Today would have been the birthday of the late/great Rip Taylor, the most flamboyant, confetti wielding funny guy there ever was.
Rip Taylor made his beginnings as a comedian at nightclubs, restaurants, and even strip clubs along America's East Coast. His early act consisted of him pantomining along to weird and obscure records, but one night after his record player broke he began to interact with his audience, and from that day on nobody could shut him up.
His loud and flamboyant behaviour on stage, made most famous by his "crying" for the audience to laugh at him amassed him an awesome amount of demand, and he was eventually able to score his first TV gig back in 1961, on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Following this appearance, Taylor was ripe for the picking by other TV and even film studios, as his place in pop culture became more and more cemented with each toss of his signature confetti. He lent his voice to numerous cartoons such as Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, and The Snorks, as well as appearances in live action productions such as The Brady Bunch, Wayne's World, and Indecent Proposal.
In later life Rip Taylor also became a big hit with the 00s Jackass scene, making appearances at the end of all three Jackass films at Johnny Knoxville's request, as well as providing the intro for The Bloodhound Gang's Use Your Fingers album.
Sadly we lost this colossus of comedy just last year, when he passed away at a Los Angeles hospital on the 6th October 2019, having been admitted there a week prior do to an epileptic seizure.
Rip Taylor, you may be gone, but you are certainly not forgotten here at TTWAAR, and we wish you all the best on your birthday, which I'm sure you'll be spending in heaven right now, throwing confetti all over Jesus, Ganesh, Buddah, and all the other fun deities, making them laugh so heartily.
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