Last Updated on: 16th November 2013, 04:21 pm
In a way it’s kind of fitting that I got the news thatRobert Schimmel died in a car accidentin an email from one of my old high school friends.
I think I was in grade 10 when I first saw him on TV and thought hey, this guy’s not bad. I didn’t give it much more thought until a year or so later when I was in a record store (Remember those?) looking through what passed for the comedy section when I happened to come acrossIf You Buy This CD I Can Get This Car.That was the last time I didn’t give Robert Schimmel’s name much thought. The first time I threw it into the CD player (Remember those?), I quickly realized there was no way I’d be able to listen to it all the way through. Not because it was kind of disgusting and tasteless (it is) or because it wasn’t funny (it most definitely is), but rather because I was laughing so hard it hurt and I had to take a break.
After that day I went on a mission to get as many people as possible to listen to his stuff, and not one person could say they hated it. A few said it was horribly disgusting, but said it in that way where you could tell it wasn’t entirely a negative. I’ve lost touch with a lot of those people, but among the ones I still talk to, quite a few are fans to this day.
Here’s aclipof him performing at a Rodney Dangerfield show. There was a lot more to him than just dick jokes, but as dick jokes go, these are pretty good.
We’ll all miss you, Bob. It’s a shame that a car accident had to go and do what cancer, a heart attack and hepatitis couldn’t.