Don Knotts - Mayberry and Beyond

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DON KNOTTS

1924-2006

Thank you, DK. Thank you for a whole lot of laughs. Thank you for Luther Heggs -- attaboy, Luther! Thank you for Abner Peacock. Thank you for making Mayberry such a great place -- sort of like Utopia, only with a better barber. Thank you for nervous energy and impossible facial contortions. Thank you for showing that Bull-Moose clown, Teddy Roosevelt, that you need not speak softly and carry a big stick, but should instead stammer a lot and carry one bullet in your shirt pocket. Thank you for letting me poke fun at you without turning around and bashing me in the face with a shovel. Thank you for reluctant astronauts and Nazi-hunting cartoon fish. Thank you for a life spent making people like me laugh.

Don Knotts is a comedic genius. His physical comedy is unparallelled. Jim Carrey can do some pretty amazing, rubber-faced things, but he cannot pull it off like Knotts. With Carrey, regardless of what he does or what skill he exhibits, there is still some part of you thinking, “That guy is a smarmy puke and I’d like to punch him in his stupid face.” Nobody feels that way about Don Knotts. Knotts is a likeable man.

Case in point: Barney Fife. This bumbling deputy is, I believe, the greatest television character ever created. And it would have absolutely fallen flat without the genius of Don Knotts. Just look at that character – he has unfounded arrogance, he is a power-tripper, he displays a constant sense of unjustified self-importance, he is overly sensitive, he is dim, he is incompetent, he has no freaking business holding a position with any sort of authority. Barney Fife has become a derogatory term. If you call a cop a Barney Fife, you are saying he is an incompetent, small-town hick. But you know what? Everybody still loves old Barney! Even with the raw facts of all these multitudes of character flaws, Barney Fife’s charisma compels you to LOVE him. That is not charisma cleverly written into the character. That is the raw charisma of Don Knotts shining through. I’m telling you, the guy is a freaking under-rated genius.

Hi! My name's Jeffy! I am a creepy, disturbing, consumer clown!

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