Reaction to The Carol Burnett Show The Elephant Story 

"You sure that little asshole's through?" is one of the all time funniest lines in television history!

Tim Conway is a severely underrated comedic legend.

Tim Conway was the Robin Williams of his generation. A genius comedian. He is missed.

An entire generation grew up watching this stuff. It was brilliant.

Tim was such a devious genius. His mind was always going, but he always saved the good ad-libs for the tapings. His mission in life was to make his co-stars break character. And he would do different things at each of the two tapings. Most everything you see and hear from him, they were seeing and hearing if for the first time, too. But Vicki's comeback at the end is absolutely perfect.

I love this show because it was live ! There was a live studio audience for all of her shows. Plus there were so many skits and live performances! This show was everything!

Tim always did what he could to crack everyone up. It was filmed in front of a live audience so they never knew what he would do.

You need to watch his dentist skit. He made his costar piss himself laughing

RIP Tim Conway. The comedians comedian.

The lady who plays Mama is the youngest person sitting on the sofa.

I struggle as a stoke victim, and had a particularly difficult day today. I noticed that you had a video up, so I was excited to watch it. I lmao! This is 4 great comedians on this couch. Thank you so very much for playing this. It changed my day🤣!

That's one thing that's missing from today's comedy. The ability to make the other cast members try to keep a straight face has always seemed to make a comedy sketch even more amusing, in my opinion.

The incredible part was that Vickie Lawrence was able to remain in character for her last line.

Tim Conway always found ways to break up his co-stars, especially Harvey Korman. Just an epic show!

Carol Burnett's show was classic. It was In Living Color before In Living Color. Tim Conway was infamous for going off skit to get the cast to laugh. It was a personal challenge for himself to make everyone bust out laughing every skit.

WKRP, Thanksgiving episode, and this skit are two of the funniest TV sketches ever.

Part of the fun is watching the performers try to keep a straight face around Tim Conway. He was one of the funniest clean comedians I've ever seen.

A lot of time Tim would never show up at the rehearsals. So when these scripts came into play, they never knew what he was gonna say or do, and why Harvey Korman laughed so much. That particular script is a classic blooper from Vicki Lawrence. She was told to just get him back, play his game and that was when she finally drew up enough courage to say " Is that little asshole finished" was her moment to shine. She still talks about that to this day as does Carol Burnett with her show she has. Tim Conway, was a class act.. Rest In Peace and thanks for the laughs...

It's so funny how they break character so much on this show 😂☺️😂

I remember hearing an old story about Tim Conway on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Carson had an extremely boring guest on but he had to have this person on for a certain amount of time. When Carson wasn't watching Conway would get up and turn back the clock. Carson was dying trying to figure out what to say to the guest. A result of this was they put a cage over the clock so it couldn't happrn again

The siamese elephant story. ....... an all-time classic and favourite. "all they could do was just blow and go 'fnort' ...... if they'd sneeze the other's eyes'd get real big. "

Tim Conway was going off script on the story, that’s why everyone is losing it.

2nd elephant story is I.C.O.N.I.C!!! Funniest clip in TV history for me! I love how Tim Conway cracked himself up, as well as everyone else!

The Carol Burnette show. Funniest show ever! Back in the innocence of the 70's. I always loved how the cast members were so good that they cracked each other up and they did not cut it out. They showed the cast member trying so hard to not show they were cracking up! RIP Tim Conway.

When Mama got her own show, "Mama's Family", Carol Burnett would sometimes guest star as Eunice with Harvey Korman as her husband Ed during the first season, and there were some really great moments like this one. There was also an entire TV-movie called "Eunice" that was performed live on tape before a studio audience like a stage play, which was excellent. It covers the time between when Eunice was a teenager in the 50s to the day of Mama's funeral. Vicki Lawrence started out as the new kid on the show, and usually played Carol's kid sister or a Valley Girl type. It was when she took on the Mama character to such an amazing degree that she really came into her own on the show.

There were times when the producers would tell Tim, we need to stay on schedule tonight, so no extra silliness. And that's all Tim needed to hear

Those of us who were kids in the seventies were blessed. That show had some of the longest laughs from some of the most iconic linens uttered in comedy. You should react their version of Gone With The Wind. I think there's a laugh in there that rivals this and it's not such a long skit.

