From Liberace (see yesterday’s post) to Jerry Lewis, this blog continues to circle the drain of mid-century entertainment. But with good reason; not a Labor Day weekend of my youth passed without hours spent staring glassily at the MDA Telethon, starring Jerry Lewis. So we will eschew The Three Stooges this weekend for someone truly offensive–the great Joey Levitch with the truly great Don Rickles. The year is 1982. Both men are a bit tired of their own shtick but are still gamely offering it up. It says something that Rickles, whose entire act was built around being offensive, comes off as warm and cuddly when matched with Jerry. Hang on til the end of the clip–as always with Jerry something unpleasant happens. In this case he gets pissed off at one of the floor guys who’s trying to give him a signal about how much time they have left etc. Jerry never missed an opportunity to berate the help and then make it seem like it was all in good fun, which it most certainly wasn’t. The poor man probably got fired and then, after Jerry recovered from his ritalin-induced rage, rehired. Jerry may have even given him a fat and flashy watch with the MDA symbol and a Jerry caricature on the back. I wouldn’t put it past him.