"And it's goodbye from him..."

Oh, shit.

For years, I'd put off writing a letter to him. Not that he would've gotten THAT big a kick out of it, but maybe. I would've mentioned how impressive that (dopey) "monologue in the chair" thing was. I know some people hated his cutesy meandering bit, which always arrived at some silly old joke, but almost nobody else could've pulled it off.

I also think he was quite versatile in being both a straight man and a comic, even if he didn't have Barker's huge range.

And give the guy credit for being less than five feet tall and scoring a very hot and statuesque (well, compared to him) wife.

But I put off writing because I would've had to include postage vouchers, and spend a long time composing the letter just right, and in the passing years, I've found myself NOT wanting to do anything that's, well, Hoobastank-y. And for what? A letter back, or an autographed photo that, eventually, will either be tossed on eBay by my better half, or thrown out?

But right now, I remember Corbett with great fondness, for most of what he did.

No, IF I'M BEING HONEST, I wasn't a big fan of the sitcom he did after "The Two Ronnies" ended, which I thankfully can't remember by name. No great comedian can save shitty material or a character that is tediously uninteresting, anymore than Sinatra could make anyone buy that fucked up album he did of all McKuen songs.

As for "The Two Ronnies," it was Mr. C., not Mr. B., who was forgiving and faintly amused when "Not Necessarily The News" made fun of them. He covered that, and more in one of his books (or did he write about a dozen, all pretty much the same one re-hashed).

IF I'M BEING HONEST, I was always a fan of the show. If it began to get predictable, with the difficult-to-understand musical numbers being a bit tedious, the musical guest awful, and the continuing sketch from show to show impossible to follow (and not worth trying), well, there was the opening set of silly news items, Barker doing some kind of wordplay monologue as a blowhard, and little Corbett sitting in his chair and being adorable (to some).

Along the way, over what, more than a decade, they did create some enduring routines, and long, long after, Corbett, now a certified living legend, added a few more when he'd turn up on somebody else's variety show, or a benefit. He did a pretty funny monologue about computers only a few years ago. (If I was being paid, I'd go research it and quote from it).

What was wrong with some escapist foolishness? "Not Necessarily The News" had a bit of cheeky nerve putting down The Two Ronnies, when so little of what they did holds up. And it wasn't so great even then. Some of it was just plain smug, and some of the players just plain ugly and oafish. (I did like the Kate Bush song parody, and the one on Simon and Garfunkel, which apparently was done for a record but was not broadcast on one of their shows).

But back to Mr. C. He had all the best traits of a clown. He looked funny. He was likable. He had humility. He could come up with a very witty and intelligent liner (or, he recognized them when the writers handed him a batch). Being so small, he had vulnerability, which is important for a comedian. With few exceptions, people like to feel some kind of superiority to the person on stage, if only to think, "Oh, that guy is so neurotic and unhappy" or "jeez, he's a munchkin! All the money in the world can't change that!"

And...oh, the guy is dead. What else can you say. A lot of his stuff will still make SOME of us non-Allah-kazams laugh when a laugh is needed. I'm sure some are going over to GooTube right now. "Your nuts, milard..."