The live audience and improv are so fabulous.

The outtakes version is the one everyone was referring to. I’m glad they included the Siamese elephant story at the end. That makes the clip.

Tim was so creative and I miss him a lot. His son has a daily radio show in Los Angeles on KFI radio.

Tim Conway-- the funniest man on live TV! 🤣 I used to watch this show every Sat night. You never knew what was going to happen but you always knew it was going to be funny! Like someone said, all of those people on that couch were top notch comedians, Dick van Dyke, Vicky Lawrence, Carol Burnett and Tim Conway. All of them are legends in comedy, but Tim Conway just had a special way about him where he could crack anybody up with a crazy line until they just couldn't do anything but laugh hysterically and forget their lines, etc. This show was live so you just never knew what someone was gonna say or do. I've heard Carol say in interviews that they would rehearse but then in the live show, the skit never played out the same. RIP Tim Conway 😢. We're loosing all the greats from the past. Dick van Dyke is in his 90's, Carol Burnett is in her 80's but I think Vicky Lawrence is probably in her 60's. 😂 it was a great time for TV. Lots of people in the entertainment business got to be on live TV for a few minutes to keep the public interested in what they were up to in life. Keep their name relevant. Nowadays, all we see is a RU-vid video when they say or do something stupid or criminal. Anyhow, I'm really glad somebody has posted things like these clips of the Carol Burnett Show so the younger generations can see the great stuff we got to see on TV every week. 😀!

Did anyone notice how wonderful Carol Burnett looked at the Golden Globes.

One of my all time favorites ever! Back when 4 generations of a family could watch the same show and ALL laugh out loud.

In an interview Carol Burnett said they did 2 takes, first one would be straight on but 2nd one he ad libbed like crazy....

That last part around the 20min mark was the part everyone wanted you to watch. The thing to remember about Tim Conway was he loved to ad lib, the other no one on the set knew when he was going to do it and when he started it was always funny as hell.

That was a golden reaction...Carol’s show which was highly and critically acclaimed embodies the earlier Show of Shows and predates Saturday Night Live.

The Siamese Elephants kill every time.

The famous "elephant skit" was the part from 22 minutes on. It was Tim Conway going off script and ending with "Mama" using the "A" word, which was an unthinkable TV and "live TV audience "no-no" in those days. They had been told earlier that Tim had cooked up something, and to just roll with it, but they didn't know what it was. And NOBODY including Tim Conway could have anticipated that Vicki Lawrence was going to say what she did.

The band is called POCO, the song is called the heart of the night. Great song.

Loved when shows had live audiences! Mistakes were made, people ad libed! It was hysterical!

first time I've ever seen the whole skit.

Vicki said her husband suggested she say something and at the end she did and got them all losing it. Was perfect!

Great skit. The whole ensemble were comic geniuses. Every Saturday night, this was must see TV , before NBC got the saying.

You must do “Went With the Wind”, a Gone With the Wind parody from Carol Burnett Show.

You should definitely watch carol Burnett's skit went with the wind

The guy from Frasier had a completely different voice and he wasn’t famous back then. This is Dick Van Dyke. Mary Poppins

Carol and Tom...comic genius. I put them and many of other cast in the Johnny Carson and Dangerfield category. Pure genius.

Whenever I'm having a bad day, this Carol Burnett clip is the clip I play. Hands down, never fails to get me in a good mood. Truth.

For the few that didn't know, the Mama skits lead to the series Mama's Family starring Vickie Lawrence.

Tim Conway was always going off script and sending them into fits of laughter. Lol Also, Vicki Lawrence who plays Mama...she is only 26 years old when she played that part. She was perfect.

I had forgotten how many comedians were on here! Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence & Dick Van Dyke as a guest for this one! lol. Vicki Lawrence younger than them all ...playing Mama!!! lol.

