Talk:Jack Handey
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[edit] His realness
Just a couple points on if he exists or not. Jack Handey's deep thoughts first appeared in George Meyer's Army Man zine in the 1980s. Well before they became a gag on SNL, so if it was a Phil Hartman gag it wasn't something started for SNL. He was also a writer on SNL for years, even when he wasn't doing deep thoughts.
Handey also regularly writes comedy pieces for magazines like The New Yorker and was listed as a writer for things other than SNL (check the IMDB page) so if it is a pseudonym it is one used for a lot of comedy writing, not just deep thoughts, and one used for a few decades. Seems kind of an odd thing for a professional comedian to do...
- The article currently strongly implies if not outright states that he narrated his own quotes on SNL. My recollection is that it was the unmistakeable voice of Phil Hartman. --82.32.12.68 12:19, 7 March 2006 (UTC)
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- Hartman did not recite the entire "Deep Thought" segment, he just introduced it (IIRC). Richard K. Carson 03:31, 3 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] A Handy Guy?
This article was under Jack Handy and numerous sites on the Internet have his name spelled that way. But the IMDb has his name as Jack Handey and I assume that is actually the correct spelling. So I moved it. —Frecklefoot 15:38, Apr 22, 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Is he real?
I've always been under the impression that Jack Handey/Handy was just a name used by the SNL writers for Deep Thoughts and Fuzzy Memories.
If you are real, Jack Handey, show thyself!
- Well, he does have an entry in the IMDb, and I doubt they'd have an entry on someone who isn't real. But, it doesn't have a birthdate for him (and they have everybody's birthdate) and his "body of work" is quite sparse. Perhaps he isn't real. Clearly, more research devoted to this is required. Thank you for bringing it up. — Frecklefoot | Talk 17:02, Jan 17, 2005 (UTC)
Here you go:
It's a pseudo-interview with him from the google cache. (The non-cached version requires a subscription.) Most of the questions are jokes, but he does give a bit of autobiographical info at the beginning.
[edit] Quotes
Where should we draw the line on the quotes section? After all, we have a whole host of his quotes on Wikiquote. — Frecklefoot | Talk 19:43, Mar 3, 2005 (UTC)
- I moved them all to Wikiquote. It seems to me, though, that one Deep Thought would be appropriate in the article, just to give a sense of what his humor is like. But-- who among us is fit to choose just one Deep Thought that stands above the rest? Not I, I'm afraid. Fishal 18:46, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Pseudonym?
It's my understanding that Jack Handey is a psuedonym for Al Franken (although I've also heard it was started by Phil Hartmann then picked up by Franken).
- See the discussion above. Apparently he's real, though I couldn't read the linked article (it requires a subscription). — Frecklefoot | Talk 16:04, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)
I would swear that he might be a pseudonym for Steve Martin himself. Listen: possibly because the "real" Handey was supposedly a writer for Martin, it happens that the style of the jokes sounds a lot like something Martin would deliver. Another thing that makes me wonder is the coincidence of his wife supposedly being named "Marta." Martin has been publishing in the New Yorker's "Shouts and Murmurs" section for over a decade, so it would be no problem for him to submit Handeyesque pieces and ask that they be published under that name. Of course, if Handey is indeed real, Martin could have been his New Yorker connection. Verbminx
Steve Martin has been quoted as saying that Jack Handy was a neighbor whom he introduced to Lorne Michaels, but again, it could still be him or part of an in joke:
From: http://www.compleatsteve.com/writer/essays_about.
New York Post October 1, 1999
Martin writes off fried shrimp days
Martin quit stand-up years ago, but the likes of Stanley Tucci, Richard Avedon and Don Hewitt were holding their sides Wednesday night at Michael's on West 55th as he read "Disgruntled Former Lexicographer," his latest piece for The New Yorker. Afterward, editor David Remnick led a rousing conversation with the actor/producer/comic and New Yorker contributor. Asked which writers have most influenced him, Martin confessed, "I'd love to say S.J. Perelman and Thurber, but really, it's Mason Williams and Woody Allen and Bruce J. Friedman. And Jack Handy." Handy, Martin explained, was a neighbor, who, after Martin introduced him to Lorne Michaels, landed a writing gig at "Saturday Night Live." "And I'm like, 'wait a minute! That's my neighbor!' It's those kind of things that really influence you - greed, jealousy." Martin calls his standup days "the most uncreative period" of his life. "At the end of the day you're eating fried shrimp in a Holiday Inn. It was a rock star's existence - without the girls." Writing has brought him "more respect in Hollywood." He doesn't even mind being edited, because he's lousy at grammar. "But I'm getting better. Or is it best?"
(After a little more research:) Okay, now I believe he's definitely real. Either that, or everyone's in on the joke and no one's talking. Here, he's quoted in an article about George Meyer, writer for the Simpsons: http://www.newyorker.com/printables/shouts/060320sh_shouts
The writer Jack Handey, with whom Meyer once shared an office, says, “It’s almost as though George believed it would be bad karma to say anything bad about another person.”
psage
I tried to clean up the article to reflect all this discussion. Fishal 06:54, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Plagiarism allegation
65.27.176.94 has twice added an allegation of plagiarism to this page regarding the "screaming trees" joke. The second time it said:
- This was originally a joke told by George Carlin in his shows through the 70s and 80s.
I'm removing this unless a source can be produced. -- Earle Martin [t/c] 22:31, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Parenting Tip #2738
I think when diarrhea gets smeared on the new couch, it really doesn't matter anymore.
