No more Sledge-O-Matic

November 11, 2022 10:22 AM

Gallagher has passed. Comedian Gallagher, who tormented audiences with smashed fruit through many years, has passed. After making a solid career working his same act over and over again, then becoming a mean, right wing crank, he has died. "And there was much rejoicing".
posted by Windopaene (77 comments total)

And it has been a day of deaths, but, Measles vaccine inventor, Batman, and a truely talented comics artist, all on the same day. Only 3 of four dots...
posted by Windopaene at 10:24 AM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Of Irish-Croatian heritage. Hmmm. Not my fsvorite comedian. But from my point of view, so young.
posted by y2karl at 10:28 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh wow, he finally made me laugh
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:28 AM on November 11, 2022 [23 favorites]

.
posted by Glinn at 10:31 AM on November 11, 2022

And not to abuse the edit window, as I am pretty sure this post will be deleted for being "too mean", and not appropriate. BUT, a nuanced discussion of why so many aging comedians, (mostly cis-white males, I will admit), seem to take such a mean turn as they get older seems like something to discuss.
posted by Windopaene at 10:33 AM on November 11, 2022 [35 favorites]

Does this mean Ron is now free to bring back Gallagher two?


🍉
posted by TedW at 10:33 AM on November 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

why so many aging comedians, (mostly cis-white males, I will admit), seem to take such a mean turn

Some old people get mean as their brains turn to mush, but not all of them are given a stage and a mic.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:34 AM on November 11, 2022 [17 favorites]

Melons the world over breathe a sigh of relief.
posted by TedW at 10:35 AM on November 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

every watermelon is resting easier this afternoon
posted by heurtebise at 10:36 AM on November 11, 2022 [9 favorites]

Rest in pieces
posted by guiseroom at 10:37 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I had to check if his name was Kevin

.
posted by supermedusa at 10:41 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

i was never a fan of his, and didn't follow him in his later career, so if there are Issues then I don't know them. But I think he invented the idea of going to an indoor performance with a splash zone, and inventing something new in comedy - let alone something new in comedy that becomes an accepted thing in performances (Blue Man Group springs to mind) - is something.
posted by Mchelly at 10:54 AM on November 11, 2022 [7 favorites]

If you've not heard it before, you owe yourself the treat of listening to Marc Maron's (aborted) interview with Gallagher from 2011. Not recommended, though, if cringe is not your thing.
posted by carrienation at 10:58 AM on November 11, 2022 [7 favorites]

Invented something new in something or other, that is for sure.
posted by y2karl at 10:59 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I loved him when I was a kid, so always felt a pang when he took his mean turn (or just started being more up front about it). Sad he didn't take another before he died.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 11:05 AM on November 11, 2022 [15 favorites]

By all accounts a cautionary tale both in show business and offstage, but RIP.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:07 AM on November 11, 2022

If you've not heard it before, you owe yourself the treat of listening to Marc Maron's (aborted) interview with Gallagher from 2011. Not recommended, though, if cringe is not your thing.

I have a distinct memory of listening to that when he first put out the episode. The tl;dr on what Maron was getting at wasn't "You can't say that." He was literally asking, "How is that funny? How is that comedy?" in reference to Gallagher parroting tired, intensely bigoted dad jokes that have been around for a long, long time and calling that the sum total of his "act."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:12 AM on November 11, 2022 [11 favorites]

The blue on Gallagher: previously, previouslier, previousliest. The last link has a comment from someone who knew Gallagher, actually interviewed him for a documentary, and it doesn't so much excuse Gallagher for his many shortcomings as kind of explain them.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:15 AM on November 11, 2022 [31 favorites]

.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:17 AM on November 11, 2022

Gallagher and The Wid were the kings of national prop comedy acts back in the 80’s stand up heyday. Even if the act didn’t age well, it was ground (and watermelon) breaking for its time.

