Saturday, June 9, 2012

(today's zomby) And this incredible clip of Tiny Tim!

Why does the cat look happy and Zomby look worried?

I'm not sure I get this one.

I think the implication is that Zomby transmitted his... uh, zombie-ism to the cat in a wildly inappropriate way. I don't really like to think about it. You know what I'd rather think about? THIS!


A young Tiny Tim
That's right! It's one of the Twentieth Century's greatest all-around entertainers!

Tiny Tim (a.k.a. Herbert Khaury) performed the song "Earth Angel" with his all-girl backing band, the Enchanted Forest, on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1970. This was Ed's second to last year on the air, and it is clear from watching a clip of the show that the host was going out in that old proverbial blaze of glory. Imagine something this bizarre going out to millions of living rooms on Sunday night across the nation. Ed's behavior at the end of it is priceless. He forcibly takes the mike away from Tim like a humorless high school principal and inquires, "When you were down there, you didn't hurt yourself?" Notice how gentle and shy Tim is when he assures Old Stoneface that he's fine. What a marked difference from the wildly emotional performer we'd just seen a few moments earlier!

Tim made one final appearance The Ed Sullivan Show after this, but the greatest talent showcase television has ever known -- or will ever know -- disappeared for good on May 30, 1971 after 1,054 episodes. Ed himself died three years later at the age of 73. Tim, who claimed to know literally thousands of tunes and considered himself a traditional "song-plugger," soldiered on until 1996 when he collapsed during a performance for a women's church group in Minnesota and never regained consciousness. He was 64.