| Time | Text |
|---|---|
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Behind the Laughter
00:03:58
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| David, I need to tell you, it's called For Goodness Sake, folks. | |
| You'll love it as an adult, but I want your kids to see it. | |
| It's a hilarious video. | |
| Basically, my idea is on goodness. | |
| So, there was a scene. | |
| If people were to ask me, what was the most difficult moment of your life? | |
| I could think of three or four things. | |
| One of them. | |
| Like one was smuggling out anti-Soviet documents from the Soviet Union at midnight and being taken out of the train at the Romanian border. | |
| But up there with that was a scene in For Goodness Sake, which I was told, Dennis, it's too complex, we can only film it once, get it right the first time. | |
| Which is, okay, I like to get things on the first take anyway. | |
| However, behind me, Mrs. McGillicuddy, or whatever her name was, Mrs. O'Malley, falls out of a window. | |
| It's, of course, a dummy, into a garbage bin. | |
| I know what's happening behind me, and David Zucker is behind the camera, cracking up. | |
| Just cracking up. | |
| And I'm supposed to deliver my lines completely straight-faced with Mrs. O'Malley falling into a garbage bin behind me. | |
| The whole thing just cracked me up. | |
| It remains the funniest scene in that whole movie. | |
| See, there we are. | |
| Straight-faced. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Straight-faced Prager. | |
| That was so difficult. | |
| I don't remember who else was behind the camera, but I remember you just laughing yourself silly with this woman falling into a garbage can behind me. | |
| And I kept a completely straight face. | |
| Did you realize what achievement I had accomplished? | |
| No, I don't care about the actors. | |
| Yeah, and Leslie Nielsen tells the same story, that he'd try to concentrate and he'd hear David giggling at the monitor. | |
| I know, it's not fair. | |
| It's not fair. | |
| No, absolutely not. | |
| Did you have fun directing that? | |
| I did. | |
| It was tremendous fun. | |
| I've had fun directing all the movies. | |
| Right, well, you enjoy life. | |
| I do. | |
| I do. | |
| And imagine I can work and the test of whether I got it right or not is if I laugh. | |
| I mean, I have to laugh on the set as we're shooting it. | |
| That's important to you. | |
| That's your nature. | |
| Look, everybody has... | |
| But it's a gift to others because you make us happier. | |
| Laughter is very, very important. | |
| Now, having said that, And he's totally free to take the microphone. | |
| Having said that, and this is serious, I ribbed the living martyr a lot on the show, but now I'm not. | |
| So, I will even call him by his given name, Alan. | |
| You don't laugh a lot, is that fair to say? | |
| I can make Alan laugh, though, but go ahead. | |
| You can make him smile, which the rest of us consider a giggle. | |
| But it is an interesting thing. | |
| Do you miss it, Alan? | |
| No. | |
| He finds the question essentially meaningless. | |
| Ah, that's a good point. | |
| The man knows his work. | |
| We'll be back on the laughter issue. | |
| How could I miss what I've never experienced? | |
| How could he miss what he never experienced? | |