So what is it that made Rickles work?
Human beings, no matter how educated, refined, cultured, and civil they claim to be, will always notice differences of a superficial nature in fellow human beings such as race, facial features, skin color, accents, height, weight, body shape, manner of dressing, body language, disabilities, visible birthmarks, hair or the lack of it or toupees or hair plugs, tattoos, and so much more.
Politeness and common courtesy cause us not to refer to these surface disparities, but it always resides in some gray cells of the brain. This is especially true about those with whom we are closely associated in our personal or professional lives.
Left with no option, people engage in gossip in hushed tones behind closed doors.
The individuals themselves are aware of their superficial disparities; perhaps it bothers them greatly, but it usually goes unmentioned. It could be the most seemingly perfect looking and sounding individual has some personal attribute that bothers them.
This is the elephant in the room that nobody is willing to address.
Over a period of time, the tension builds up, which could be compared to an inflating balloon, but this balloon isn’t inflated with air but with formality, pretension, repression, and hesitation.
This is also true for elected officials or movie stars, or business leaders who are usually surrounded by sycophants who lavish blandishments even while they are failing miserably. But once the backs are turned, the deriding and backstabbing starts.
It takes a comic such as Rickles to deflate this bubble of formality with a pin of humor by not just stating but overstating. After the initial discomfort, the tension is released, and soon everyone is laughing.
Rickles was actually offering a collective catharsis for his audiences by saying what everyone hesitated or feared to say. Once the unthinkable or unmentionable is said in public, there can be nothing more that can cause affront or humiliation which, in time, makes people look beyond them and the bonds grow stronger.
Amen!
I was lucky, the worst I had was a battalion commander at Fort Bliss who was like that.
That reminds me of the unstated fact that Allen Brady wore a toupee and Laura Petrie was tricked into telling the world. Great TV.