For those into punch card humor, here's a routine by...

For those into punch card humor, here's a routine by comedian Bob Newhart, who just passed away: "A call from Herman Hollerith". IBM commissioned this skit in 1970.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfskp4R53Q0

Like 19 July at 16:58 | Open on oldbytes.space

5 comments

Janne Moren

@kenshirriff
A bit curious why it's subtitled in Swedish.

19 July at 23:13 | Open on fosstodon.org

Ken Shirriff

@jannem According to the YouTube description: The movie was found in 2003 on a 16 mm reel in the IBM Sweden library archives in Stockholm and showed at their 75th year anniversary the same year. Thus the Swedish subtitles.

19 July at 23:16 | Open on oldbytes.space

Steveg58

@kenshirriff
And there you have the direct ancestor of the anti-vax movement. In fact all the anti-science movements. Our generation thought it was funny the next generation took it as a gospel from the mount.

20 July at 0:10 | Open on aus.social

slash

@kenshirriff I have some of his stand-up on CD. Lincoln's press agent opens with "Hey, Abe baby! How ya doin?"

He used to do a two-hand act, but the other guy wasn't ready to go pro, so Newhart rewrote their routines into one-sided telephone calls.

I highly recommend stand-up by Andy Griffith ("Romeo and Juliet"), and the classic Nichols and May (they invented improv comedy). Nichols directed "The Graduate", Elaine May did "Birdcage". Ferocious talents, and mostly forgotten.

20 July at 3:04 | Open on mastodon.social

BrianLinuxing 🇮🇪✅

@kenshirriff thanks Ken, that reminded me of the 1970s and when I used to feed them in, and stand there worrying was this the future of computing!

20 July at 17:31 | Open on fosstodon.org