.
posted by dr_dank at 11:28 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Lindy West made the mistake of attending a Gallagher show
posted by LindsayIrene at 11:30 AM on November 11, 2022 [15 favorites]

I watched a couple of his stand-up specials many years ago, and apart from the silly melon-smashing bit I enjoyed them. Fun, light-hearted observational comedy that reminded me of early George Carlin (not duplicating Carlin, just mining similar veins of humor). I didn't know about the rest of it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:38 AM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

wow, that Maron podcast is ... something. I recognize so much of Gallagher's antagonism and anger - I've seen it in a lot of people. I'm impressed by Maron's ability to hold his own and keep poking at Gallagher and try to hold a mirror to him.
posted by hydra77 at 11:48 AM on November 11, 2022 [7 favorites]

And it has been a day of deaths, but,

something something taking solidarity with the dead of World War One a little too far ...
posted by philip-random at 11:58 AM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

.
posted by luckynerd at 12:11 PM on November 11, 2022

.
But also yeah, my dad took my sister and me to see Gallagher when we were probably 12 and 13 -- this was quite a long time ago -- and fully two-thirds of it was him ranting about how Johnny Carson wouldn't book him on the Tonight Show. We were really there for the smashing watermelons, and it took a very long time for him to get to that.
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:12 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

It’s too bad he didn’t die doing what he loved.
posted by varion at 12:29 PM on November 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

Halloween Jack - thank you for the previouslies - they provided a lot more context and background.
posted by davidmsc at 12:29 PM on November 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

.
posted by riruro at 12:37 PM on November 11, 2022

As a metafilter approved Jordan, Jesse, Go! fan, I have a lot of questions about racist Gallagher (like REALLY racist, apparently) and also about the whole Gallagher 2 thing, which my brain has never really been able to file.
For sure, I guess, everyone should rest in some sort of peace, man oh man!
posted by atomicstone at 12:50 PM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Had no idea who Gallagher was prior to this post (despite the previouslies – which my iPad tried to correct to 'previous lies').

But smashing watermelons is unavoidably a metaphor for smashing people's heads, is it not?

I mean, the shape, and then the sound which a bunch of things I’ve read use to try to give an idea of what breaking a living skull sounds like, and finally the reddish pink pulp that spills out . . .

Which makes the laughter the kind of laughter which blocks you from seeing what’s really going on, which in this case is kind of a stand-in for an extremely gross, vicious and bloody mass murder — like something out of a slaughterhouse.

So it doesn’t surprise me he ended up "becoming a mean, right wing crank" because that was built in from the beginning. A desublimation of the repressed, if you will.
posted by jamjam at 1:05 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

But smashing watermelons is unavoidably a metaphor for smashing people's heads, is it not?

There was not a scintilla of unexplained metaphor in Gallagher's work, I can assure you.
posted by Etrigan at 1:08 PM on November 11, 2022 [50 favorites]

I remember him doing this routine with the hat on Good Morning America. And of course the many specials and appearances with the sledge. I know he turned into a right wing kook, but he wasn't a Cosby, so I'll hold on to remembering he was the height of funny when I was 8.
posted by Catblack at 1:14 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Man, if it had been a metaphor though! Imagine the Dark Gallagher memes!
posted by mittens at 1:15 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

Had no idea who Gallagher was prior to this post (despite the previouslies – which my iPad tried to correct to 'previous lies').

But smashing watermelons is unavoidably a metaphor for smashing people's heads, is it not?

I know the author is dead and all, but apparently we've done away with the reader as well.
posted by mph at 1:17 PM on November 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

"... I think he invented the idea of going to an indoor performance with a splash zone..."
-- posted by Mchelly at 12:54 PM on November 11

At first I was gonna say that should go to G.G. Allin. Then I realized he had no splash zone. So, nevermind.
posted by symbioid at 1:47 PM on November 11, 2022 [10 favorites]

🔨
posted by clavdivs at 1:49 PM on November 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

So what you all are telling me is that the Platonic Ideal of his act was a bunch of jokes designed to express and especially incite hatred of some enemy or enemies (a hallowed function of jokes, to be sure), culminating in a climactic and cathartic smashing of watermelons which were explicitly substitutes for the heads of those enemies?

