R.I.P. Bob Elliott of comedy duo Bob And Ray

Bob Elliott, one half of the comedy duo Bob And Ray, has died at age 92. With his late partner, Ray Goulding, who died in 1990, Elliott spent decades perfecting a specific kind of humor: bone-dry, low-key, often bracingly dark, and completely absurd and surreal. Bob And Ray’s countless characters are capable of saying the most ridiculous things in the most matter-of-fact way, whether they’re describing a preposterous business plan, nattering on about a silly and impractical hobby, or trying to sort out the details of an incredibly convoluted soap opera plot. The duo’s influence can be felt on The Simpsons, in the comedy of David Letterman, and in TV sitcoms and sketchcoms too numerous to count.
Though they branched out into other media, including television, live theater, and even film, Bob And Ray truly made their mark in the radio. There are so many hours of audio that it is difficult to know where to begin, but one particularly fine showcase for their talents is a 15-minute program called Bob And Ray Present The CBS Radio Network, which aired from 1959 to 1960. Here, listeners will be able to find episodes of such beloved mock soap operas as “One Fella’s Family,” “The Gathering Dusk,” and “Grand Motel,” an establishment whose strict policy concerning continental breakfasts causes no end of grief. The CBS Radio Network is also where the duo unfurled one of their greatest running jokes: Smelly Dave, a rotting whale carcass supposedly sent from town to town on a railroad flatcar as some kind of spectacularly ill-conceived publicity stunt. As one would expect, this program also features numerous appearances by Bob Elliott’s most famous character, the hapless yet proud reporter Wally Ballou.
By this point in their career, Elliott and Goulding were also branching out into advertising, and their animated spots for Piel’s Beer remain amusing showcases for their brand of humor. In the ads, Elliott provided the voice of Harry, the calmer and more reasonable brother of brash Bert (Goulding).