Dick Martin

The goofy comedian who co-hosted Laugh-In

Dick Martin

1922–2008

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In 1952, Dick Martin was an aspiring actor moonlighting as a bartender. One night, in walked Dan Rowan, who was also struggling in show business. He noticed Martin eating a banana. “Why are you eating a banana?” Rowan asked. “If you’ve ever eaten here,” Martin replied, “you’d know.” Thus was born one of America’s great comedy teams, whose celebrity would culminate when Rowan and Martin hosted NBC’s groundbreaking series Laugh-In.

Born in Battle Creek, Mich., Martin grew up in Detroit and left at 20 for Hollywood, said The New York Times. Together, he and Rowan “quickly found their shtick.” Rowan would be the sophisticated straight man, Martin “the laid-back lunk.” In their first routine, Rowan played a Shakespearean actor doing Hamlet; Martin was a drunken heckler. “They took their act on the road, inching up the club-circuit pecking order.” TV gigs soon followed, including 16 appearances on Ed Sullivan. Eventually, producer George Schlatter cast them as the hosts of a new NBC series.

“Laugh-In‚ which debuted in January 1968, was unlike any comedy-variety show before it,” said the Associated Press. There were no conventional skits or musical numbers. Instead, the audience was deluged with an “almost stream-of-consciousness” barrage of quips, non sequiturs, sight gags, and double entendres. Many became classics: Judy Carne saying, “Sock it to me!” and getting doused with water; Arte Johnson as a German soldier intoning, “Verrry interestink!”; Lily Tomlin as Ernestine the phone operator, chortling, “One ringy-dingy.” Presiding over the mayhem were the serious Rowan and the doofusy Martin, “full of bogus, often risqué theories about life, which he appeared to hold with unwavering certainty.” At the end of each show, upon being told by Rowan to “Say goodnight Dick,” Martin would respond, “Goodnight, Dick!”

After Laugh-In’s five-year run, Rowan and Martin continued to work together, parting amicably in 1977; Rowan died 10 years later. Martin went on to direct episodes of various TV series, including The Bob Newhart Show, Archie Bunker’s Place, and Family Ties. He never lost his sense of humor: Arriving for his 80th birthday party, he fainted and, after being roused by paramedics, cracked, “Boy, did I make an entrance!”