The Comedians: Good Stuff!

"So I'm fat. I thought I'd point that out." With these somewhat less than immortal words spoken on The Tonight Show on August 23, 1985, Roseanne Barr (or Arnold, or whatever; I plead guilty to not watching her show) launched her working-class feminist shtick. Anyway, the wide and short of it is that Roseanne reels out a bunch of--surprise, surprise--fat jokes. She's not alone: of the seven other comedian debuts on The Tonight Show shown here, both Louie Anderson and Jerry Seinfeld also build their acts largely around tired obesity one-liners. If you manage to last 45 minutes into this program, there is a too-little-too-late payoff at the end: Drew Carey. But hey, if you think Roseanne Barr is the funniest item to hit the planet since armpit farts, by all means ignore my warning; pop some Orville in the microwave and bust a gut (Carson's audience sure did). Me, I'd rather watch Dennis Miller. Not recommended. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)