Tim Conway was a comic genius. He admitted that he did everything he could to make them break character each week. This was back in the days of a true live audience. Originally, they showed it live, but once he joined, they began having to tape it so that they could get all of the skits on air. He was famous for absolutely breaking everyone up on stage. This elephant story is a classic example. He told the director that he planned to go off script, but nobody told the actors. It became one of the funniest outtakes of all time for ANY show. Of course that last sentence by Vicky Lawrence would never have made it past the censors of the day. She was much younger than the rest of the cast and had been being very shy about being with them. This is counted as the first time she ever asserted herself on the show and the timing of it was comic gold

The thing I find the most funny here is that Vicki Lawrence (who plays Momma) was by FAR the youngest cast member on the show! =)

Love it! I like him and Carol in the “Mrs. Awiggins” skits too. The boy was crazy.

Classic Carol Burnett Show! They don't make'em like this anymore! Lovin' it!

That's one of the greatest skits of all time. Your reactions were priceless. God bless you!

This was possibly the first time, or a long time, seeing the entire skit of the elephant story. I've only watched the portion that was adlibbed by Tim Conway.

The Carol Burnett Show was the ultimate don't laugh challenge and Tim Conway was the main source of the challenge. He was such a great improviser.

Miss this great TV. Loved it as a child

Tim Conway was like this in every skit. He took great delight in getting Harvey Korman to lose it. Carol and Vicky were pretty good at keeping it together but this skit was the one that blew them all out of the water. Before going on stage, Vicky's husband who worked behind the scenes, told her to turn the tables on Tim, and she did.

Tim Conway doing his old man skits

Vicky Lawrence also has a #1 hit song: “ The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia “ After watching her, check out the song. 📻🙂

I saw that when it was originally broadcast back in the day. My whole family cracked up and could barely breathe for laughing! We watched that show as a family. My mother laughed so hard, she cackled. Her laugh was so extremely funny that we were laughing at her laugh and the skit. We were just about rolling on the floor, too! Since then, every time I see that skit, I still can't help but laugh! My momma's not here for me to hear her happy cackle laugh, but I do remember that was the only time I ever heard her laugh that hard. Thanks for sharing. It was good to see you laughing at it, too!

The Mole People was made in 1956,starring Hugh Beaumont (Leave It to Beaver)

Carol Burnett was one of my favorite shows growing up. It was always hilarious when Tim Conway would say some off the wall stuff and the other players would try their darndest to not bust out laughing. The laughter from the audience was contagious and I'd be laughing so hard my side hurt.

try to dig up the mary tyler moore episode where chuckles the clown dies - he was dressed as a peanut and elephant - well...……. - and then the funeral later -

This is true comedy. Just look at the line up: Tim Conway, Carol Burnette, Vicki Lawrence and Dick Van Dyke! All legends!

You need to watch Red Skeleton too. He made you laugh and made you feel like everything was going to be ok. I miss that feeling from the older shows like The Jefferson’s, Chico and the Man, Good Times, Sanford and Son, The Smothers Brothers, Lucy, Dick Van Dyke, Mork and Mindy, Happy Days and of course Carol Burnett. 😊

This was requested already below but react to the Went with the Wind, that one is an absolute classic.

The show was already an improv show- and when Tim Conway wld go off on his own, it was even more hilarious! Improv-ing the improv- so to speak- I’m ready for you to see Tim and Carol do the “old man” and “old woman” characters as well- and Mr. Tudball and Mrs. Swiggins!🤣 There’s so many great skits, and those are just some that stuck out in my mind as a kid growing up, looking forward to seeing them every show- There’s a special with the 4 of them onstage discussing the show, their characters, etc.. Even it’s funny and fantastic watching them do that! Great cast of folks! Such memories! Sending love always Ty- ❤️🤘🏼✌️

I’ve watched this skit 50+ times over and every time he says ‘Shnorkie’ I’m on the f****** floor!!!🤣🤣🤣

I love Carol Burnett. I saw her not long ago in Houston. It was a dream come true!

Tim Conway is the GOAT. Outside the reaction videos you should checkout his movie with Don Knots The Private Eyes. It’s a bit hard to find but well worth it.

Vicki Lawrence, the one who played Mama, rarely ever broke character or goofed around. That's why they they all completely lost it when she made the "asshole" comment.

