Rip Taylor

**Charles Elmer** "**Rip**" **Taylor Jr.** (born January 13, 1935) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his exuberance and flamboyant personality, including his wild moustache, toupee, and his habit of showering himself (and others) with confetti.[1][2]

Rip Taylor's career in show business began after he joined the U.S. Army, where he started performing stand-up in clubs and restaurants abroad. Although a lot of his material were jokes stolen from acts he saw in USO shows, his signature piece would be to pretend to cry as he begged the audience to laugh. From there, he was able to land a spot on *The Ed Sullivan Show*, making close to 20 appearances. According to Taylor, Sullivan would forget his name but used to say, "Get me the crying comedian."[4]

In addition to the *Ed Sullivan Show*, Taylor appeared on *The Jackie Gleason Show* in several guest appearances during the 1963–64 season as "the crying comedian."[5]

He appeared in two 1968 episodes of *The Monkees* as well as having a cameo in the 1969 special *33 1/3 Revolutions per Monkee*. He continued to work as a voice performer in the 1970s cartoon series *Here Comes the Grump* (as the title character) and in the second *The Addams Family* cartoon series (as Uncle Fester).

Throughout the 1970s, Taylor was a frequent celebrity guest panelist on TV game shows such as *Hollywood Squares*, *To Tell the Truth*, and *The Gong Show*, and substituted for Charles Nelson Reilly on *The Match Game.* He became a regular on Sid and Marty Krofft's *Sigmund and the Sea Monsters*, playing Sheldon, a sea-genie who lived in a conch shell. In addition, Taylor was also a regular on *The Brady Bunch Hour*,[1] playing a role of neighbor/performer Jack Merrill. He also hosted a short-lived send-up of beauty pageants called *The $1.98 Beauty Show*, created by *Gong Show* producer/host Chuck Barris, in 1978. Taylor appeared as a celebrity on the 1990 version of *Match Game*. In 1979, he was the voice of C.J. from the Hanna-Barbera TV movie *Scooby Goes Hollywood*. Other appearances include the television show *The Kids in the Hall*. He was referred to as Uncle Rip by Buddy Cole, one of the show's characters. He also appeared as himself in the movie *Wayne's World 2*, one of the special guests invited to "WayneStock" after being visited in a dream by Jim Morrison.

In 1990, he voiced the genie in *DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp*. Taylor appeared uncredited on a December 1994 edition of *WWF Monday Night Raw* to assist in a push being given to Jeff Jarrett.[6]

In 1997, Taylor appeared in a segment on the show *Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction*. He played the role of Elmo Middleton in the segment "The Man in the Model T". Also in 1997, he appeared as himself on the sitcom *Brotherly Love* in the episode "Easy Come Easy Go". He also portrayed Chief Undersecretary Wartle in the graphical adventure game *Zork: Grand Inquisitor* in 1997.[7] In 2003, Taylor also appeared as himself on *Will & Grace*. In 2005, he appeared as himself on an episode of *George Lopez*. Taylor guest-starred as chef "Rappin' Rip" in four episodes of *Life with Bonnie*. He guest starred in *The Suite Life of Zack & Cody* episode "Loosely Ballroom" as Leo. He is also in some episodes of *The Emperor's New School* as the voice of the Royal Record Keeper. He was also in the Jetix animated series *Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!*. He made a special guest appearance at the end of the 1,000th episode of G4's video game review show *X-Play*. He made a guest appearance on a 2012 episode of *The Aquabats! Super Show!*, where he played a genie reminiscent of his character on *Sigmund and the Sea Monsters*.

Taylor is an accomplice of the *Jackass* crew. In 1995, he performed the intro for the Bloodhound Gang's *Use Your Fingers* album, and in 2002, he appeared in the final scene of *Jackass: The Movie*, wielding a pistol that, when fired, released a sign that read "The End." (Taylor's section of the film was originally considerably longer, and ended with him complaining about the heat, and fanning himself with his toupée. This footage was included on the DVD of the film.) He did the same thing at the ending of *Jackass Number Two* and *Jackass 3D*. In the credits of the 2005 remake of *The Dukes of Hazzard*, Taylor shows up in the blooper reel.

Taylor has made occasional appearances in movies, usually in broad comedies like *The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington* (1977) and the R-rated *Deep Throat* parody *Chatterbox* (1977).[8] In Cheech and Chong's *Things Are Tough All Over* (1982), he picks them up in the middle of nowhere driving a convertible full of props. Rip then proceeds to drive them to Las Vegas and telling jokes the whole way and moving Chong to tears from laughter (and, later, tears because he won't stop). In *Amazon Women on the Moon* (1987) a funeral service turns into a celebrity roast when guest Rip Taylor shows up to "honor" the deceased. In 1993, Taylor appeared in *Tom and Jerry: The Movie* (1992) as Captain Kiddle and in *Wayne's World 2*. In 1993's *Indecent Proposal* as Demi Moore's boss, he appears without his toupee. He was also in the 1990 summer movie *DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp* as the voice of the Genie.