[Reader-list] (fwd) Obituary: Johnny Carson (edit)

[sanjay ghosh]

Obituary: Johnny Carson (1925-2005)

For almost 30 years, the last person that millions of Americans saw before they went to sleep was Johnny Carson, hosting his Tonight television chat show on NBC. In it, Carson, who has died aged 79, honed an apparently effortless technique that influenced comedians and interviewers on both sides of the Atlantic...

...A private man behind the public banter, he hid his true feelings, an act of heroic modesty considering his huge potential influence. But after he had given his notice to NBC, and his final show approached, he delivered a laconic message about democracy that is worth repeating.

He compared it to buying "a big house you can't afford, with money you don't have, to impress people you wish were dead. And, unlike communism, democracy does not mean having just one ineffective political party; it means having two ineffective political parties.

"Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold on to, usually a mop or a leaf blower. It means that with proper timing and scrupulous bookkeeping, anyone can die owing the government a huge amount of money... Democracy means free television, not good television, but free... And finally, democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollarbill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head. This signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle. I thank you."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1396988,00.html

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