Transcript: An Ode to Bob Newhart

Rob Long on the inimitable legacy of a comedy icon

This is Rob Long with Martini Shot for The Ankler.

I have a friend who has been in politics since the nineties, and he tells the story of one of his bosses, early in his career, who refused to hear anything for the first time. Of course, there were times that something would be news to him — some piece of political gossip, some nugget of insider info — but he didn’t want anyone ever to think he was a step behind anything, so whenever he heard something that was in fact news to him, instead of saying the normal thing, like, “Oh, wow, that’s wild,” he’d nod, with a mildly interested expression on his face, and say, “Oh, is that out?”

Meaning: I knew this all along, way before you knew it, because I know things way before you do, and I am merely surprised that this old piece of news — to me — is now public knowledge.

His staffers — among whom was my old friend — picked up on this habit eventually, and then began concocting, out of nothing, more and more outlandish pieces of gossip and inside dope which they would deliver to their boss, just to make him imply that he knew it all along.  

They got him to say, “Oh, is that out?” to some pretty outlandish things, as it turned out.

And I thought of this story last week, when I heard that the great American comedian, Bob Newhart, had died at 94.