This legendary television accident occurred over 50 years ago.
Certain moments in television history, like fine wine, grow with age. That is certainly true of Carol Burnett’s comedy act «The Dentist» on The Carol Burnett Show. It still makes people chuckle, indicating that it was one of the best television moments ever.
What could possibly go wrong in a dentist’s office?
In just eleven years, The Carol Burnett Show earned eight Golden Globes and 25 Emmy Awards, and it helped launch the careers of many comedians. It is still one of television’s most distinguished programs.
«The Dentist,» starring Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, is still one of the show’s most popular and funniest bits. This is one of those scenes that you just can’t get out of your head. It’s so fantastic that Conway and Korman can’t stop laughing to get through the sketch.
«The Dentist» is about a patient named Korman who is suffering from a severe toothache. When he goes to the dentist on a Sunday, his regular dentist isn’t there, but his regular dentist’s nephew, Conway, is.
Korman will be his first patient after graduating from dentistry school. The nervous dentist does everything to convince his first patient to leave or simply get a cleaning, including telling him he’s only pulled teeth on animals and had Cs in dentistry school. Korman, on the other hand, is in too much misery to care about all the justifications.
Conway has no choice but to consult a handbook and attempt to extract his patient’s tooth. During the procedure, he mistakenly injects Novocain into his hand. The numb hand causes a funny accident after a hilarious mistake. It’s so funny that Korman had to cover his face several times to keep from laughing too much.
Conway would later allege that Korman soiled his pants because he was laughing so hard at himself during the scenario. That’s what I mean by humor. He’d also later explain that the sketch was inspired by a real-life military dentist he’d met.
By the end of the play, the dentist had numbed practically everything, including the patient’s mouth and the audience’s laughter. Clearly, the farce made many chuckle, but you’ll have to wait to find out if the patient’s tooth was ever extracted.
Isn’t it true that everyone can relate to the embarrassment of a bad dental experience? From 1967 to 1978, The Carol Burnett Show produced approachable, clean, non-political comedy that was popular with the general population. It’s simple to see why this important piece of television history continues to captivate audiences of all ages.
