美国国家公共电台 NPR Famously Eccentric Comedian Irwin Corey Dies At 102

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Irwin Corey described himself as the world's foremost authority. The famously eccentric comedian¹ was kidding of course, but it took a special sort of person to accept a national book award on behalf of the reclusive author Thomas Pynchon and then appear in the movie "Car Wash" two years later. Irwin Corey died at his Manhattan home yesterday at the age of 102. Neda Ulaby has this remembrance.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE²: His shtick was dressing³ up like a dotty professor and answering questions on late-night TV talk shows in the 1950s and '60s, questions like, why is the sky blue, and, why did the chicken cross the road?

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

IRWIN COREY: Well, actually, it's not a chicken. It's a rooster that's looking for a chicken.

(LAUGHTER)

COREY: That's what it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: That explains it.

COREY: The chicken stays where he is. The rooster comes to him.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I see. Why is it that women don't have whiskers?

COREY: Well, you've been going out with the wrong girls.

ULABY: Corey's subversive⁴, absurdist patter influenced comedians⁵ such as Lenny Bruce and the Smothers⁶ Brothers. It's difficult to verify all the claims of someone born in 1914, but Irwin Corey said his parents left him at the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphanage⁷ Asylum⁸, and he started doing comedy there to cheer up other kids. Corey also likes to talk about getting kicked out of the Army during World War II for pretending to be gay and being blacklisted by Hollywood even though the communists did not want him.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

COREY: They said I was an anarchist⁹, and they wouldn't let me in the party.

ULABY: Irwin Corey at the age of 97 performing at an Occupy Wall Street fundraiser in New York. The staunch supporter of far left-wing causes contributed to the defense¹⁰ fund of American activist¹¹ Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing¹² a cop in 1981. And Corey made headlines in New York just a few years ago for raising money for Cuban children by panhandling outside his multimillion-dollar Manhattan house. At the event for Occupy, the man known as the foremost authority offered advice on getting rich.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

COREY: Borrow from your friends, and when they ain't got any more money, make new friends.

ULABY: Over the course of an extremely long life, Irwin Corey ran for president on the Playboy ticket, appeared on Broadway and in movies with Woody Allen and Robin¹³ Williams. He was married to his wife, who died in 2011, for 70 years. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOSHIKO AKIYOSHI SONG, "KISARAZU ZINKU")

1 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

4 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。

5 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

6 smothers   

（使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的第三人称单数 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制

参考例句：

• Mary smothers her children with too much love. 玛丽溺爱自己的孩子。
• He smothers his hair with grease, eg hair-oil. 他用发腊擦头发。

7 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

8 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

9 anarchist   

n.无政府主义者

参考例句：

• You must be an anarchist at heart.你在心底肯定是个无政府主义者。
• I did my best to comfort them and assure them I was not an anarchist.我尽量安抚他们并让它们明白我并不是一个无政府主义者。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。