Henny Youngman

About

Henny Youngman was a British-born American comedian and musician who believed in quick-paced humor. During his heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, most comedians would carry on with languid anecdotes that tended to carry on and on, ending with the audience bored and tired by the long-winded humorists. Youngman saw how fatigued these crowds would get and got an idea. He started performing routines that'd feature him firing off jokes, predominantly one-liners, in rapid succession, oftentimes with short fiddle interludes. Because at the time, no one was really doing what Youngman was, he was met with uproarious laughter and dubbed a comedic innovator. Though his popularity would never eclipse the fame he experienced during the first half of the 20th Century, Youngman managed to maintain an impressive level of respectability--a rare feat for a comic--until he died in 1998 at the age of 91.