What’s with the Red Skelton VHS Tapes?
I don’t know if this is just a local phenomenon, but every thrift store for the past ~6 months has had Red Skelton box sets. Just piles of them. Enough to build a pyramid in the desert of nothing but Red Skelton VHS tapes.
Wtf is Red Skelton? Is it funny? Is it worth watch? Should I pick up a 50 cent copy of Passenger Pigeon #1? Where are they all coming from (and why are there no VHS players anywhere)?
My now-deceased father-in-law had a bunch of these. I remember my parents (and since we only had one B&W TV, me) watching his show regularly. He was very popular with the WWII generation. Now that they're mostly gone, it's no surprise that Red's videos are being sent to thrift stores. Nobody born after 1950 or so would find him all that funny.
I certainly didn't think he was all that funny. The first comedian I recall thinking was funny was (forgive me) Bill Cosby. Comedy underwent a sea change in the 1960s as the old vaudeville/Borscht Belt-style comedy fell out of favor.
I guess things have to have been pretty bad for Jerry Lewis to try to pivot to Holocaust dramas….
Swing and a miss for him. He wisely stuck to the annual telethon thing after that.
Simple humor for a simpler time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Skelton
He had to have been ridiculously popular.
Guessing that these were VHS’s bought by people born in the 40’s and 50’s. They pass away, their shit gets donated, but no one born after 1960 is going to want a VHS box set of a dead comedian. So they end up just chilling on the floor like piles of mid tier jazz and orchestra vinyls.
It’s the quantity that’s still throwing me off though. Don’t know if this is mostly a local phenomenon - but I’ve been thrifting for years and didn’t start seeing them until about 6 months ago.
Late night infomercials 80's and 90's. He was very popular in 50's and 60's. His humor is a little simple for today's complex world. You can find examples on YouTube.