Artie Lange hospitalized

I heard someone call him John Belushi without the comedic skills or talent.
Loved him on Stern.

 

Posted this in the Norm MacDonald thread, but it involves Artie too. One of the funniest TV arcs in history was the sequence with Artie and Norm both telling Bob Uecker stories on Letterman (and then the uncensored versions on Stern). Here's a compilation:

 

I will get crucified for this, but I think Belushi is wildly overrated. I am old enough to remember him from SNL etc and just never thought he was that funny. Artie is a helluva lot more witty than Belushi, who was to be fair known for his physical comedy. To say Artie has no talent is just false

 

Think Belushi's forte definitely was physical comedy. Artie's forte is probably standup or more so story telling, which made him great on Stern.

 

I could not disagree more. I thought Lange was overrated.

 

I was watching the "classic" re-run NBC shows on Saturday (it featured Petty's first appearance). What struck me is you just didn't see Murray or Curtin even looking at the cue cards during the opening sketch, maybe they knew their lines, or it wasn't as rigid as it is now.
While I do think the "first" cast is great, a lot of their greatness is that they were first. They set the template. For that - sure, they are overrated. The Phil Hartman/Dana Carvey/Dennis Miller/Jan Hooks/Mike Myers era might have been better. Oh yeah, those years also included early Sandler, Chris Rock and Chris Farley.

 

Man, would I love to hear that story about Don Drysdale and Frank Sinatra.

 

I agree. They seem like an odd duo to compare comedically. What, they're both overweight guys with a permanent five o'clock shadow?

 

He was always a sad figure to me. He has no self-esteem or self-control, but had to do crazy things in order to justify his continued place on Stern. I’m shocked he’s lasted this long.

 

"Don't eyeball me, tough guy...."

Love that movie

 

Update -- he's OK

Artie Lange breaks silence about weekend hospitalization

 

Cake and Chardonnay or Coke and Chardonnay?