In Thursday’s National Review Online Corner blog, regular contributor John Podhoretz, bemoaning the loss of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador and contemplating a suitable replacement, brought up the late comic Sam Kinison with this clip from the Rodney Dangerfield classic, “Back To School”.

While I didn’t see alot of his stuff, I do have to admit I liked much of what I did see, and while a lot of it could be loud and obnoxious, I found it pretty damned funny. His best bit (and, I think, a classic for the ages), was his take on Elvis’ “Are You Lonesome Tonight”, where, backed by several singers, he sings it completely straight before replacing Elvis’ classic spoken interlude with a hysterical, screaming diatribe at the object of his affection that is pure Kinison. He then goes on to sing the remainder of the song completely straight, muttering at the song’s close that he hopes she dies. Fantastic stuff. (BTW, I couldn’t find a video of this bit on YouTube, but was able to find this audio clip.)

Kinison may not have been everyone’s cup of tea – a lot of his bits could be pretty vulgar and offensive, but compared to those who try to mimic his “shock and awe” style of comedy today, his stuff was pretty creative and original. This excerpt from his Wikipedia entry gives you an idea of his cynical, yet ingenious brand of humor:

Kinison ranted about people who traveled to such places as Ethiopia and filmed commercials to induce viewers to send money to help feed the kids; meanwhile, he pointed out, the film crews were five feet away and maybe could have given the starving kids a sandwich. He claimed that if you really wanted to help starving Ethiopian kids, then you needed to stop sending money. Instead, you needed to send some U-Haul trucks to take the people to where the food was. He went on to explain — to the Ethiopians — that they couldn’t plant food in the sand, which, in a hundred years, would still be sand.

Rest in peace, Sam. You left us too soon, and you are missed.