Your favorite Comedic performers?

He was an outspoken supporter of any wars the Republicans wanted to fight; he was convinced that the Vietnam War was a good thing; he used what humor he had to belittle those who opposed his views. I admit that he would take entertainment road shows to the war zones to amuse US troops, often bringing Playboy Playmates along as part of the show (which struck me as being akin to waving a Porterhouse steak in the face of a starving man), but he did nothing at all to get or to keep US troops out of harm’s way. He was a good buddy of Tricky Dickie Nixon.

I don’t mean to undercut your comments about Hope’s performance in the movies you cite. He may have been fine. I never saw his films, but I do know he made an African-based film titled Call Me Bwana that would not have been released today. I do know that his stand-up comedy was the equivalent of a Spam and Wonderbread sandwich: utterly safe, determinedly middle-brow and, at best, chuckle-inducing; and not actually nourishing. I do know that he was a lickspittle to The Establishment. In short, though he may have been enjoyable in cinema, he was the complete opposite of what a comic is supposed to be. Obscurity suites him.