Well then.
posted by jamjam at 1:50 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

but it's more of a simile than a metaphor
posted by mittens at 2:01 PM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

My parents are quite old and it is safe to say that they did not accomplish what the most wanted to accomplish in life, and their dreams will follow them into the grave, and as I think about that (my father passed away in 2014), and the very real likelihood that I'm going to waste my life as well, it weighs me down, so I'm going to pretend that Gallagher didn't turn into a racist monster, and instead got on his pedal blimp and simply flew away at the peak of his career, never to be heard from again, and that my father was happy when he left us. The truth is a dull razor.
posted by mecran01 at 2:03 PM on November 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

Gallagher predated GG Allin & GWAR anyway.
posted by BrotherCaine at 2:04 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I feel obliged to post this review that I read....man alive, years ago. I'm surprised that a) it's still out there on the Internet and b) I could find it as quickly as I did.

TL;DR - Gallagher tried to do a show in Spanish. It goes about as well you'd expect.
posted by jquinby at 2:04 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

So I'm imagining something like the political compass, but I'm having trouble filling out all the quadrants.

So, we have:
Carrot Top
Gallagher
Weird Al
...

I would appreciate any suggestions.
posted by The Power Nap at 2:16 PM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I really like the smashing heads idea, jamjam. Very interesting.

(Can we let people share an idea without belittlement, please? I love the varied thoughts, but really get down when I see the snark)
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:16 PM on November 11, 2022 [5 favorites]

I have fond memories of his stuff from the 80s and watching with my dad. I don’t know how it would hold up today, but I remember him being kind of Carlin-lite and no hints of the meanness that seems to have consumed him later in life. Produce bashing notwithstanding. Hope there’s peace on the other side, sounds like he didn’t find that in life.
posted by jzb at 2:27 PM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

But smashing watermelons is unavoidably a metaphor for smashing people's heads, is it not?

I had never thought of that, but it completely squares with what he became. Or, more likely, he was always that way and just removed all filters.

From the article LindsayIrene posted, there was a line about him putting some rice on the table and then putting some fruit salad on the table. He said, "Hey look! It's the Chinese and the F**s together" and then smashed them.

Thanks for pointing it out. I never liked his comedy and was slightly annoyed by him and could never place why. I now get it.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 2:28 PM on November 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

The Power Map Don't forget Rip Taylor...
posted by Windopaene at 2:38 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I think one of the things the Maron interview does really well, is point out that there's a choice in paths for someone like Gallagher--and it gets to the whole metaphor question. I think a lot of comments on the prior threads point to this as well. You made millions in the 80s with some zany stuff that absolutely cannot survive unchanged because the new wears off of it pretty quickly. An audience can only see so many watermelons smashed by a gleeful cokehead doing infomercial patter. What do you do? You could reflect on your absurdity--an aging white guy who made a fortune in a weird way, your growing powerlessness and irrelevance in a changing world. Your smash routine could become deeply symbolic of the way your demographic is reacting to that change. What was Trump but a sledgehammer? The whole country was a splash zone. You could've gone some weird places with it, and it could've been shocking and funny. The link jquinby posted above, about the show where Gallagher tries to speak Spanish--imagine if he had done that as a show about a guy doing that, rather than, y'know, actually being a guy doing that, inflicting it on an unwilling audience. It would have been funny, it would have been acute, it would have sent the audience cringing and dying. It would've made a great TV episode. Self-satire rather than violence.

But instead he chooses the path where, instead of a metaphor, instead of symbolism, it's all just real, just open id, all aggression and "I know what you state fair people like!" The most jaundiced view possible of your audience, with no reflection on yourself or your place in the universe whatsoever. It's shallow, it maintains the hackiness of the 1980s work but adds a sort of nausea to the whole proceedings. And I guess people still ate it up (some people), because "He's saying what we're all thinking!"

