The Road To Well-Deserved Irrelevancy

And then there's Snitch. He's taken the "con" side of the great national debate, "was Bob Hope funny?"

Quick, then�what is your favorite Bob Hope gag? It wouldn't take you long if I challenged you on Milton Berle, or Woody Allen, or John Cleese, or even (for the older customers) Lenny Bruce or Mort Sahl.

Oh, yeah, the Mort Sahl gags just come tripping off my tongue. I was quoting Uncle Miltie just yesterday.

And there's this:

Poor Vincent Canby was really up against it in last Tuesday's New York Times, which awarded him acres of space to celebrate the passing of a national laff-meister. Canby, who died three years ago, must have been glad he wouldn't live to see his Hope obituary in print.

Somehow I doubt Vincent Canby was praying that he would die before Bob Hope.

And this:

There were many cringe-making references last week to Hope's doggedness in entertaining the brave boys overseas. I have met more than one veteran who says that those USO concerts were the last straw.

Meaning what? They deserted? Surrendered to the enemy? Torched a village?

Hope's passing means there's a vacancy for Hitch to fill, entertaining the troops in Iraq. The contact high alone would keep a division happy for weeks.