Nichols & May: Mother & Son

Posted by Maximum Fun on 18th April 2007

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The legendary Mike Nichols & Elaine May perform one of their classic telephone routines, with Nichols as a NASA scientist and May as his worried mother.

Found after watching this wonderful routine they performed on the 1959 Emmy awards, which was pointed out by recent TSOYA guest Brian Stack. It seems that YouTube user drono2 has stumbled upon a cache of these videos — anyone know where they’re from?

It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Nichols & May in ushering in the modern era of American comedy. It’s a horrible shame that Elaine May has acted so rarely since the Nichols & May days — if you don’t believe me, rent the mediocre Woody Allen film Small Time Crooks and catch her brilliant turn.

So, on this topic: should I rent Ishtar?