It's not like the choice is between utter self-loathing and "I'm a respected chemist and professors ask me my opinion on things AND I'm a comedy expert, now here's some racism!" You don't have to do the self-loathing. You just have to have that distance, that reflection. And for whatever reason, he really, really didn't want to indulge in that. It's not even that he chose the big bucks over art, because...I mean, toward the end there, how much was he even making? He just chose to become a smaller, meaner person.

I guess if you've got to be an object lesson, that's one way to do it?
posted by mittens at 2:53 PM on November 11, 2022 [21 favorites]

Who on the surface wasn't gay? Well played, sir...
posted by Windopaene at 2:53 PM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

*misreads as "Darth Gallagher"*


Man, if it had been a metaphor though! Imagine the Dark Gallagher memes!

*light-sledge[1] WHOOMPS into existence*

I AM YOUR FATHER, LUKE. COME TO THE CRINGE SIDE

Never, Edgewood Gallagher!

...

Somewhere far away, in a swamp:

Smash melons you will, exert force you must!

[1] as opposed to a light sledge, which really aren't all that effective unless the target is suitably fragile
posted by allium cepa at 2:54 PM on November 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

Hey, someone else remembers the 90's VH1 special he did with his daughter Aimee.
His persona in the 80s seemed (to me) on the edge of hippie, with some positive affirmations for thinking different, and calling out certain apparent absurdities in society at large.
All I can recall at the moment was him talking about a program that was taking blind people hunting. "How do you make a noise that doesn't sound like a deer?" has stuck with me.
I'm sorry he couldn't live up to that persona, but twisted it into punching down.
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 4:07 PM on November 11, 2022 [9 favorites]

I don't think the bitterness was just about not being famous enough. I grew up in a cultural landscape where he was a comedy punchline - like verbal shorthand for "gimmicky hack," which has to wear on an entertainer even if they're consistently working.
posted by Selena777 at 4:07 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I have vague memories of Gallagher specials in the 80s, where his comedy was more stuff like English is hard because we pronounce the same letters in so many different ways. Like, pretty innocuous stuff that was amusing to me as a kid. Such a shame. Also, let’s just be realistic, if you are Gallagher and you take yourself 1% seriously, then you are taking yourself way too seriously.

The Power Nap:

I’m not sure what your quadrants represent exactly, but your fourth one might be Pee Wee Herman.
posted by snofoam at 4:59 PM on November 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

why so many aging comedians, (mostly cis-white males, I will admit), seem to take such a mean turn

My theory is that many (maybe most) comedians build their careers on types of comedy that become outdated - often embarrassingly so - and live to see their formerly successful routines become mocked or even despised. This is especially true of comedians who mined "let's pick on the vogue marginalized group" vein. They find themselves in a position where they have to either just say "yeah, I shouldn't have made those jokes, here are some new jokes about totally different things" (rare) or "let me give you a long lecture on the history of comedy and how dreadful I can't make those jokes," (common) or "there was never anything wrong with those jokes and I'll keep making them because FREEDOM" (Gallagher, Chapelle, etc).

Anyhow, in short, they get frozen in amber at the moment of their success
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:02 PM on November 11, 2022 [8 favorites]

Gallagher in a minute-long non-offensive nutshell. He explicitly calls out himself and his audience for not adapting and changing.
posted by infinitewindow at 5:05 PM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'd solemnly don formal trash bags for the splash zone at the funeral.
posted by Pronoiac at 7:21 PM on November 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

He made me laugh back when he had similar kind of monologue as George Carlin (having something meaningful to say through comedy) between smashing fruit and splashing the audience.

