Volume 33, Number 21 & 22 · January 15, 1987
Making Hash of the Blues
By Molly Haskell
One More Time
by Carol Burnett
Random House, 359 pp., $18.95
For the eleven-year run of her weekly comedy show, Carol Burnett was the funniest woman on television. Since being obstreperously funny still goes against the grain and social image of most women, there is something both irritating and deeply exhilarating about the unregenerate slob in Burnett. When she browbeats two entire rows of spectators in a television studio into moving over so that she and Harvey Korman can sit together (a goal that could have been accomplished with a simple exchange of seats), then screeches, 'That wasn't such a big deal, was it?' we shudder—with horror, with pleasure. She's every aggressive, uncivil harpy who ever tried to elbow her way in front of you at the checkout counter, and you want to clobber her, yet you can't help envying her sang-froid. She's impervious to what people will think. Here's a woman—you might say—who never learned to tidy her room as a little girl, and you'd be right. She never even had a room to keep tidy, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Review, 3363 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |