Johnny Carson Lost It When Rodney Dangerfield Cried on His Last Night

Wednesday 15 April 1992. Five weeks before Johnny Carson's last show, Rodney Dangerfield sits on his couch one last time: the stand-up, then the couch, his age, his doctors, his new film Ladybugs. Then he tells Johnny what it means that he is leaving, and breaks down. Carson can't stop laughing. No narration. The whole segment plays through with our notes beside it. Count along: how many old jokes does he tell on his last night? The answer is at the end. Sources: the Rodney Dangerfield channel's upload of the night (   • Rodney Dangerfield’s Final Appearance on T...  ); the Johnny Carson channel's uploads of 3 July 1974, 31 January 1978, 6 February 1980 and 30 May 1979, and the Rodney Dangerfield channel's of 1 August 1979; CTVA's Tonight Show listings for 1991–92 (http://ctva.biz/US/TalkShow/TonightSh... Wikipedia on Johnny Carson, Rodney Dangerfield and Ladybugs. Every quote is said on the tape. Every Rodney night on Carson, in order:    • Rodney Dangerfield on Carson, Night by Night   From our archive We set this night beside the ten other Rodney Dangerfield nights in our archive (1973 to 1983) and matched it line by line. Two jokes are old: his opener, "I'm all right now, but last week I was in rough shape", which he also used on six of those nights from 1974 on (three of them shown here side by side), and mooning, from 30 May 1979. Twenty-two of the jokes that get a laugh appear on no other night we have. "No respect" is not counted: it is his catchphrase, said on ten of the eleven nights. The longest laugh of the night, about twenty seconds, is not a joke at all: it is Rodney crying for Johnny. Chapters 0:00 One bone less 0:23 April 1992: the old opener 2:31 The golden years 7:30 May 22nd, and the count Sources Every clip is real; every airdate is from the rights holder's own publication, a catalogue or a newspaper listing; every read is attributed to the person who made it. One link per source. • Rodney Dangerfield (the estate's channel), 1992 —    • Rodney Dangerfield’s Final Appearance on T...   • CTVA, The Tonight Show 1991–92 (season 30) — http://ctva.biz/US/TalkShow/TonightSh... • Wikipedia, Johnny Carson — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_... The clips • The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson — Eight clips from one tape, the Rodney Dangerfield channel's upload of the night (8:46): the opening laugh, then the segment in order, with our notes over it; short windows from four other nights show the same lines side by side. The last frame is held under the closing count and the end card. Every window was set on the word timings of a transcript of the tape.