Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Still LAUGH-IN: The Stars Celebrate’ On Netflix, A Tribute To The Groundbreaking Sketch Show

How many of us remember the original LAUGH-IN, either during its original 1968-73 run on NBC or its time in syndication? What you might remember is Lily Tomlin as Ernestine going “one ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy” or Ruth Buzzi as a grouchy spinster with a hairnet. Or you might remember people saying things like “you bet your bippy” or “sock it to me!” But the show has been off TV for awhile now, which is why Netflix’s star-studded tribute special was a welcome sight. But is it funny?

STILL LAUGH-IN: THE STARS CELEBRATE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Rowan & Martin’s LAUGH-IN debuted as a special in September, 1967 and as a regular series in January, 1968, running until 1973 (with a short-lived revival airing in 1977). Perhaps it was in recognition of the show’s 51st anniversary that the show’s executive producer, George Schlatter, mounted an all-star tribute to the show, taped at the Dolby Theater. It would make sense that they didn’t want to do the 50th anniversary… that’s just so boring, right?

Dan Rowan and Dick Martin are no longer with us, so Neil Patrick Harris and Tiffany Haddish were tapped to host the tribute special, which not only played clips from the original series, but intercut them with modern takes on the show’s classic recurring bits. So we had a cocktail party where jokes from original cast members like Ruth Buzzi, Arte Johnson, Judy Carne, Jo Anne Worley, Goldie Hawn and more alternate with one-liners from the hosts as well as guests like Jon Lovitz, Deon Cole, Loni Anderson, Jameela Jamil, Jeff Ross, Taye Diggs, Nikke Glazer, Maria Bamford, Lisa Ann Walter, and others. There was also the “joke wall,” where various guests pop out of doors and tell more one-liners. Rob Riggle fills in ably for the late Gary Owens as the announcer.

Other tributes included Bill Maher giving the Fickle Finger of Fate to Donald Trump, Kenya Barris on how the show influenced him as a comedy writer, Rita Wilson and Rita Moreno giving a song-and-dance tribute against the joke wall, Jay Leno talking about the show’s news segments, Chelsea Handler and Mary McCormack paid tribute to the show’s amazing women, Snoop Dogg and Michael Rapaport talked about weed, Billy Crystal discussed how the show treated politics, and more.

Lily Tomlin, who became a star thanks to her stint on the show, recreated her two most famous characters, Ernestine and Edith Ann, in new sketches. Buzzi was there to revive Gladys Ormphby in a sketch where Haddish played Gladys and Tony Hale played Arte Johnson’s dirty old man Tyrone. And Worley was there to hit the same warbly high note she hit 50 years ago.

Performance Worth Watching: Haddish puts in a 150% effort as the co-host, especially when she does her own version of “I Will Survive” on stage, without any musical accompaniment. NPH was NPH, but Haddish blew him out of the water.

Memorable Dialogue: Fifty-one years later, we still love seeing then-presidential-candidate Richard Nixon uncomfortably saying, “Sock it to me?” Crystal mentions that many experts cite those two seconds were key to giving Nixon his narrow victory that year. “To that I say, fuck you, Laugh-In,” Crystal says.

Single Best Shot: NPH, in the first of his many attempts to start one of his signature song-and-dance numbers, gets hit with ping-pong balls when he shouts “Key of G, hit it!”

Sex and Skin: Luckily, no one donned a bikini and covered themselves in painted slogans like Goldie did back in the day.

Our Take: LAUGH-IN was a show that was absolutely revolutionary for the time, especially in the ultra-conservative world of network TV. But while the jokes were about tuning in, dropping out, and getting high, the comedy format wasn’t all that new at all; it was basically vaudeville, with one-liners, quick sketches, and lots of physical comedy.

Perhaps it was smart that Schlatter and his younger producing partners, Dave Broome and Yong Yang, kept the retrospectives to quick hits and jokes intercut with the video from today. While LAUGH-IN was a very influential show, the jokes themselves don’t wear very well 50 years later. It could be because our senses of humor are more sophisticated now, but the one-liners from the archival footage, as well as the ones we heard out of the struggling-to-read-the-teleprompter current stars, didn’t land well. And this was despite the fact that the new jokes referenced current events, dropped f-bombs and made modern references.

Also not aging well? The montage of racial jokes that were probably howlingly funny in 1969 but make us cringe now. Yes, we know, context and all; but they were presented in a way that made stuff like “Here come de judge!” look iconoclastic instead of in that proper context. One other criticism: Schlatter included clips of Robin Williams and made it look like he starred in the original 1968-73 version. He was a cast member of the revival that aired as specials in 1977-78, a year before Mork & Mindy made him a superstar; that version not only did terribly, but Rowan & Martin sued Schlatter (and won!) for using the LAUGH-IN name without their permission. It felt misleading.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite the fact that the show felt longer than its hour runtime, Still LAUGH-IN: The Stars Celebrate is a fun nostalgia trip and certainly is a good entry for people to seek the original out, wherever it may be.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream Still Laugh-In on Netflix