Can You Top This?

Can You Top This?

"Can You Top This?" was a popular radio panel show in which comedians told jokes. The program, sponsored at one point by Colgate, was created by veteran vaudevillian "Senator" Edward Ford, who was taking part in a joke session at a New York theatrical club when he concocted the concept, but the format was much like a previous joke-telling radio series, "Stop Me If You've Heard This One" (1939-40), which featured Ford and cartoonist Harry Hershfield as panelists.

Listeners contributed approximately 3,000 jokes a week. Host Peter Donald told the best of these jokes while a "laugh meter" took note of the audience reaction. The "Knights of the Clown Table" - Ford, Hershfield and Joe Laurie, Jr. - attempted to top listeners with their own jokes. Any submission used on the program won ten dollars. Each time a panelist failed to top the listener (as registered on the laugh meter), an additional five dollars was added, so a listener could potentially win $25. Further, listeners were also given phonograph recordings of Peter Donald telling their jokes. The panelists claimed that together they knew over 15,000 jokes.

"Can You Top This?" debuted on New York's WOR radio in 1940. NBC picked up the show in 1942, and it continued 12 more years. Hosts at one time or another included Peter Donald, Ward Wilson and Dennis James. Joe Laurie, Jr. died April 29, 1954, and Harry Hershfield died ten days before Christmas in 1974. [rhof|id=274|name=Can You Top This?]

Television

"Can You Top This" made its first television debut on ABC on 3 October 1950 but only lasted one season. The show was briefly revived in syndication in January 1970 with Wink Martindale as host and featured Morey Amsterdam as a regular panelist, but this incarnation lasted just eight months. [Schwartz, David. "The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows, Third Edition", pages 33-34. Checkmark Books, 1999. ISBN 0-8160-3847-3.]

Books

The jokes were compiled into two book collections, "Can You Top This?" and "Cream of the Crop", published by Grosset & Dunlap and Dell in 1947 and 1949.

Listen to

* [http://www.vintageradioplace.com/ra/sametime071007.ram Same Time, Same Station: "Can You Top This?" (July 26, 1947) at 90-minute mark]
* [http://boxcars711.podomatic.com/enclosure/2006-05-15T08_47_37-07_00.mp3 Boxcar711: "Can You Top This?" (December 7, 1947)]

References

External links

* [http://205.188.238.109/time/magazine/article/0,9171,774685,00.html "Time": "Have You Heard this One?" (October 11, 1943)]


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