Well before he gained fame as a TV comedian and sit-com star, Bob Newhart was a stand up comedian. His most popular shtick was to present one side of
a two person telephone conversation. Here is one of my favorites from the mid 1960s with a telephone conversation between Sir Walter Raleigh in the
''new world'' and his corporate sponsor back in England to whom he is pitching a new product called tobacco.
Having been raised among WW2 vets who all smoked, smoking seemed to me as a young child a natural thing to do. The preposterousness of it never dawned
on me until I hear this comedy act. Roll it up in a piece of paper, stick it in your mouth and light the other end on fire.
a reply to: ColeYounger
Timeless. I think that that is one of the keys to good comedy. Taking a situation or belief or act or whatever that most take for granted as normal,
then offering a fresh perspective that looks at it without the normal cultural context. This is a classic example. Imagining describing to someone who
had never ever known about cigarettes and describing it to them for the first time.