Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Uncle Josh in a Barber Shop - Cal Stewart
2. Cohen at the Telephone - Barney Bernard
3. Two Black Crows (Pt. 1) - Moran & Mack
4. Dr. Kronkite and His Only Living Patient - Smith & Dale
5. Sam and Henry at the Dentist's - Sam 'N' Henry
6. Temperance Lecture - W.C. Fields
7. Who's on First? - Bud Abbott, Lou Costello
8. Morgan on Wagner - Henry Morgan
9. Komodo Drangon, Gabe Presten #1 - Bob Elliot, Ray Goulding
10. Little Blue Riding Hood - Stan Freberg
11. Pal-Yat-Chee (Pagliacci) - Spike Jones
12. Al 'N Yetta - Allan Sherman
13. Pollution - Tom Lehrer
14. Impossible Dream (The Quest) - The Smothers Brothers
15. Men - Martin Mull

Disc 2:

1. Hope in Russia [Excerpt] - Bob Hope
2. At the Hungry I [Excerpt] - Mort Sahl
3. Point of View; Ku Klux Klan - Lenny Bruce
4. New Year's Eve Bust - Dick Gregory
5. Wide Wide World of War - Committee
6. Stand by Your Dan - Capitol Steps
7. Best of the Worst Of [Excerpt] - Henny Youngman
8. Assortment of Yarns: Morris of Arabia/Matzo Ball Soup/Goldberg and ... - Myron Cohen
9. Beauty Parlor - Phyllis Diller
10. Joan Talk About...: Rock Stars/Men Vs. Women - Joan Rivers
11. Hitchhiking - Steven Wright

Disc 3:

1. Morning After the Night Before - Shelley Berman
2. What It Was, Was Football - Andy Griffith
3. Chauffeur and the Professor - Jerry Clower
4. Bill Cosby Goes to a Football Game - Bill Cosby
5. N.Y. N.Y. ; L.A. L.A. - David Brenner
6. Football Comes to the University of Chicago - Second City
7. Sister Mary Elephant - Cheech & Chong
8. Catch It and You Keep It - National Lampoon
9. 16 Golden Bits - The Credibility Gap
10. Rewriting the National Anthem - Albert Brooks

Disc 4:

1. Funniest Woman in the World [Excerpt] - Moms Mabley
2. Astronaut - Bill Dana, Don Hinkley
3. 2000 and Two Year Old Man - Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner
4. Get a Horse/Lost - Rodney Dangerfield
5. Diet - Buddy Hackett
6. Women in Paris - Redd Foxx
7. Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television - George Carlin
8. Civil Defense (No Talking) - Robert Klein
9. Ugly Baby - Flip Wilson
10. Washington Heights; Survival - Freddie Prinze
11. Heart Attacks - Richard Pryor
12. Mad at My Mother - Steve Martin
13. Lorena Bobbitt - Robin Williams

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #351994 in Music
• Released on: 1995-05-23
• Format: Box set

Customer Reviews

A Scholarly Sampling Of Comedy
I had wanted this pricey CD box set for years. It was frankly, disappointing. Some of the recordings at the beginning, (they're listed chronologically), are of such poor quality that they're difficult to understand. Even though it was truly interesting listening to the individual styles, it's sort of a listen once then file it kind of deal. It's not something I'd listen to repeatedly or bring out at parties. I was also sorry to hear that many of the more recent entries have concepts or words that aren't appropriate for children to listen to, (i.e.Robin Williams' take on Lorena Bobbitt). It's not like Robin Williams has never worked clean and been funny at the same time.

On the more positive side, I learned a lot, both from the recordings and also from the extensive newspaper-style liner notes that accompany it. It also contains several comedy bits I remember having heard as a child in the 60's, such as those by the Smothers Brothers, Flip Wilson, and the classic "Who's On First" by Abbott & Costello. Okay, all things considered I guess I'm not sorry I bought it. It brought back memories, and allowed me to share some of them with my neice and nephew.

Totally disappointing comedy box leaves 'em asking...
RHINO really screwed up with THE AMERICAN COMEDY BOX.

The cover has a raised image in plastic of a pair of Groucho gag eyeglasses (with nose and mustache). But look inside the package-- there's not a Marx Brother to be found anywhere! An excerpt of one of Groucho's many 1940s radio appearances would have been most welcome here. Speaking of radio--

There's -nothing- from Burns & Allen, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, Fred Allen or Fanny Brice-- vaudeville and radio stars all. So what do we get from that great comic medium? A lesser Stan Freberg single, a weak Henry Morgan track and two tepid Bob & Ray routines-- and that's IT. Oh-- and where are Jonathan Winters, Prof. Irwin Corey, Don Rickles, Bob Newhart, Pat Cooper, Rusty Warren, Don Adams and so many others? There's no Firesign Theater or P.D.Q. Bach on this album, either. So, why not???

A further problem are the tracks that ARE here. Smith & Dale were certainly "Pioneers," yet their recording isn't vintage-- it's the last one these old vaudevillians made, from the early 1960s. It seems that in the majority of other cases, better material was available. For instance, why an excerpt of 2000 AND TWO YEAR OLD MAN and not the original classic Brooks & Reiner routine? Why a Tom Lehrer song from 1965, instead of his great earlier stuff, or "Al 'N Yetta" rather than "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah"? ALL bad bad choices!

The guaranteed-to-disintegrate tabloid-style newspaper liner notes are a poor decision, too-- mine has already yellowed and frayed. Finally, why do the four CDs average only an hour each? For these reasons and more, THE AMERICAN COMEDY BOX could have been so much better! NOT recommended.

TOTAL RUNNING TIMES --
DISC ONE (Pioneers/Radio & The Movies/Musical Comedy) -- 59:47
DISC TWO (Political Humor/One-Liners) -- 48:04
DISC THREE (Storytellers/Sketches) -- 62:26
DISC FOUR (Characters/Stand-Ups) -- 60:51

Memorable...but disappointing...
Four CDs' worth of memorable moments from recorded comedy in the 20th Century. It can't help but be disappointing, at times, considering the breadth of material that could have been included, but one unforgivable flaw is that the CDs are simply not filled to capacity. (One disc is barely fifty minutes long, for example). Considering the asking price ..., this is inexcusable. That said, many great comics are represented (Lenny Bruce, Reiner and Brooks, Tom Lehrer, W.C. Fields, Shelley Berman, Spike Jones, Abbott and Costello, Allan Sherman, Bob and
Ray, Bill Cosby, George Carlin, the Credibility Gap and Steven Wright), as well as good to middling material from lesser lights. The liner notes (in the form of a mock newspaper--again with the chintz) are OK.