Betty White is in her 80s, and she's still funny. At the recent Comedy Central roast of William Shatner, she did a routine with perfect timing and delivery and (unlike others) without the benefit of notes. (And it didn't appear there were teleprompters either.) Other roasters half her age needed crib sheets.
It's a shame the whole appearance isn't available on You Tube, but a portion of it can be viewed below, or you can tape a repeat of the whole roast tonight at 11 p.m central time on Comedy Central.
Although White is best known for playing Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show during the 1970s, and Rose on The Golden Girls starting in the 1980s, her career began in the 1950s when she did various programs, including "Life With Elizabeth" and "The Betty White Show," at the same time Lucille Ball was winning well-deserved Emmys for I Love Lucy.
Betty White, however, has been funny for six decades now. Compare this with Lucille Ball, who, after I Love Lucy, basically spent two decades not being all that funny, culminating with perhaps the most miserably unfunny show in television history, "Life With Lucy," which lasted only a couple months. In the fall of 1986, 13 episodes were filmed, and eight were aired before the network mercifully pulled the plug. Ball was in her middle 70s at the time.
If you dare, you can watch some Life With Lucy clips, including the opening, at this link.
But please don't do it on a full stomach: This show has been known to result in nausea, vomiting and gasey emissions. It's less clear whether it's ever been known to result in a single snort, chortle, laugh, guffaw or cackle.
The great Lucille Ball airing eight shows without a single cackle? That's nothing to joke about.
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