I'd like to read that, actually, and had I known he was writing for The New Yorker I'd have checked out the magazine more frequently. I had no idea he'd written for them: he does not appear in the 2001 Fierce Pajamas anthology, although Ian Frazier is, to my taste, over-represented (am I the only one who finds "Dating Your Mom" to be seriously un-funny?). I'll bet he was good.
I say that as one who makes his own attempts at writing humor: I'll bet Johnny Carson's humor pieces were good. I'll bet they were funny.
(Hat tip on this discovery: Joe Gandelman at Dean Esmay's blog)
Posted by Craig Ceely at January 23, 2005 04:13 PM