"Not too many people are - were as good as Bob Hope. George Burns was great at thinking, you know, on the spot. Steve Allen was marvelous, and so was George Burns. But Bob may be the king of them all, you know"
About this Quote
Nostalgia can be a kind of canon-making, and Rich Little is doing it in real time: building a Mount Rushmore of old-school showbiz and then crowning Bob Hope. On the surface, it reads like backstage bench-racing among comics. Underneath, it’s a careful defense of a disappearing craft tradition: the touring, monologue-driven, camera-friendly comedian who could deliver clean, rapid-fire laughs for middle America and still seem effortless.
Little’s comparisons aren’t random. George Burns is praised for thinking “on the spot,” a nod to improvisational timing and the old vaudeville skill of surviving anything the room throws at you. Steve Allen gets “marvelous,” a word that signals variety-show versatility: hosting, writing, playing, ad-libbing. Then Little repeats Burns’s name, a small verbal stumble that actually adds authenticity. This is how comics talk when they’re not polishing a bit: looping, qualifying, feeling their way toward the real point.
And the real point is hierarchy. “Not too many people are - were as good” catches time itself mid-sentence, as if Little momentarily forgets whether he’s speaking about living peers or a completed era. That slip matters. It frames Hope not just as an individual talent, but as a standard now mostly in the past. Calling him “king” isn’t only flattery; it’s a bid to preserve a lineage where joke economy, broad appeal, and relentless professionalism counted more than confessional honesty or edgy provocation. In today’s comedy ecosystem, that’s practically a manifesto.
Little’s comparisons aren’t random. George Burns is praised for thinking “on the spot,” a nod to improvisational timing and the old vaudeville skill of surviving anything the room throws at you. Steve Allen gets “marvelous,” a word that signals variety-show versatility: hosting, writing, playing, ad-libbing. Then Little repeats Burns’s name, a small verbal stumble that actually adds authenticity. This is how comics talk when they’re not polishing a bit: looping, qualifying, feeling their way toward the real point.
And the real point is hierarchy. “Not too many people are - were as good” catches time itself mid-sentence, as if Little momentarily forgets whether he’s speaking about living peers or a completed era. That slip matters. It frames Hope not just as an individual talent, but as a standard now mostly in the past. Calling him “king” isn’t only flattery; it’s a bid to preserve a lineage where joke economy, broad appeal, and relentless professionalism counted more than confessional honesty or edgy provocation. In today’s comedy ecosystem, that’s practically a manifesto.
Quote Details
| Topic | Legacy & Remembrance |
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