It is said that Carol Burnett rarely ever broke but this was one of the few times he could keep it together.

My son was a baby when I got hooked of Carol Tim and all the other geniuses on that show. I always looked forward to Saturday night when Carol Mary Tyler Moore and Newhart came on. I'd put a big quilt I had in the floor in front of the old black and white tv I had and I'd put my son and his toys on it then get the salad I always made and sit in the floor waiting for them to come on. I loved that so much. I was young and it was before I got a job and life got crazy and complicated. I wish I could go back to that time when life was so much better. I'd stay there and never come back to this crazy world as it is now.

There is a shorter version of this on RU-vid that cuts out all of the Password stuff. Tim Conway went off script and made up whatever he wanted.

What I think is hilarious only Tim can keep a straight face when he does those Elephant bits. Btw Ty that was Dick Van Dyke in case no one else caught your question.

I love your laugh at this CB clip.....seems like you had fun. It is a classic.....

I grew up on Carol Burnett! This was Mama’s Family which was a skit that started on Carol Burnett but then made its own show for years

Carol burnett got him back in a later skit with her own version of the elephant story.

Tim Conway was NATORIOUS for doing all rehearsals straight on script, but then go rogue during live taping with ad libs and actions to deliberately try and throw the cast, crew and audience into hysterics!

Back then TV was live. He did great improv.

The first thing I would be interested to know is how familiar were you with Carol Burnett and the ensemble. This is so very different from what passes for comedy today in every aspect. I will be watching your video and reactions from this frame of thought. Well the clip included both versions of the elephant joke and I am glad neither the humor of them or the pandemonium of the family breaking character escaped your attention. Your reactions met all my expectations. Yes, I saw this on the night it originally aired as did the largest segment of the TV viewing audience of the US. This is the formula that put the show and this ongoing family sketch at the top of the ratings and kept it there. I'm glad you could experience it.

The other one you should react to is when they played the game "Sorry". Toooooo funny!!!

if I'm not mistaken the elephant stories were ad-libbed.

I watch this every couple of weeks...one of the funniest pieces of work EVER.

Love the art work behind you that's gorgeous.

When Tim Conway starts that elephant story, he just went off script. Trying to bring the skit on back on script Carol is trying to hold it together. Tim keeps expanding on the elephant story. Carol is trying hard to not laugh and stay in character. But Tim keeps on going on and Carol is trying to get through the skit. But Tim goes on. Vicky(Mama) was kind of in on it. Was told to give it to Tim by, I think the Director. No one knew that part, not even Tim.

I never get tired of the elephant story. It's cool to see the whole context, and finally understand why Carol keeps showing that card to Vickie.

That was always Tim Conway's goal, to break his costars during any kind of skit. It never failed with him.

I don't know how ANYBODY could ever play straight for Tim Conway... He could break anyone.

That’s not the guy from Frashier. That’s Dick Van Dyke....had a show called the Dick Van Dyke show in the early 60’s. Was also in the original Mary Poppins, also (more recently) Night At The Museum.

@Modern Renaissance Man I don't know if anyone mentioned this to you or if you picked up on it. The Carol Burnett Show was filmed live in front of a studio audience.

Tim Conway set the bar for all other comedians! And, he set that sucker high!!! R.I.P. Tim. Thank you for all the laughs!

I love some of these. I remember watching them on reruns growing up with my mom n granddaddy. I’m such a huge carol burnett and Vicky Lawrence fan. I remember when the movie Annie came out I was so happy the character of mrs hanagin was being played by carol. I can not even watch any of the remakes , no one will ever play that part like she did. It was one of my movies growing up. And I always wanted to be as good an actress as carol. I just adore her

Robin williams and Jonathan Winters together went off the rails together adlibbing.

Have you seen I Love Lucy, Vitameatavegamin?

Congrats, you finally did it...I've watched this 1000 times...and at the very least, it brings a smile. All the best. Cheers.

I haven’t watched this whole episode in ages! This popped up in my suggestions. I love each of these comedians. This still makes me laugh. Dick Van dyke rolling off the couch is pure gold