The world lost a truly iconic comedian yesterday. Phyllis Diller died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Los Angeles yesterday at the age of 95.
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Diller was a pioneer for women comedians. She set the way for all of today’s female comedians, even Joan Rivers, who Diller called her protege. Rivers paid homage to Diller yesterday saying that Diller was the first to compete with male comedians and taught her something important – to be “very simple.”
Much of Diller’s comedy centered on home life – something many women could relate to in the ‘50s. She joked about her husband “Fang” and his mother as well as her children. But, times were changing and Diller changed with them. Like she advised Rivers, many of her own jokes were simple yet funny:
“Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.”
“A bachelor is a guy who never made the same mistake once.”
And one of my favorites:
“Housework can’t kill you, but why take a chance?”
Like many comedians, much of Diller’s humor was self-deprecating. I giggled when I read her joke “Burt Reynolds once asked me out. I was in his room.” Another good one is “My photographs don’t do me justice – they look just like me.”
One thing that always amazed me about Diller was that she was a later in life comedian. She worked as an advertising copywriter before taking to stand up. She did her first gig in 1955 at The Purple Onion in San Francisco when she was 37 years old. I know 37 doesn’t sound all that old today, but it was late to start a new career in the ’50s. Was she any good? She appeared at The Purple Onion for the next 87 weeks – straight. In case you are bad at math like I am, that is alomst two years.
She performed stand up all over the country, appeared in Bob Hope television specials (23 in all) and even accompanied him overseas for USO tours. Diller appeared on Broadway in “Hello Dolly!” for three months. She donated 50,000 jokes and gags on index cards (typewritten, of course) to the Smithsonian so her comedy could live on forever. She appeared in her own shows as well as many other television shows. Diller’s last television role was in “Family Guy” in 2008 – when she was 91.
Phyllis Diller lived a good long life, was adored both by the public and by celebrities, gave the world a ton of funny moments, and died peacefully in her sleep. Can’t ask for much more than that, can you?