Passages: Johnny Carson

Only days after news came out that he was keeping his hand in by sending the occasional joke to David Letterman, Johnny Carson has died from emphysema at 79. I was never too big a fan of The Tonight Show because of the timeslot and inconsistency of the material but when he was on, in the monologue or with a guest, he could be as funny as anyone within the constraints of the form. I also admired the way he lived his life after retiring–he actually retired and didn’t wage a campaign to keep his ego inflated. As Karnac might say, “A model of class, humor and simplicity with a side serving of whacky.”