Ernie Kovacs

Hi. For the past two evenings I have been watching a compilation film of the work of Ernie Kovacs. I have known little about Kovacs with the exception that he was one of those comedians that critics seemed to love but who the public-at-large either ignored or who they considered to be too intellectual.

Well, Kovacs is an acquired taste. This compilation film, available from Netflix, was originally put together by the local PBS affiliate in Chicago in 1977. It is a bizarre collection of short skits, similar in vein to Monty Python. The entire compilation has that air of 1970's head films when long-haired teenagers would smoke pot while watching the clips and laughing hysterically. In fact, it is difficult to even watch the clips without wondering if you are drunk or whether someone put something in your salad that left you high - they are just that bizarre.

To think that these skits were made in the early 1960's makes it that much more strange. They are not only avant garde - they are absolutely unusual in the context of suburban, safe 1960's culture. It is just amazing that they were made in the same era of Leave It to Beaver.

First things first. Percy Dovetonsils is one of the creepiest characters that has ever been on television. Kovacs created an effeminate, sniveling, effete poet in a leopard skin robe, drinking a martini with a daisy as a stirrer. This "poet" is a frightening reminder of the homophobia of early 1960's culture. He is painted as a freak, as unmanly. For a man with the intellect of Kovacs, it is apparent that this was the accepted norm for all American culture. Kovacs has Percy wearing eyeglasses in which the "eyes" are painted on. It creates a disturbing effect that emphasizes the prurient nature of Dovetonsils that much more. Percy laughs at his own jokes and thinks he is more talented than he actually is. In the episode I watched this evening, he made a joke about the muscular legs of the cameraman - a shocking remark from 1960's television.