Johnny Carson's Monologue Has Rough Start, But Hilarious Ending 12-14-1988 

On his worst night, he’s still funnier than anyone out there today!!!

Johnny Carson was like everyone's pre-bedtime friend who we all loved. Silly and sometimes "dying" like this, but still managed to put smiles on millions of faces every night..

his reactions to the bad jokes are great

Today, non of the Late Shows have an ounce of humor. Thank you for bringing back the good-old days.

Johnny Carson on a bad night is better than anything on a good night these days.

No one else like on him on tv today and NO ONE will ever be able to replace this legendary and multi-talented man who was the BEST EVER on what he did on television!!! Gosh, I sure miss the man in so many ways and I cherish these videos of him and all the memories he gave us. Johnny, you are still alive and well in our hearts and your comedic spirit will forever live on.

Carson on his worst day was still better than everyone else now combined on their best

Ed laughing at all the bombed jokes makes it even funnier.

Once, still, and forever KING of late night television.

I missed this when it aired, so seeing it now is a real treat. Two observations: 1. If you're below a certain age, you won't get most of this; if you're above a certain age, you'll find this hysterical. 2. Carson's genius was never on better display than when he delivered the opening monologue, it bombed, and he then turned the bomb into comedy GOLD. Carson: The GOLD STANDARD.

Johnny has the delivery. The writers were having a bad day.

Ed's laughing is what helped make the monologues!

When things went bad and the jokes bombed Johnny was the funniest .

"See if you can call my writers on that damned thing!"

Three out of every four jokes in this monologue bombed, and yet I just laughed harder than I have in weeks. The funniest man ever.

When late night comedy was happy and funny. I miss those days.

I miss Johnny sooooo much!

Ed's background laughter was fucken EPIC, plus Johnny's straight face after his sometimes, corny, but always funny one liners, meant all was good in Late Nightville. Lol

"Is there a revolver in the house?" - Classic

The saying is that an actor or performer should NEVER look directly at the camera. Johnny ignored that completely, and it was hilarious. Most comedians today would be devastated and hurt if a joke bombed. But Johnny, like Bob Hope, realized quickly that, no, the audience was not laughing AT them. They were laughing WITH them. Brilliant.

Eisenhower warned us of the uh... What the hell did he warn us about? haha

It’s not the words you use or the jokes you tell, it’s the persona. That’s why no one is better at late night tv than the great Johnny Carson.

Wow u mean 2 tell me that u can b funny without being vulgar who knew. Thanks 4 the memories Johnny. 😎

Nobody could bomb as hilariously as Johnny!

4:05 Nothing like a good Dan Quayle joke to win over a tough crowd.

This guy never gave up.. I was born in the wrong era.

Carson will always be the best.

This was a bomb? Very amusing.

The best ever. A bad night for him is a great night for today's comic.

Johnny Carson was born in Avaco,Iowa and lived there until he 8 years old, then he moved to Nebraska!

God I miss Johnny! Watching him at night made thing ok in life and tomorrow was going to be a better day! RIP Johnny!

The guy in the audience is killing it & Johnny is bombing. The fact he gave it up to that guy only made it better. I laughed so hard at this. I miss 11:30pm with my grandmother right before my grandfather would get home from work. We would watch Carson every night.

NO ONE EVER BETTER THAN CARSON!

1:45 - Wow, the silence here after Johnny talked about the first safe Santa was fantastic and Johnny's reaction was great.

Here it is dec 14 2019. Way to go Johnny, Ed, Doc.

i learned who johhny carson is to appreciate kevin sapcey's imitation.

I can't believe it's been 10 years already.

This feels like a Conan monologue where he explains the failed jokes xP

I loved times like this with Johnny. He was hilarious especially when the jokes weren’t!! A true master of his craft. And he joked about both political parties.

He's so talented that he was able to turn a bombed monologue into funny success.

Simply the best. No one can touch Johnny!

Johnny was the monologue MASTER

Though he's a good host, Fallon's got nothing on this guy. Carson was all class.

This was Carson at his best. A joke would fall flat, and then he would make us laugh about the joke falling flat.

One of my favorites. Loved my 11:30 nights!

If I got out of the shower at night , and heard the Johnny Carson song , I would not be shocked. I thought it would never end.

He never allowed the audience, to pass on his jokes.

Carson, Conan, and Craig are my top three hosts of all time.

He knew what he was doing. He NEVER "failed". Some of the funniest moments were when a joke didn't work. And he KNEW that and played it for all he could. While he acted like things weren't going well, we at home were laughing our asses off. He couldn't lose and he knew it. He NEVER "bombed".

❤❤Johnny Carson , the greatest of them all !! ❤❤

I can't get enough of watching the King of Late-night! This must have been around '89 I'm guessing. It's funny because Bush's remembered for "A thousand points of light" to this day and no one has ever heard of the Iron Triangle.

What a class act

I was not born and raised in US and did not start to follow these shows until mid 2000s. It was only in recent weeks I have watched Johnny’s shows and man, I think everyone today including Letterman copies him and his style. Johnny seems to be born natural with these skills. What a style! RIP

I've never watched carson, what a wonderful person.

he was unparalleled. no competition at all.

The best late night show ever, watched Johnny whenever I could. I like Art Fern and Carol Wayne.

Great show on xfinity tv . Love jc. 1988 wow. I was 46.

A verry Great Show Johnny Carson may the night show for the hole wild world

Now I realize why I loved TCWCQ so much. I grew up watching Johnny bomb every night.

