Phil Silvers slapping Rocky Marciano in the face.

No … can’t imagine Smith would have the character to take on someone who could - and would - hit back. Tyson would utterly launch him.

On the other side, Mike said it would never happen because he’d never talk about Smith’s wife in any context …

 

It was not funny at all, and did not reflect well on either, but was obviously planned, and a minor thing. Rocky was obviously having a good time with it.

 

Exactly Kid. Bad judgment or not, it was staged. Silvers hey day was well before my time but I seem to recall the grabbing of the chin and slapping was part of his general schtick.

People should check out Rocky’s appearances on Groucho Marx’s You Bet Your Life - a lot of fun, Groucho was a scream and Rocky was a good sport.

This IV always p+ssed me off - Jerry Lewis with Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) in 1963.

I’ll admit, never a fan of Lewis but don’t be fooled by his smarminess, this is an example of what a megalomaniacal and obnoxious person Lewis could be, imo - very much in the mode of his “Buddy Love” persona.

It was live and unrehearsed and bringing that other drop kick on stage was meant to be an additional stitch up. A BIG fail imo.

Young Ali at just 21 yo handled them both easily - and even when Ali appeared ever so slightly annoyed - he never lost control.

Now if Ali had hauled off and belted “It’s all about me” Lewis, that would’ve been more than satisfying for me.

Reading the YT comments attached - apparently Lewis also bet on Liston and lost his $$$ on that fight also. Beautiful.

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Silvers was a product of the vaudeville era. Haven't you ever heard of slapstick? It was all in good fun. Rocky showed he was a regular guy. Not at all arrogant or stuck on himself. I can't believe so many guys are so uptight about this skit. I thought it was humorous. It didn't hurt anyone. It was more entertaining than a post-fight interview.

 

Sgt. Bilko.

 

Yeah, it wasn’t like it was Three Stooges heavy - a good poke in the eye might’ve got Rocky going though - those Stooges got so into it they actually used to injure each other when filming.

Ah, wise guy..eh? That was then followed by a poke (double poke if you were unlucky and didn’t think to use the 90 deg hand block), full eye gouge and then a customary slap. Lol.

 

Yeah, I liked Dino much better and at least he did some actual boxing. I used to think that Martin dropped Lewis because Dean felt he had elevated himself to a more cool crowd, namely, The Rat Pack - but that wasn’t it at all - it was because Lewis was such an egotistical, obnoxious control freak. The harder Lewis tried to act cool, the less cool he became even more so. Dino just had cool in his genetics.

 

This is from 1961...

 

I had to stomach watching this twice to actually digest how revolting it was .. just ugly ...

 

Yes, comedy was different then. It was still coming out of the vaudeville era. I never particularly liked the Three Stooges, Milton Berle, or comics like Henny Youngman. I thought Phil Silvers' Sergeant Bilko was usually pretty funny though. And I think the show was still airing at the time of the Main Event episode, so the audience knew what to expect from him in the way of humor. And so did Rocky for that matter. I'm more of a Laurel and Hardy guy anyway. There's a certain sensitivity to their humor mixed in with pushing and pulling. Their skits were well crafted.

In other ways, the taste in comedy today is really not that much different today than it was then. Guys like Kimmel, Saturday Night Live, etc. are pretty brutal when it comes to lambasting politicians, even or maybe especially U.S.presidents who some people might think deserve more respect than a prizefighter. It depends what era you come from and what you value as important. Everyone is different.

It's well to remember that fighters aren't gods. They are entertainers. They've always clowned and paled around with other entertainers. Have you seen the clip of Tony Canzoneri with Bert Lahr?

 

Things have changed. I don’t really get into any of the comedy from that time period. Was watching some episodes of Taxi from the 70s and a lot of that comedy has not even stood up very well imo and it was one of the biggest sitcoms all time.

Its good that Marciano did not mind having fun poked at him imo, lot of athletes these days take themselves maybe to seriously.