Shame he changed, shrunk, and turned mean.
posted by filtergik at 8:17 PM on November 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Just last week i saw Jim Tews doing a bit called "Conspiracy Theory Gallagher" which references the right-wing stuff.

https://youtube.com/shorts/YMrkBG-NTFE

Seems like that material's obsolete now, what with the man being dead and all.
posted by anhedonic at 8:50 PM on November 11, 2022

I saw one of his specials back in the 1980s and was entertained. I went on youtube and found a clip of an old five minute set he had that had some pretty good word play jokes.
posted by interogative mood at 9:08 PM on November 11, 2022

In the late 90’s, Gallagher played a free show at my college. He came out and delivered his bad jokes, and had some other guy come out to do all the hammer smashing.

Was this Gallagher 1.5?
posted by kpmcguire at 9:17 PM on November 11, 2022

Metallagher - the Metal band Gallagher mixup!
posted by djseafood at 10:16 PM on November 11, 2022

So I'm imagining something like the political compass, but I'm having trouble filling out all the quadrants.

So, we have:
Carrot Top
Gallagher
Weird Al
...

I would appreciate any suggestions.

I think it all depends on whether you think Carrot Top is Chaotic Evil or Chaotic Good. So it's either Pee Wee Herman/Robin Williams/The Amazing Jonathan or Freddy Krueger.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 11:52 PM on November 11, 2022

I don't think Weird Al belongs on that list; doesn't really fit the definition of a 'Prop Comic'.

If you wanted to genre-bend, I'd include Penn Gillette instead. But he's part of another Doug Henning / David Copperfield / Criss Angel / quadrant, so that's a derail nobody needs.
posted by bartleby at 1:01 AM on November 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

I really liked Gallagher back in the day. I re-watched his 1983 special "The Maddest" on Amazon Prime yesterday, because that is the one I remembered parts of, and to be honest, I still find it kind of funny. Not high comedy nor highly intellectual, but some amusing observations nonetheless. I even liked the smashing stuff part, though it was mainly his commentary and presentation. He was cute and funny and self-deprecating and even a bit original. I'm pretty sure I've never seen another comic bring a trampoline on stage.

It was less problematic than I expected. There was an offhand comment about busses taking children to the wrong schools, and some gendered stuff that would be considered mildly offensive today... but from all that has been said above, he really went all-in on that kind of thing in recent years. He sounds positively unhinged in that AVC interview.

Anyway, . I guess.

(To be honest, the most interesting thing about the show was the shots of the crowd. So much feathered hair parted in the middle! So much blush! Mustaches galore!)
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:08 AM on November 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

can't not think about the girl who forcibly befriended me in the lunch room one day when I was ~15, invited me over to her house that evening, then proceeded to talk at great length to me in her bedroom about how much she loved Gallagher, she really really really loved Gallagher

don't remember her giving a reason for loving Gallagher; it wasn't even clear that she thought he was especially funny? like you know the way some Christians are really into Jesus, like they're actual fans of the Son of God on a personal level? it was kinda like that, but with Gallagher

day or so later she sent me a suicide note & I had no idea what to do so I handed it to my dad, who is a psychologist so I figured he'd know how to do something, & went to go cry in bed for a while

saw her around in school after that but we never talked again, I hope she's doing okay
posted by taquito sunrise at 6:21 AM on November 12, 2022 [10 favorites]

The thing I got from Marin’s Gallagher interview was the sense of narcissistic entitlement. Like, his confidence that he had the answers and it was our fault for not appreciating his comedy talent. His dismissal of Leno and Letterman as taking some sort unearned “inside track” to tv success while he was on the road completely ignores the hard work they did to achieve their success.

I feel like I’ve known that sort of person in the past and they are simply exhausting to be around, once their initial charisma wears off. It’s completely unsurprising to me that he wore out his welcome both in the industry and with the audience.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 7:06 AM on November 12, 2022 [1 favorite]

To be creative once, to have a great idea that people respond to well -- be it a song, or a short story, or a drawing, or a comedy routine involving smashing fruit -- is something that many people are capable of at least once. It does not diminish their achievement to say that.

To be creative and entertaining many times, spread out of a period of time, trying to hit the widest possible audience, is hellish.

