I might have to retire the Geezer tag after this one…

Cidu Bill on Jun 30th 2010

bennettcerf.png

Filed in Bill Bickel, Hey Geezers! Comics!, One Big Happy, Rick Detorie, comic strips, comics, humor | 16 responses so far

16 Responses to “I might have to retire the Geezer tag after this one…”

  1. Molly J Jun 30th 2010 at 09:23 am 1

    Maxine from the Hallmark cards is now in One Big Happy?

    And Bennett Cerf - talk about synchronicity. I was just thinking about that name the other day and how it showed up on the front of those Dr. Seuss-like kids books when I was little. I was never sure how you’d pronounce “Cerf.”

    Good times, good times.

  2. chuckers Jun 30th 2010 at 09:24 am 2

    I guess this is the Bennett Cerf reference. That put it into CIDU territory for me. GIYF.

    I don’t know how they really could have done this joke all that well. How many famous (now dead) book publishers do people really know? Besides people that aren’t in writing circles.

  3. George P Jun 30th 2010 at 09:32 am 3

    Cerf sounds like “Surf”. A couple of years ago the Game Show Network was rerunning the original “What’s My Line” in the wee hours, and I recorded and watch a lot of them. Bennett Cerf was a regular panelist.

    Last year was the big 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, and Chris Cerf, Bennett’s son, was interviewed on Fresh Air, because he was one of the founders.

    Finally, I just finished reading A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever and discovered that Chris Cerf was involved with the Lampoon from the beginning. The book made no mention of Bennett, other than the fact that Chris had been working for his father in the publishing business before he joined the magazine, but it made me think of Bennett.

    So Bennett Cerf has been popping up regularly for me lately.

  4. Frank the curmudgeon Jun 30th 2010 at 09:43 am 4

    Yep definitely GEEZER. I knew who Cerf was because of the TV show with all the “once were minor celebs” but I am a geezer, I don’t just play one.

  5. mitch4 Jun 30th 2010 at 10:15 am 5

    On the question what publishers would people recognize a mention of:

    In the Oliver Sacks piece in the current (or last week’s) New Yorker there is some mention of Scribner [I don’t recall his first name], grandson of the company founder, and the head at the time they were publishing Hemingway and that lot.

    I believe the singer Carly Simon was from the publishing family (of Simon and Schuster). But she may be in the only-geezers-remember-her heap herself, not the currently-popular-scion set.

    “L. L. Day” who signed messages in Doubleday print ads was, AFAIK, fictional.

  6. mitch4 Jun 30th 2010 at 10:19 am 6

    And y’know, if a song addresses itself to someone it calls “you”, and relates stories involving “you”, then whoever “you” might be it seems you are merely being logical if you think this song is about you, not terribly vain.

  7. Judge Mental Jun 30th 2010 at 10:27 am 7

    I think I have brought this up before. Does a comic really qualify as a “Hey Geezers” when the person *is a geezer* and much of the joke is that only the geezer is going to recognize the ridiculously out-of-date reference?

    I know there are no hard-and-fast rules. I just find this one a little different than a comic where a kindergartner asks “Where’s the beef?”.

  8. Morris Keesan Jun 30th 2010 at 10:33 am 8

    Well, as a geezer, I recognize the name Bennett Cerf because I used to see it on books, specifically the humor compilations that he edited. When I started working on Arpanet stuff in the early 1980s, and first encountered the name of networking pioneer Vint Cerf, I wondered whether he was related to Bennett (apparently not; at least the Wikipedia entries for the two men don’t mention each other).

    But then again, I’m a book nerd, and without trying at all, the names of publishers Ian Ballantine (Ballantine Books), Don Wollheim (DAW Books), and Tom Doherty (Tor) come to my mind, not to mention the publishers of various smaller and more obscure imprints.

  9. Lihtox Jun 30th 2010 at 10:46 am 9

    Does it really matter if you know who Bennett Cerf is, here? First, one can tell from context that Cerf is some sort of publisher or diet guru or something; and second, the woman is off on some crazy rant, and the fact that the little girl doesn’t understand who she’s talking about is very appropriate. Might be a “Geezer Bonus” (along the lines of a “Genius Bonus” as seen on tvtropes.org).

  10. Morris Keesan Jun 30th 2010 at 10:52 am 10

    Lihtox, it helps if you know enough about Bennett Cerf to have an idea of when he was active as a publisher; knowing that he died almost 30 years ago makes the rant slightly funnier.

  11. Elyrest Jun 30th 2010 at 11:20 am 11

    Actually, Bennett Cerf died almost 40 years ago. I remember it because I have read all his books and his autobiography. When I saw this reference to Cerf I immediately thought of CIDU as I knew only older people would get who he was. I loved his wit and his books were full of literary and cultural references. Although some of them were strictly for laughs there were others that were mainly anecdotes and reminiscences of publishing and Hollywood. Cerf knew both - his first wife was Sylvia Sidney, a well known fill star, and Ginger Rogers was his second wife’s cousin.

    mitch4 (5 ) The publisher in the Sacks article was Charles Scribner, Jr. I read the article the other day and found it fascinating.

  12. paperboy Jun 30th 2010 at 01:16 pm 12

    I agree with Judge Mental#7; to be a true “Hey Geezers! Comics”, the joke can’t be simply younger characters don’t know the out-of-date reference, but this one’s punch-line (”try to get Bennett Cerf on the phone…”) seems just a bonus; the actual joke is she thinks gluing one’s lips is the basis for a diet book.

  13. PeterW Jun 30th 2010 at 05:39 pm 13

    Bennett Cerf wrote for adults?

  14. Igelino Jun 30th 2010 at 06:02 pm 14

    Wow, he was born in the eighteen-hundreds. That’s like two hundred years ago. And I was alive before he passed away, we could have actually met.

    I always laugh when the lady calls the girl Erica. She always calls her by the same (wrong) name.

  15. Mark in Boston Jun 30th 2010 at 11:13 pm 15

    From a Mad Magazine parody of Ripley’s Believe It or Not:

    Contrary to popular believe, Bennett Cerf is not funny.

    (Submitted by John Daly, NYC)

  16. Mark in Boston Jun 30th 2010 at 11:14 pm 16

    popular belief

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