Bob and Ray

Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding (known as “Bob and Ray”) started as a radio comedy team and later went into television. I vaguely remember them being on the Johnny Carson show when I was a kid. Their comedy was subtle and dry and not controversial or profane unlike what passes for much of comedy today. Back in the early 80’s National Public Radio used to play an hour of Bob and Ray routines on Sunday mornings; my roommate and I never missed one, in fact we recorded them on cassette tape (remember those?) Some of the routines made us laugh so much it hurt.

Some of their routines were:
“The 64-Cent Question”

“Garish Summit” - a soap opera that “recounts the petty squabbles for power among the family members who own a lead mine

"Lawrence Fechtenberger, Interstellar Officer Candidate" "brought to you by chocolate cookies with white stuff in-between."

Other fictitious sponsors were:

“Monongahela Metal Foundry "Casting steel ingots with the housewife in mind"

Einbinder Flypaper "The brand you've gradually grown to trust over the course of three generations"

The Croftweiler Industrial Cartel "Makers of all sorts of stuff, made out of everything"

Grime, "the magic shortening that spreads like lard."

This is Bob and Ray with "Slow Talkers Of America"

And "The 4th Of July Parade"