An older comedian turning dark and angry is hardly unique. George Carlin went from clever wordplay and fart jokes to "Here's a list of people who should be set on fire," as an example. But what separates a Carlin from a Gallagher is that Carlin himself evolved, but his perspective didn't change; he threw punches at whomever else was out there punching down. He could've done the Greatest Hits tour, so to speak, spending his 50s and 60s just doing Seven Words You Can't Say On Television and Class Clown in Vegas auditoriums, but he kept working hard, honing his material, identifying the worst offenders to shred in his act again and again.

Longevity is an accomplishment, but longevity via repetition less so.
posted by delfin at 8:28 AM on November 12, 2022 [8 favorites]

My theory is that many (maybe most) comedians build their careers on types of comedy that become outdated - often embarrassingly so - and live to see their formerly successful routines become mocked or even despised. This is especially true of comedians who mined "let's pick on the vogue marginalized group" vein.

Dave Chappelle is currently living through this as we speak. . He's on SNL tonight, which is a strange pick, as one of the cast members is openly nonbinary/transgender.
posted by alex_skazat at 11:13 AM on November 12, 2022 [2 favorites]

Dave Chappelle is currently living through this as we speak

Time to update MeFi's axis of evil...
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:12 PM on November 12, 2022

I want to see Punkie Johnson roast Dave tonight.
posted by interogative mood at 3:39 PM on November 12, 2022

I listened the the entire Marc Maron interview with Gallagher, and wow--what an exasperating person he was. Maron can be pretty annoying in his own right, but he was appropriately combative. Gallagher didn't want to own up to his bigoted jokes.
posted by zardoz at 5:31 PM on November 12, 2022

To be honest, the most interesting thing about the show was the shots of the crowd. So much feathered hair parted in the middle

I'd never heard of Gallagher so I looked for a video to see what the sledgehammer bit was. I can't say I found it particularly hilarious (I also couldn't hear what he was saying), but the audience during the smashing was something else. The ones in the front rows, rushing to cover themselves with their plastic splash guards and then peek out and drop the guards as fast as possible so that they wouldn't miss anything. The body language and the expressions on the faces of these adults reminded me of nothing so much as the total unguarded glee toddlers have when you tickle them or play peekaboo or do any other delightful repetitive thing again and again and again. Just a sheer "eek! he's going to do it again! Better cover up! Is he going to do it again?! Eek!" delight from these people with mustaches and hair spray and suits.

It made me feel kind of hopeful, like maybe we never do lose the ability to just lose ourselves to helpless babylike delight given a sufficiently idiotic prompt.
posted by trig at 4:19 AM on November 13, 2022 [3 favorites]

Longevity is an accomplishment, but longevity via repetition less so.

One day at a time, buddy, one day at a time etc. etc. rinse and repeat and so on and so forth.
posted by y2karl at 2:05 PM on November 13, 2022

.
posted by NedKoppel at 9:29 PM on November 13, 2022

And in a strange twist Chappelle is not in the hot seat for transgender issues, but for antisemitic statements *throws hands up*
posted by alex_skazat at 1:37 PM on November 14, 2022

But also yeah, my dad took my sister and me to see Gallagher when we were probably 12 and 13 -- this was quite a long time ago -- and fully two-thirds of it was him ranting about how Johnny Carson wouldn't book him on the Tonight Show. We were really there for the smashing watermelons, and it took a very long time for him to get to that.

Here is Gallagher on the Tonight Show which was probably around the time of the 1979 oil crisis.

I wonder what he was talking about when he said that The Tonight Show wouldn't book him.
posted by chinesefood at 11:16 AM on November 24, 2022

Gallagher's friend, fellow comedian Bill Kirchenbauer, posted a video on 19 Nov, talking about their friendship, and about some of the mechanics of Gallagher's career. It's a little rambly, but interesting. (via Mark Evanier's blog.)
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 9:07 PM on December 7, 2022