Mort Sahl knew how to keep it funny

His act was groundbreaking because it was seamless. The punchlines were there, but buried in long-form banter that sounded unrehearsed. After Sahl, the standard for comics was breaking through the fourth wall — ditch the tuxedos and drum rolls, and talk to the audience.

I had difficulty navigating all the references, but that was half the fun. I’d jot down notes of his jargon (“stoned” used to mean tired) and the important figures or organizations he referenced (It was Sahl who taught me to be suspicious of the American Opinion Book Store one of my uncles loved so much).

Sahl normalized having a cynical view of society. He wasn’t acerbic or angry — it was just natural for him to use his critical eye to find the punchline. The ability to have such command and confidence of an idea, to sound like you’re rambling but always stammer to the punchline — for me, he became the gold standard of true intelligence.

The social activism of the ’60s made Mort Sahl’s subtly whimsical take on U.S. politics and society seem sedate and irrelevant.

But Mort Sahl was the prototypical “living humorist”— a reminder that the only way to stay smart and sane in our consumerist culture is to keep up. And keep it funny.

Nels Johnson

Millbrae