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I learned late last night that Leslie Nielsen passed away, succumbing to complications from a recent bout of pneumonia. I was surprised to learn that he was 84 years old; to me, he seemed ageless, looking the same in 1980\’s Airplane! as he did in 2006\’s Scary Movie 4. His peak, though, was the Naked Gun series of the late 80\’s and early 90\’s, where he played Lieutenant Frank Drebin, successfully defusing kidnappings, bomb plots, assassinations, and O.J. Simpson one-liners with his typical bumbling style.
My favorite humor is the kind that doesn\’t need to hit you over the head. A straight man being unaware of his own foolish irony will always make me laugh more than a well-executed pratfall. As such, many lines from Neilsen\’s films have made their way into my comedic repertoire (such as it is) over the past 25 years. I feel a special kind of pity for people who have had to endure my frequent \”Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna\”s and \”You can tell me. I\’m a doctor\”s and \”but that\’s not important right now\”s over the years. Frank Drebin was Steve Carrell without the painful awkwardness, Will Ferrell with better timing. His subtlety will be missed.
Feel free to leave your favorite Nielsen quote in the comments.
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