He was funny without cursing or insulting the innocent.
What I remember is that when a joke didn't work it wasn't the audience's fault. He would make a face, maybe a quick joke about having his punchline fall flat, and move on to the next funny line.
And he was the one that controlled the pace of the broadcast. If he was on a roll with a guest, he kept with it, even meant leaving some ego in the back room, perhaps never making it on air at all. It was all about the audience, not corporate tie-ins and such.
The list of comics he got started is amazing. It's like SNL at its peak. It might be hard to find a late-night TV comic that he didn't launch.
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"If they can't picture me with a knife, forcing them to strip in an alley, I don't want any part of it. It's humiliating." - windsock
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