April 21st 2008 March 1981 Carson Monologue
In this monologue, Johnny introduces himself as a “supply-side” comedian, an economic joke that fell flat on the audience. Carson then brings up the Mr. Goodwrench commercials, where the guy in the red bow tie supplies consumers with the best service possible. Instead, he gets his car serviced by “Mr. Goodshaft.” Yes, Johnny is grabbing his ‘manhood’ as he makes this joke. The movement is slightly off camera, but definitely there.
Carson then introduces his show. He states that he had a really rough show the previous evening, and some clown yells out, “How rough was it?” Instead of laughing, said Carson, “they held up their green cards.”
According to Carson, this show was produced about a week before Walter Cronkite’s last appearance as a news anchor for The CBS Evening News. Cronkite served on this show for 19 years, and was known as “the most trusted man in America” because of his professional experience and demeanor. One of Cronkite’s trademarks was ending the CBS Evening News with the phrase, “…And that’s the way it is:”, followed by the date (keeping to standards of objective journalism, he omitted this phrase on nights when he ended the newscast with opinion or commentary).
Cronkite’s last day in the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News was on March 6, 1981 according to Wikipedia; he was succeeded the following Monday (the 9th) by Dan Rather. What’s so confusing about this is that Carson also references Van Gogh’s birthday. He states that Van Gogh was born on the day the show was produced, but Van Gogh was born on March 30. What’s the dealio?
