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R.I.P., Garry Shandling


Gonzo

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He seemed to be a fit man for his age. I'd heard several times that he'd gotten way into amateur boxing.

The number of television shows from the last 25 years that owe him a debt creatively is incalculable. 

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In the late 80s early 90s he was the guy who felt like the "alternative" to normal comedy way before there was such a thing as "alt" comedy.

Whenever he showed up you knew it was going to be different, more subtle, more ambitious, and you kind of felt like he took pride in how much it never went totally mainstream.

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I've just been reading Judd Apatow's 'Sick in the Head' where he interviews various comedians (And it is 100% worth your time) and he just adores Garry Shandling, who comes across like a genuine, funny sweet guy.

 

Plus, I just re-watced 'The Larry Sanders Show' in its (almost) entirety these past couple months (It's a cheap set and a couple episodes are missing) and it's so wonderful: such a blueprint for the next decade or so of comedy.  Never had a chance to watch 'It's Garry Shandling's Show' but hoping to get ahold of it in the not-too-distant future.

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Indeed. I always thought he was closer to my age, but 66 is still too young to go. RIP to one of the funniest people I've ever seen.

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Its Garry Shandling's Show was probably one of the first "adult humor" shows I got into as a kid. I couldn't have been more than 9 or 10 years old, and I certainly didn't get all of the jokes, but I think the fact that it was very much an adult comedy show but it was still wrapped in an absurdist shell was what appealed to me and was so memorable. Breaking the fourth wall years before my generation knew Zach Morris for it, the episode where he invited the studio audience to house-sit for him, the episode where he had to get across town in a short amount of time so he stepped in front of the living room set in the studio and drove a golf cart 30 feet across the studio to the "across town" set. All of it gold and really helped shape my preference for the humor I would gravitate towards in my later years.

Garry Shandling was ground zero for me gravitating to things like Kids In the Hall and MST3K during my teen years, Mr Show during my college years, and shows like Rick and Morty and Review with Forrest McNeill in recent years. 

And obviously, the greatness of the Larry Sanders Show, though also predated by him doing a great job of skewering the conventions of late night television a few years prior with The Garry Shandling Show 25th Anniversary Special.

And my favorite joke from his stand up routine:

"After we were finished, I asked 'was it good for you?' She said 'I don't think this was good for anybody?'"

Thank you Garry Shandling for opening the doors to a whole new comedic world for this impressionable kid.

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15 hours ago, Death From Above said:

The Larry Sanders Show was a thing I'd watch on late night TV as a teenager and some of it was over my head, but it was so goddamn good. I need to revisit it at some point.

This and Dream On on Comedy Network were a huge part of my teenage TV watching habits. He was so great and so different from everybody else. I remember being greatly disappointed in that silly movie of his from the mid '90s, but his show was almost always great. 

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17 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

I grew up watching The Larry Sanders Show on semi-scrambled HBO (along with Dream On and... ugh... Dennis Miller). Fantastic stuff. 

RIP

To be fair, Dennis was still a ways from going off the deep end at that point.

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