Karate Kid star PAT MORITA the self billed "hip Nip" of stand up comedy (w. timing strip) 3/27/1965

50 years ago, Pat Morita billed himself as "The Hip Nip," and his act acknwoeldged the novelty of being an Asian comedian.

About the TIMING STRIP. This clip is from the surviving editor/director's version of the show. Usually the TIMING STRIP is placed at the bottom, but the editor chose to stick it where he could see it more clearly. It's like a speedometer, only here it counts out the hour, the minutes, the seconds, and even spins madly dividing each second into tenths. I blacked out the spinning numbers to save you SOME irritation.

Yes, I wish the timing strip wasn't there, but it is. I can't edit it out. Hopefully one day the unions, the song publishers, and whoever else is demanding a percentage per view, will calm down and just let "Hollywood Palace" exist for what it is, a great archive of vintage performers. Till then, we're grateful for what exists in imperfect form.

Tony Randall's awkward introduction shows just how much of a novelty it was. Morita's act was as strongly ethnic as his contemporary Godfrey Cambridge.

His career remained mostly involved in ethnic roles, from "The Karate Kid" to a recurring character on "MASH" who could speak Yiddish and joke about his relative "Pish Posh" and, playing a Korean, not being involved in hari kari ("That's Japanese. We don't do that schtick!")

Great talent, great personality in everything he did. Ease up on the "racist" angle. A lot of comics, including Pat's mentor Redd Foxx, acknowledged race in their act, sometimes with a shrug and sometimes with venom. Either way the point was to not make the differences as important as what we all have in common, which is a desire to get along, and have some laughs.

Видео Karate Kid star PAT MORITA the self billed "hip Nip" of stand up comedy (w. timing strip) 3/27/1965 канала spookylorre