I used to stay up almost every night watching Carson with my dad. While there are many ways you can break down the differences between Carson and his best guests of old and the guests of today, what my dad used to say is that back then they were sharp as in "sharp witted, meaning having a quick and discerning intellect." Today, I would say Conan is easily the best overall comedian by a long shot of any of the current talk show hosts; he has writing skills, improv, timing, and a likable character that is also self-deprecating, just like Carson, so you end up being sympathetic. But nobody has the consistent caliber of guests these days, so it is not worth watching. Maybe it is the lack of booze on set or maybe PR has everything scripted, but the magic is gone. In a weird way it moved to Jon Stewart and the Daily Show for a while, it would be nice to know where the soul of late night will land next.

Great humor for adults and not pinheads. Really liked his show. Not surprising to see that the reruns are still relevant today and more witty than the stuff I caught the other night (oh, by a long ways).

He's even funnier when the jokes are bombing out 😂

Bring. Back reruns of Johnny Carson on RU-vid. I will subscribe

This is like the preview of what an everyday Craig Ferguson show would become. Great job by Johnny Carson.

Johnny made bombing an art form. No one got more laughs out of bombing.

That was masterful - few (if any) could match that performance bouncing off dodgy material, somersaulting and landing on his feet. So playful, so witty so funny. Great clip.

At around 6:15 Johnny talks about Reagan’s “iron triangle” forgets what he was talking about for a second....mentions the “thousand points of light” and Eisenhower’s final address where he warned us about the “military industrial complex”

The Best Period!

Sheer brilliance.

His bombing ? is really funny. Keep doing it, Johnny

Feb 2022: This Video has over three million views I doubt any current late night host can match this many.

I was 8yrs old whn i wacth ths on telivision, and now iam 40yrs old...

I'm with you guys & I've said this for years, and framed it like this: The great thing about Carson was that, when he was bombing, he was even more hilarious than when he was spot on. And, that's saying a lot because Carson, when spot on, was an absolute hoot. It's just that when he bombed, Carson had, what I suppose you might call, a certain physical comedy about him --- his reactions, and in fact, he didn't panic -- his expressions and movement as if he were embarrassed. One analogy might be situations when many people become uncomfortable when a conversation goes silent, especially such as a couple on a first date, and that type of thing. The longer the silence goes, the more uncomfortable one or both persons might become. Many times, one person will finally "crack" and just start blurting out nonsense. The silence overwhelms them and they can't help but break that silence -- with things that can't even be scripted. Well, when Carson bombed, the laughs would not come, and Carson would exhibit all the mannerisms of someone who is terribly conscious of being uncomfortable and not knowing what to do or say -- like a deer in the headlights. (Without doubt, Carson was not uncomfortable at all, although he would always cause himself to appear to be terribly conscious of being embarassed). But unlike the person, as referenced above, who "cracks" in the silence and is compelled to make noise of any kind -- just anything at all to break the bewildering silence; that is, the person "rushes" to break the silence -- Carson would actually extend the time period of the "bomb." Rather than rush into the next joke, he would stand there, blink his eyes, while calmly allowing the "bomb effect" to run its course -- he, in fact, would let time slow down and allow everyone to really "feel" those moments for however long he could milk it. That was his trademark -- the ability to appear uncomfortable, yet that really not being the case, and let that seemingly awkward moment run for an almost unbearable amount of time. Classic stuff. Fallen, etc., just don't live up to that. And these new ones rely so much on videos and other such scripted stuff. There's spontaneous stuff, but nothing like The Tonight Show.

What was the night that he told a joke that didn't land, and he reached up and yanked the microphone down, and pretended to be a KMart cashier? I just about die laughing every time.

Nobody bombed like Johnny!

These jokes were terrible and Johnny still had the audience laughing. Brilliant!

I should film myself doing this monologue and replay it to see myself.

The airlines lost Yasser Arafats luggage so he addressed the general assembly wearing a monogrammed towel from the Genevah Hilton!🤣🤣🤣

carson was the best of the late night guys, but he was a mean drunk

The worst of Carson is SO much BETTER than the best of Letterman or Leno!

This was fun

I sure mis Johnny, and that time period.

Mr. Carson had balls of PLUTONIUM!

You could never get away with the joke at 0:06:02 these days!

Johnny was funny even when his jokes bombed. He was the absolute best. No late night comedian has come close.

Laughed so hard I wet myself!

If you love JOHNNY like i do'''''''''''''watch here on RU-vid......"Johnny Goes Home".......he goes back to his hometown in Nebraska 1982 and visits his childhood home....the town.....and even meets some of his old schoolmates and one of his teachers holds class and teaches them a lesson.This will make you laugh and cry with joy.

The word that comes to mind when I watch Carson now is 'adult.' Talk shows now have a kiddie feel. Like they're produced by Nickelodeon. But this feels like an adult at the helm talking to adults. I miss that.

you can see why Johnny was so big for so long

Wow, even Johnny told us about Eisenhower's warning.

I thought the foie gras thing was way funnier than the crowd did.

You know why its always funny, good or not? Because it wasn't about the joke- it was ALWAYS about the schtick. And the schtick was, and always will be, what made Johnny Carson funny.

Here's Johnny

The G.O.A.T.!

Seeing Johnny again reminds me of how terrible everyone else is at hosting talk shows.

There will never be another Johnny Carson, who was by far the king of late night!!!

Only Carson could bomb this gracefully. He was the best. If a joke worked, it was great. If it didn't, even better. It was funny either way.

Late night TV died with Carson. He was the king.

Carson was always the funniest when his monologue was dying. A real pro. His ad libs were better than the written jokes

"Is there a revolver in the house..." Great stuff.