> I'd take Sahl with a big grain of salt on that issue. He hasn't been
> especially funny since, well, 1964 or so, so when he bitches about
> Franken and Moore raking in people's attentions, I can't help but
> suspect more than a little resentment over a career stalled since the
> Johnson administration. (And he's friends with a lot of right-wing
> assholes.)
>
> Mort Sahl? Christ, he's deader'n Lenny Bruce.
I believe that Sahl endorsed Al Haig in the '88 Sweepstakes. Dunno if it was supposed to be a joke, but even if it wasn't, it was.
There's a tendency among older comics to act as judge/jury/executioner for the younger crowd. Mostly it's out of jealousy or resentment, and most times it's hypocritical (Buddy Hackett used to moan on the Carson show about the "blue comics" that were supposedy ruining the business, then he'd appear in Vegas doing profanity-laden routines, usually based on dick jokes). Once in a while an older comic gets it and approves -- Rodney Dangerfield is like that, having backed the likes of Andy Kaufman and Sam Kinison.
DP