Every so often, a comedy talent emerges that is so unique, so unbelievably funny that audiences can help but fall in love. Usually, it’s some young upstart, fresh off a stint at one of the country’s more popular comedy theaters, ready to make their mark on the world. It’s very rarely a struggling character actor in their mid-50s who, until that point, had stuck almost exclusively to drama. But such is the case with Leslie Nielsen, and the world is much better for it.
A new 20-minute documentary from Hats Off Entertainment on YouTube explores Nielsen unconventional career path and examines what makes his deadpan delivery so damn funny. Let’s all take a moment out of our day to appreciate this genius at work.
“I think that the same quality that…works for both drama and comedy, is credibility,” Nielsen said in a 1992 interview.
That credibility manifests in the unflinching deadpan he brought to characters like Airplane’s Dr. Rumack, which helps make the absurd, cartoonish moments of that film so funny. This, of course, was only the beginning of Nielsen’s career as a go-to actor for parody films; he would go on to star in Police Squad!, the Naked Gun series, Dracula: Dead And Loving It, and even the Scary Movie franchise. And let us not forget the many, many farts he dropped throughout many late-period press interviews.
If this mini-doc only whet your appetite for more deadpan lunacy, the first two Naked Gun movies are currently streaming on Netflix. You’re welcome.
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74 Comments
Surely we never stopped appreciating Leslie Nielson?
We haven’t.
And don’t call me Shirley!
Slow clap for the flawless one-two layup
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit appreciating Leslie Neilson…
I watched The Swamp Fox series on late night TV when I was in college and man was it weird seeing him in a serious role.
“Swamp Fox, Swamp Fox Tail on his hatNobody knows where the Swamp Fox’s at!”Way better than The Patriot.
I’m incredulous and delighted that someone posted those lyrics before me.
Hey! It’s Enrico Palazzo!
Look, it’s Enrico Palazzo!
My favorite fun fact about that bit is that the guy who yells ‘It’s Enrico Palazzo!’ is Mark Holton, the same actor who played Francis in ‘Pee Wee’s Big Adventure’.FRANCIS!
And the grown up version of the annoying kid in A League of Their Own
And — just to tie it back to your username — part of the couple that took the last chocolate babka in that one episode of Seinfeld…
And please don’t forget John Wayne Gacy.
To me this will always be his absolute greatest moment; shame so few people seem to know about it these days.
Also further proof of his flatulent humour.
This reminds me that a Due South rewatch is very long overdue. Man I loved that show.
All of his appearances on Due South were highlights. To me as well that is his greatest role. (Plus it is so Canadian! He is the Mountie’s mentor!)
I’ll slap a star on any post that brings up Due South.
/takes a moment to appreciate Leslie Nielsen
As noted in the video, he played starship captain J.J. Adams in the 1956 classic Forbidden Planet. That film was one of Gene Roddenberry’s principal sources for Star Trek, and Nielsen’s character was an archetype for Captain Kirk, right down to the gruff delivery, paling around with his second in command and his ship’s doctor, and boinking the space babe. The film also featured a round bridge, the saucer-shaped ship (GR just added the engineering section and warp nacelles to make the Enterprise), and even a dissolver ray that became the transporter. It’s not much of a stretch to say that Forbidden Planet was the first episode of Star Trek, and that Leslie played the first version of Jim Kirk.
His quote about Forbidden Planet is pretty great too:“Supposedly a science-fiction version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, it was all about the id, or something like that. Who knows? The Trekkies today regard it as the forerunner of Star Trek. I just had to wear a tight uniform and make eyes at Anne Francis. I was pretty thin back then.”
boinking lol
Sounds like Roddenberry had a thing for Canadian captains…
The cro-magnon bro-ness, casual sexism and harassment of the Forbidden Planet captain and crew made Kirk look like a woketivist hippie. Anne Francis’s character is essentially a teenager who has no idea what sex is, and the space ship’s all male crew fights over who gets to educate her.
To be fair, all of that is pretty much straight from The Tempest. Miranda had never seen a man other than her father (and I suppose the questionably human Caliban), and it is clear that Prospero never bothered to have “The Talk” with his daughter.
True enough, although audiences in the ‘50s would have difficulty differentiating the Shakespeare reference from the “two guys fight over the same girl” or “guy falls for exotic local girl” B-movie plots that were the norm then.
but did he take every opportunity to remove/rip his shirt?
Roddenberry also reused the premise in Requiem for Methuselah in season 3.
He even has the hair.But does Nelson’s shirt get removed at any point in Forbidden Planet? That’s the acid test.
“When can we land?”
“ I can’t tell!”“You can tell me, I’m a doctor”“I mean I am just not sure”“Can’t you take a guess?”“Not for another 2 hours”“You can’t take a guess for another 2 hours?”
“It’s a big building with patients in it but that’s not important now!”
I just wanted you to know, goodluck. We’re all counting on you. Feels appropriate now.
Where is Otto Pilot when you need him? If we’re gonna have a bloated, mindless hot air bag at the wheel…
Oh shit! I had the fish
Fun fact: Leslie Nielsen’s brother Erik was a longtime Conservative Party of Canada politician who served as the federal Leader of the Opposition (when the Conservatives were out of power and seeking a new leader), deputy prime minister (when they got back into power), and was for a time Minister of National Defence. During WW II Erik flew as part of 101 Squadron and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Correction: the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Let’s not lump him in with the right wing assholes who currently preside over the Conservative Party of Canada…
Progressive… conservative?
