The Comedian is the 21st episode of the series George and Martha that aired on June 6, 1999. It's sister episode is The Prize.
Summary[]
It is amateur night at The Chuckle Hut comedy club, and George and Martha attend. George says that comedy is easy, and tells a joke that goes "What do you get when you cross a banana peel with another banana peel?". The answer is "a big banana peel", but George tries to come up with a better solution, until he is told "a pair of slippers". They are admitted inside and meet Oscar and Wilde drinking a big drink, saying it's so big you can swim in it. They tell George and Martha to jump in and get a straw, but George responds with that he forgot his bathing suit.
The show begins with the host, Jay Rhino, interrupted by Bud and Valerie who are already chuckling by the words of "good evening". Jay reminds everyone to be good for the amateur performances, as some are scared jackrabbits which is funny because there are literally jackrabbits in the audience. Nonetheless, Bud and Valerie don't get it. Duke and Anton perform first. Duke says that he didn't know how to get to club, so he asked a police officer who told him to just "wing" it. Anton says that he doesn't know why the food he eats takes so long to go down to his stomach, as he's got things to do, which doesn't get a single laugh. In fact, nothing he says gets a laugh as they are strictly giraffe jokes, but Duke is the one who is funny.
After they leave, Jay announces it's time for the lucky audience member to come up on stage. Oscar and Wilde and Martha insist that George should go up, but he isn't sure that comedy is so easy. However he decides to come up after everyone else is too frightened. Jay gives him the microphone, and while George is a bit nervous at first, he starts telling jokes with pun punchlines, which makes everyone in the whole club to laugh. After a while Jay starts getting impatient, but George has a million jokes. His show ends when the gorilla guard yanks him off with a cane. After that, all his friends were wowed at his funny performance. The next day, as George and Martha are setting up a cookout, George asks Martha if her refrigerator is running, which she replies with yes. He tells her that he better hurry up and catch it, which they both find funny. George then asks Martha if she'll miss that tree in their backyard, because it's "leafing".
Duke and Anton come to the backyard with potato salad, which George answers that he hopes it is better than last time, as even the rats in the trash didn't like it. Martha calls out George, but George says they can take a joke. Oscar and Wilde also come and Wilde has a loud, vintage shirt. George jokes that if it were any louder, it would need earplugs. After everyone finishes eating, George jokes that Oscar is a "stuffed alligator", and Duke ate "like a bird". Everybody leaves as they had enough, even though Martha says they didn't have dessert yet. Later that night, George tells jokes to himself in the mirror, and he eats the cookies on the plate while waiting for his friends to show up to play cards. But he ends up falling asleep and waking up when Martha arrives with snacks. She starts making insulting jokes about his tie and hats, which makes him realize how awful he was to his friends. George is sure that Martha thinks he's a perfect idiot, but Martha replies with, "nobody's perfect", making them laugh.
Trivia[]
- Jay Rhino is likely a reference to Jay Leno.