Friday, July 12, 2013

"Sip A Little Tea with Goldie" - Smothers Brothers Show (1968)


One of the most forgotten segments of the Smother’s Brothers Comedy Hour was the weekly “Sip a Little Tea with Goldie” skit. This short video explains just how the chance encounter between an audience member, “Goldie O’Keefe”, occurred and how it affected the show as well as comedy in general. Some of her double entendre weather reports actually pre-date George Carlin’s “Hippie Dippie Weatherman” bit by almost a year.

Not much to explain about this video- its humor is self-evident and the topics are all relevant to the times when the skit was done, during the height of the “Summer of Love” and the War in Vietnam. The Smothers Brothers were only on for a few years, battling the CBS censors the entire time. 

The Smother's Brothers; along with the edgy artists they presented; pushed the boundaries of “acceptable” television, paving the way for shows such as “Saturday Night Live” in the 1970’s. Even contemporary comedians Jon Stewart and Steve Colbert owe a huge debt to these two brothers and the debt they paid to pave the way for more open political humor and satirical art.

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