Make Me Laugh/Clean Kills and Other Trophies
- Episode aired Jan 6, 1971
- TV-PG
- 51m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
554
YOUR RATING
A fading comic asks a miracle worker's help in making people laugh. / Big game hunter Colonel Archie Dittman pressures his meek son to take up the sport or be disinherited.A fading comic asks a miracle worker's help in making people laugh. / Big game hunter Colonel Archie Dittman pressures his meek son to take up the sport or be disinherited.A fading comic asks a miracle worker's help in making people laugh. / Big game hunter Colonel Archie Dittman pressures his meek son to take up the sport or be disinherited.
Photos
Gene R. Kearney
- 2nd Bartender (segment "Make Me Laugh")
- (as Gene Kearney)
Michele Hart
- Miss Wilson (segment "Make Me Laugh")
- (as Michael Hart)
- Directors
- Walter Doniger(segment Clean Kills and Other Trophies)
- Steven Spielberg(segment Make Me Laugh)
- Writer
- Rod Serling(segment Make Me Laugh)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn a 2023 interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015), Steven Spielberg revealed that he designed and shot the entire "Make Me Laugh" segment in a single take using 4 different sets, but the studio was "appalled" by the lack of traditional coverage (close-ups, over-the-shoulders, etc.). Spielberg was then replaced and that segment was redone by a different director.
- GoofsJust after the miracle is performed on Jackie, the bartender hangs onto a support column and it moves quite significantly.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Chatterje (segment "Make Me Laugh"): I wonder if I will ever get the hang of it.
- ConnectionsReferences The Red Skelton Hour (1951)
Featured review
Decent Acting; Sightly Above Average
The first episode, "Make Me Laugh," is one of those "Be careful what you wish for" episodes. It involves a horrible comic who has been doing some awful material for years. He is played by Godfrey Cambridge. Along with his sidekick, Tom Bosley, they have been in every dive imaginable. There is nothing quite as uncomfortable as a person trying to make people laugh and having them stare blankly at him. There isn't even a chuckle. He gets fired after one performance and is commiserating in a bar. A man in a ridiculous turban approaches him as he rants about how unfair the world is. This man is played by Jackie Vernon (one of the funniest comedians ever. He was also Frosty the Snowman). Vernon tells him that he can grant one request each month and he hasn't used one yet. When the comedian jumps at the chance, Vernon warns him that numerous others have made wishes but somehow paid a great price for them; he is even quite specific. Of course, our guy ignores the warning and makes his request: he wants to make people laugh. You guessed it. They don't laugh at his jokes. They laugh at everything he says. Even people on the street. His gift becomes a pariah to him.
The second episode, " Clean Kills and Other Trophies," concerns a big game hunter played by the great Raymond Massey. He is a very rich man and has spent his life killing anything that moves. He has a trophy room with the heads of numerous beasts. The biggest disappointment in his life is his son. A boozing, liberal thinking, passive young man whose father sees as a total failure. He is in the house with a lawyer who is going to do the final touches on a trust fund. Angry that this is too easy, Dad puts a codicil in the trust. The son must kill a deer in the next fifteen hours or the trust will disintegrate into worthless paper. There is a fourth character. A black man of African descent who is treated as a lesser human by the old man. This man patiently puts up with the racism of his boss, but has a certain aura of control about him. Of course, the hunt becomes the focus of the rest of the episode. Ultimately disappointing in my view. One reason, for me, was that the son may have good intentions but he is weak and ineffective.
The second episode, " Clean Kills and Other Trophies," concerns a big game hunter played by the great Raymond Massey. He is a very rich man and has spent his life killing anything that moves. He has a trophy room with the heads of numerous beasts. The biggest disappointment in his life is his son. A boozing, liberal thinking, passive young man whose father sees as a total failure. He is in the house with a lawyer who is going to do the final touches on a trust fund. Angry that this is too easy, Dad puts a codicil in the trust. The son must kill a deer in the next fifteen hours or the trust will disintegrate into worthless paper. There is a fourth character. A black man of African descent who is treated as a lesser human by the old man. This man patiently puts up with the racism of his boss, but has a certain aura of control about him. Of course, the hunt becomes the focus of the rest of the episode. Ultimately disappointing in my view. One reason, for me, was that the son may have good intentions but he is weak and ineffective.
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- Hitchcoc
- Jun 3, 2014
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