Mux Urself

My Muxtape
Made up of a bunch of bands/acts I’ve gotten into in the last few months. Evidence of my evolving (maturing?) musical tastes. I’d have brushed off most of these tracks a year ago as hipster trash. But I’m always looking for new music, and after running out of the stuff I was used to, I started jumping into all other genres.

Phil Hartman

Later this month is the 10 year anniversary of comedian Phil Hartman’s murder. That makes a decade since his booming, salesmanish voice has produced anything that has made me laugh, and I can’t believe it’s been that long already. There have been plenty of comedians who’ve died in my lifetime. Farley, Hedberg, Rodney, but none have been as senseless as Hartman. He wasn’t an addict, or 82 years old. On May 28th, 1998, he was shot to in the face and mouth multiple times by his drunk and stoned wife, in his sleep. Why she did it, no one knows, because Brynn Hartman shot herself in the head a few hours later while the police took her kids out of the house. Speculation is left at “domestic discord”, and blamed on Zoloft. Hartman’s good friend Jon Lovitz puts the ultimate blame on comedian Andy Dick, who he says reintroduced Brynn to cocaine 5 months prior to the murder/suicide, after being sober for 10 years. Lovitz actually attacked Andy Dick last year at the Laugh Factory, after a heated argument about their friend’s death. I can’t be 100% certain, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it went something like this:

Anyway, I don’t mean to turn this into a history lesson, I just wanted to pay tribute to one of the funniest men who’s ever lived. Thanks to NBC, there are no good SNL clips of Hartman on any video sites I’ve checked, so I can’t share these memories with maximum visual aid. I can, however, recap my top 5 favorite Phil Hartman moments.

5) Jingle All The Way (1995) - What should’ve been one of the worst Christmas movies ever made (and probably still is), I hold a soft spot for, mostly because of Hartman’s role. It certainly isn’t for Sindbad. Hartman played third fiddle to Arnold & Sinbad, but was obviously the only one on screen with a comedic mind.

4) Commercials! - Phil was in tons of commercials throughout my youth, probably even before I knew who he was. He was always a recognizable face that could draw laughter just from a big, over-acting smile. Heres a few commercials he was in that I found, which you might remember. I don’t know what the last one is from, but I love it. OH! And remember 1-800-Collect???

3) Saturday Night Live (1986-1994) - At the time, SNL was thought of to be pretty bad, but I’ve watched plenty of reruns from this era, and I crack up each time. Hartman, of course, had some of the more memorable characters, including Frankenstein, Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, Bill Clinton, Frank Sinatra, and had one of the best parts of the show with Fuzzy Memories by Jack Handey. One of my favorite Fuzzy Memories: “When you’re ten years old, and a car drives by and splashes a puddle of water all over you, it’s hard to decide if you should go to school like that or try to go home and change and probably be late. So while he was trying to decide, I drove by and splashed him again.”

2) NewsRadio Goodbye (1998 ) - For whatever reason, I had never watched a full episode of NewsRadio in my life until 1998. Still, to this day, I can only recall watching it 2 or 3 times. But after his death, I remember tuning in to see how the show that he had co-starred on for the last 4 years was going to handle it. Would they simply write off the character, or actually address his passing? The writers and cast of the show handled the situation with such class and humor. It’s actually pretty sad to watch, but it’s a great send-off for a legend.

1) The Simpsons (1991-1998 as Troy McClure, and Lionel Hutz) Coincidence or not, The Simpsons’ quality went downhill ever since the disappearance of McClure & Hutz from the roster of characters. I really believe that, although a secondary character, Hartman added more humor to the show than any other cast member, except for maybe Harry Shearer. Those 7 years that Hartman provided his voice, the show was in it’s prime, and it hasn’t even come close to touching that level since.