BS: American joke from 1960s

Subject: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Thompson
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 04:05 AM

A joke fondly loved in our family came from an American comedian of the 1960s; one line from it was -

"Boy, do you have a wrong number."

Can anyone identify the comedian and the joke?

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 04:11 AM

Damn, I thought that was going to be about the Chevrolet Corvair.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Thompson
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 04:18 AM

What's the one about the Chevrolet Corvair?

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 05:49 AM

Is that the one Don McLean drove to the levee?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 08:28 AM

reminds me of Red Skelton...

used to love his show, his jokes were funny without being mean or hurtful... though he was credited with the line about Leo Mayer's (MGM's main SOB) funeral, "Give the crowd what they want and they'll turn out."

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 11:00 AM

There is a Bob Hope movie by that title in IMDB link here blicky

Reminds me of the James Thurber cartoon of one of his hulking predatory women on the couch saying, well, if it's a wrong number, why did you answer the phone?

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 01:09 PM

The Corvair was a very good little car, but because of the rear engine, required a different driving technique- one that Porsche owners of classics such as the 356 would be familiar with.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 02:02 PM

I'm pretty sure I read a version of this in _A Treasury of Jewish Folklore_ (1948), but I can't find it there. It goes:

"Good morning. Is this the governor's office?" (Or some such office of power or wealth.)
"Oy, mister, have you got a wrong number!"

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 05:07 PM

In the version I know, the caller is trying to reach a "restricted" social club.

There was also a variation in which a vampire's victim attempts to protect himself by brandishing a crucifix. Says the vampire, "Oy, have you got a wrong number."

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: GUEST,#
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 05:30 PM

"It's the 1920's when the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts were the
wealthiest families in the United States. One day a little old
Jewish lady on the Lower East Side living in a one room unheated
tenement gets a phone call. There's a very British sounding voice on
the other end. "Good morning madam. This is Jeeves the butler. I'm
terribly sorry to inform madam that Mrs. Rockefeller and Mrs.
Vanderbilt cannot come today for tea." And the old lady responds in
a thick Yiddish accent: "OY MISTER, HAVE YOU GOT A WRONG NUMBER !!!"

Found on the www.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 06:49 PM

I had always heard that that quote, sciencegeek, referred to Harry Cohn, who seems to have been universally reviled in Hollywood.

This from wikipedia, "Cohn and his funeral were the subject of the famous quote from Red Skelton, who remarked of Cohn's well-attended funeral, "It proves what Harry always said: give the public what they want and they'll come out for it."[7]
[7]Red Skelton Quotes – Famous Quotes by Red Skelton from 'Basic Quotations – Famous Quotes by Famous People – Famous Quotations – Famous Sayings'

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Amos
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 07:53 PM

A similar version dating from the 1950's described a broke New York guy sitting in his flat waiting for thre lst of his furniture to be repossessed, when the phone rings and a hoity-toity lady asks, "Is this the J.P. Morgan residence." Same punchline. It might have been Red Skelton although it might also have been Rodney Dangerfield.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Aug 14 - 11:30 PM

I love the jewish ones, I can hear people I am related to saying that.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Thompson
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 03:38 AM

Yeah, Jewish jokes are the best! There's a great show on English TV called "Old Jews Telling Jokes" and it cracks me up every time.
The version of the vampire story I heard from my father long long years ago starts with the young (wo)man setting out from the Transylvanian inn, and the worried innkeeper warning him not to go near the castle. When he insists, she loads him down with garlic, crucifixes, etc.
So he goes along to the castle and all goes well; finally, in bed in the middle of the night the door creaks open and a vampire stands in the doorway, fangs bristling.
The boy (or girl) reaches for the garlic and can't find it, and remembers the crucifix around his/her neck and brandishes it.
The vampire looks at it and gives a big, palms-out shrug, and says "I should care?"

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Gda Music
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 11:42 AM

American couple of tourists having just visited Windsor Castle stood in the street gazing up at the beauty of it. His wife turned to say "Wilber, it sure is a lovely Castle but it`s real a pity that they built it so near to the darned airport".

GJ

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 12:13 PM

Thompson, did you perhaps leave out an important part of the jokes set-up, i.e. the vampire was a JEWISH vampire? Else the punch line is irrelevant.

That of course begs the question as to the vampire's degree of the observance of 'kasruth/kosher'. An observant Jew would not drink blood.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 03:34 PM

I like that you can say Oy, do you have a wrong number if it's a jewish joke and Boy do you have a wrong number if it's not.

One of my sons suggests Goy, do you have a wrong number! for the jewish punchline...

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: GUEST,#
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 04:20 PM

I have a Jewish friend who's dyslexic.
He often uses the exclamation, "Yo!"

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 05:15 PM

A little boy is sitting on the steps of the synagogue, crying.
The Rabbi comes out and asks him "What's the matter"
The boy replies "I've lost my pullover."
And the Rabbi starts crying too.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Joe_F
Date: 07 Aug 14 - 09:17 PM

John: Right. In the version I saw as a cartoon, the vampire spoke Yiddish: Svet nisht hilfn.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 04:34 AM

Reminds me of an old Marx Brothers film - does anybody know which one?

Groucho (on phone) - "Operator, get me a wrong number. I want to phone my mother in law."

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 07:58 AM

John on the Sunset Coast - you don't say in the set-up that it's a Jewish vampire; that comes from a) it's in Transylvania; b) the shrug and New-York-Jewish-Transylvanian accent in the punchline.
But thanks for your editing advice.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 12:25 PM

I don't think either a or b in the joke as WRITTEN applies. I would not have thought of the joke as relating to a Jewish vampire if I had not already known the joke.

It would be another thing if the story was related orally.

Subject: RE: BS: American joke from 1960s
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Aug 14 - 01:56 PM

guest#   I do not.