I have a greeting card with a black and white photo of a man sitting on a park bench, just convulsed in laughter by something, we know not what. (See here and here for the often confusing consequences of my time spent in front of greeting card stands rather than pursuing more noble activities.)
The card reads, “Don’t some sights just make you smile?”
Well, yes, like this look-alike for Arte Johnson in his Laugh-In persona.
Very interesting.
At hiking camp this last week, I realized how generations changed. We used to sing campfire songs (you know what I mean by that) and this time the only thing the other campers knew were pop songs from the 60s and 70s. I’m fairly sure most of the hikers wouldn’t know what Laugh-In was, let alone Arte Johnson. Ah, sock it to me….
Jim
Jim T – Yes, I understand the problem. When teaching (and this was in the late 1980s), I alluded to a broad, socially memorable event by comparing it to everyone remembering where they were when they heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated. Then I looked at these 20-year-olds and said, “You don’t remember that, do you?” There was a pause and someone said, “We weren’t born yet.” Sock it to me, indeed.