Bob Newhart – Something Like This – The Bob Newhart Anthology

Bob Newhart is a classic. Everybody has heard his very funny story Introducing Tobacco to America where some guy is talking to Sir Walter Raleigh on the phone and complains that Raleigh is sending turkeys, coffee, and tobacco. There are so many funny jokes in this one piece it’s amazing. My suspicion is Bob Newhart no longer has a TV show because he ran out of names. You had the Bob Newhart Show, Newhart (with the brilliant Darryl and Darryl), and the unfortunate Bob (the premise of which changed two or three times). He also had a short-lived show with Judd Hirsch that bombed because Newhart could not be Newhart. Something Like This is a 2 stand-up comedy CD anthology, a best of his funny jokes and funny stories. The title comes from the typical Newhart set up “It would go something like this.”

Disc one of Something Like This has the classic (kind of redundant to mention they are classics, I know) Abe Lincoln -on his way to see a play. The USS Codfish, a cold war funny story about a bad submarine crew. Merchandising the Wright Brothers is about the cost effectiveness of the airplane. The always funny story The Driving Instructor, a classic amongst the many Bob Newhart classics and Bus Driver School are also on the first CD. Retirement Party is perhaps a lesser-known Newhart funny story and the funny jokes on this track show how language has evolved (stoned used to mean drunk). Before the two weakest tracks on this first cd, Rocket Scientist and The Uncle Freddie Show, the brilliant Ledge Psychology, about a cop trying to talk a guy off the ledge (he does), is a track we seldom hear anymore on comedy radio but should.

Disc two of Something Like This is, comparatively speaking, the weaker of the two since it contains lesser known tracks like Siamese Cat, A Friend With a Dog, On Poodles and Planes, Modern Witch Doctor (which is very dated) and other lesser tracks. However, CD 2 of Something Like This has the absolutely funny story Introducing Tobacco to Civilization as well as the many funny jokes in Defusing a Bomb.

Unfortunately, Bob Newhart’s Something Like This 2 comedy CD set does not include the second all-time best funny story by Bob Newhart: The Invention of Baseball.

Something Like This – The Bob Newhart Anthology
Stand-up Comedy CD
2 discs
WEA Rhino 2001

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