Jackie Gleason and Frank Fontaine.
I watched them as a kid and that probably explains a lot about me that I’d rather not get into right now but suffice to say the jokes are corny, the virtues are from the early part of the past century (when beer came in pails) and the singing voice of Fontaine is still sublime.
Every week this bit with Gleason and Fontaine would open the same way – but Gleason would always do a little something different when he poured the beer to stop it from overflowing – usually a single finger or a thumb with a flourish – once, as I recall, with his elbow. Once they got past the stream of incredibly corny jokes (even for then) it would be time for Crazy Guggenheim to sing a song. Grand stuff.
I was 5 years old. I thought it was fucking hilarious. I didn’t understand half of what was being said. But I knew it was funny.
Why did I put this up here?
Why the fuck not?
Enjoy.
Cheers.
Tags: bars, beer, crazy guggenheim, drunk, frank fontaine, great old songs, i love the painted bottles on the back wall, jackie gleason, joe the bartender, no teeth, two old fat dead irish guys, we used to watch this as kids and always wanted to have a bar just like joe - but i wouldn't ear my apron under my armpits like that, why? why the fuck not?