It only makes sense in Canada…
True fact: the centre-right party in Australia calls itself the Liberal Party (but is pro-censorship and opposed gay marriage).
And Erik has an airport named after him! Sadly, I suspect one named after Leslie would be too on the nose.
(walks into any given medical research lab)I just want to wish you all good luck. We’re all counting on you.(leaves)(repeats)
This was always posted in my med school Facebookgroup before every single exam by a friend of mine. The best part about this is that this is in Germany, and few people have actually seen the movie here (it’s not really a dubbable* movie, imo) so the continuous repetition of a joke that no one gets just added a very meta element to it.*is dubbable (a movie that can be dubbed easily without losing the jokes) a word? It should be!
Actually just watched Police Squad! For the first time with my 12 year old. We both enjoyed it immensely, and now he wants to watch Airplane and the Naked Gun.
This clip never fails to make me guffaw.
This one’s my favourite:Straight and to the point.
Oh my god. I’m gonna giggle about that all day.
I’ve heard this described as “the Platonic ideal of a joke”.
Wait, did the Cubs ever hold the rights to Reggie Jackson?
I watched Airplane and two Naked Gun movies with my kids, and they loved them! The great thing is the more adult humor goes directly over their heads, but they still laugh at the absurdity.
There is a strong case to be made that Airplane is the funniest movie ever written. Pretty sure I’ve seen it 20 times and every viewing there’s a joke I missed before.
Buzzn, Buzzn Frog.
My brother and I became big fans of Leslie Nielsen through HBO airings of Wrongfully Accused and Spy Hard from 1999 or 2000. I thought he was the funniest guy when I was 6, and I wouldn’t realize how great he really was until a couple years later when we bought the Naked Gun trilogy on DVD.
My only brush with a celebrity was with Leslie Nielson. It’s not a bad story. There’s a bridge leading into and out of the downtown where I live. It’s a two-level bridge, and the lower level is really narrow, barely wide enough for two cars to squeak through. My buddy and I were teenagers and taking out his dad’s ’74 Chevy Impala for a ride. For those of you who don’t know the ’74 Impala, it’s one of the longest, widest cars ever built. Exactly the kind of vehicle you should NOT take on a narrow bridge. Anyway, we wanted to cruise downtown so we hit this bridge, and it was super busy, and needless to say we got jammed in on the bridge in such a way that we couldn’t get through, and the traffic in the other lane couldn’t get past, and we couldn’t back out of it. Stuck directly beside us at eye level, in the backseat of a cab, was Leslie Nielson. We looked up and recognized him and started pointing and laughing and shouting “No WAY! Naked GUN, man! Frank Dreben! Don’t call me Shirley!”, being the idiotic teenagers we were. Nielson stared at us, stone-faced, reached out his arm and pointed at the cluster-fuck traffic jam we’d caused, tapped his wristwatch, and then, arm outstretched at us, jabbed up his middle finger, all without batting an eye. We laughed even harder and he shook his head and got out of the cab and walked off.
Amazing story. Thanks for sharing!
Cigarette?
Yes, I know.
If you haven’t seen it in a while, “Police Squad!” just came out on Blu-ray a couple of weeks ago. “Who are you, and how did you get in here?”“I’m the locksmith and I’m the locksmith.”
I re-watched Police Squad! thanks to it being released on Blu-ray, and one bit from that first episode straight-up murdered me.We saw at 8:43 in the linked video that, in that episode, there had been a spate of gorgeous fashion models being found naked and unconscious in laundromats, but Drebin, unfortunately, had to work the bank robberies.What we didn’t see in the video was that, every time we saw him driving after that in the episode, he had laundry in his backseat.
I’ve always been a big fan, though only saw his pilot Lipshitz Saves The World a couple of months ago, and it’s one of those times I cannot understand why it wasn’t given a full series, especially as Ty Burrell’s so good in it too – if folks haven’t seen it I’d definitely recommend checking it out on youtube –
Holy crap in a basket built for crap. This is crapbasktastic! Thanks for the tip, it’s truly amazing.
Youre watching SPY HAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRDDDDDDDD!
Dude could hold his breath for a very long time.
Great bio, but a itb disappointed there was no mention of Men With Brooms and tie into Canadian comedy.
Sorry for being so late to the party. I’d have commented earlier, but Leslie Neilsen wasn’t dead then.
He was so good on TV they named the ratings after him.
Leslie… we’re not here for you. Weird Al Yankovic is also in this article.
DYSLEXIA FOR CURE FOUND
It’s out of print now, but if you ever get a chance, you have to read “The Naked Truth,” Leslie Nielsen’s “autobiography.” It’s a hilarious spoof done in his signature deadpan delivery.
Did anyone else watch Repossessed a ton in their youth. I haven’t even seen the Exorcist but could probably guess the whole.plot
Two things i learned about Leslie Nielsen when i was wee: 1. his brother Erik was the Right Honorable Member of Parliament for the Yukon, and Deputy Prime Minister, and 2. everybody said, his brother Erik was “the funny one”.
I LOVE Mr Magoo. it still makes me cry with laughter. I normally dont like those slapstick comedies but Leslie Nelson can so pull it off
And now it’s time for my one-man-show: “LESLIE NIELSON! LESLIE NIELSON! LESLIE NIELSON!”
They guy could be brilliant in movies that used his talent well (not that many did, sadly) but boy did I not find him funny in interviews. He wasn’t a comedian by trade so he could have tried to be little more serious, but always with the goddam unfunny fart jokes.