Funny Farm Trivia Quiz

Answer: Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933. Rivers left the "Tonight Show" on NBC in 1986, to pursue her own talk show on the Fox network. Carson was upset by her move he never spoke with her again. In fact, she tried twice to call him personally and he hung up on her both times (those who have only ever used cell phones may be unfamiliar with the term "hung up").

Her late night adventure failed when she was fired for insisting that her husband, Edgar Rosenberg, be allowed to continue to produce the show when Fox had decided to cut him.

Unfortunately, he committed suicide shortly thereafter and Rivers blamed Fox for it. Rivers had some interesting work early in her career. In the 1950s, she appeared in "Driftwood", a play in which she played a lesbian attracted to a character played by Barbara Streisand.

In the 1970s she narrated "The Adventures of Letterman", a serial animated short that was part of PBS's "The Electric Company". In 1973 she wrote the made-for-TV film "The Girl Most Likely to... ", starring Stockard Channing; in 1978, she wrote and directed the film "Rabbit Test", starring Billy Crystal.

She has also recorded Grammy nominated comedy albums and published best selling books.

Answer: David Letterman

David Letterman was born in 1947 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He worked as a weatherman and anchor for a local station and added his own unique flair to the job; for example, he once congratulated a tropical storm for being upgraded to a hurricane and would frequently make up fake weather reports for fake towns.

After having great success on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, Letterman was given his own morning show on NBC in 1980 called "The David Letterman Show". Then in 1982, he was given his own late show following Johnny Carson, "Late Night with David Letterman". Eventually, he moved to CBS with the "Late Show with David Letterman", when he was passed over for Carson's replacement when Carson retired.

When Letterman was the host of the Academy Awards in 1995, he created controversy with a bomb of a joke that failed miserably as far as some were concerned.

He pretended to introduce Oprah Winfrey and Uma Thurman by making fun of their names; he spoke "Oprah...Uma...Uma...Oprah" in a tone of voice used for introductions but emphatically annunciated his pronunciation of their names to draw attention to how unusual yet similar their names are.

Answer: Eddie Murphy

Edward Regan Murphy was born in 1961 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He received Golden Globe nominations for his performances in "48 Hours", "Trading Places" and "The Nutty Professor". For his performance in "Dreamgirls", he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated for an Academy Award for the same category.

His single "Party All the Time", which was produced by Rick James, climbed to number two on the Billboard charts. He is also a writer and composed the stories for "Coming to America", "Another 48 Hours", and "Boomerang". Before becoming a movie star, Murphy was a stand-up comic; he claimed his influences were Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor.

He also has claimed that a year he spent in foster care as a child helped him develop his sense of humor.

While on "Saturday Night Live", he became famous for his portrayals of a grown-up Buckwheat from "Little Rascals", Gumbi, and Mr. Robinson, a parody of Fred Rogers' character from "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood". Murphy grew so tired of being asked to "Do Buckwheat" when he encountered people that he asked "SNL" to retire the character; the show did so by having Buckwheat assassinated.

Answer: Ellen DeGeneres

Ellen Lee DeGeneres was born in 1958 outside of New Orleans, in Metairie, Louisiana. She was raised a Christian Scientist until her early teens, and some of her early work included bar tending, painting houses, working for J.C. Penny and serving as a law clerk. By 1981, she was working at Clyde's Comedy Club in New Orleans. DeGeneres credits Woody Allen and Steve Martin as her earliest influences.

Her two television sit-coms were "Ellen" (1994-1998) and "The Ellen Show" (2001-2002). She has hosted her daytime talk show "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" since 2003.

Her voice acting performance in "Finding Nemo" (she provided the voice for Dory) won her the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, the only time in history that any Saturn Award was given to a voice actor.

She also has started her own record label, eleveneleven.

Answer: Andy Kaufman

Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (1949-1984) was born in New York City and lived in Great Neck, Long Island. He died early at age thirty-five from kidney failure, a result of complications he was suffering due to a rare kind of lung cancer. Some of his earliest performances were Foreign Man from the fictional Caspiar, lip-synching the theme song to "Mighty Mouse", and imitating Archie Bunker and Richard Nixon.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was part of the cast of "Taxi" and played Latka Gravas, who was basically a reworking of his Foreign Man character.

Some of his greatest hoaxes included the creation of Tony Clifton, a lounge singer who opened Kaufman's shows. Many eventually came to believe that Clifton was a real person. Then there was the Carnegie Hall show in 1979, when Kaufman had his grandmother sit on stage to watch the show; she later revealed herself truly to be Robin Williams. During this same show, Kaufman had another elderly woman pretend to die on stage; Kaufman emerged as a Native American in full ceremonial attire and danced over her to revive her.

He is also famous for his ongoing feud with the professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler. This feud was entirely staged. The following were also all staged: their matches, Kaufman's neck injury from a piledriver move, and the altercation between Kaufman and Lawler that occurred on "Late Night with David Letterman". Because of his hoaxes, many of his fans believe that he is still alive and that his death has been his greatest hoax or joke.

Answer: Garry Shandling

Garry Shandling was born in 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, but he grew up in Tucson, Arizona. His first show following his success on "The Tonight Show" was "It's Garry Shandling's Show". The sit-com was ground breaking because of its surrealism; the characters abstractly referred to themselves as characters on a sit-com and the audience itself was often incorporated into the plots.

The show ran for 72 episodes and was nominated for four Emmies. His next show, "The Larry Sanders Show", ran for 89 episodes and was nominated for an amazing 56 Emmies.

The sit-com was based on Shandling's own experiences as a guest host of Carson's "The Tonight Show" and frequently portrayed the talk-show business as a world occupied by selfish individuals who were willing to do anything to succeed, while the celebrities were portrayed as egotistical people. "Time" magazine listed the show as one of the Top 100 Greatest Shows of All Time. During the early years of "The Larry Sanders Show", Shandling was offered the position of host of "Late Night" when David Letterman left NBC to host his "Late Show" on CBS; obviously, Shandling declined.

Answer: Roseanne Barr

Roseanne Cherrie Barr was born in 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah. While her parents were Jewish, they kept their faith a secret while attempting to practice Mormonism. At age 16, Barr received a serious brain injury from being hit by an automobile and was institutionalized for eight months because of radical changes in her personality.

When she turned 18, she told her parents that she was going to visit a friend in Colorado for two weeks, but she never returned home. The night she appeared on "The Tonight Show" she stood behind the curtain while waiting to be called on stage and read a letter she had written to herself many years before; as she read the words, "This is the beginning of your life...", she heard Carson announce, "Please, welcome Roseanne Barr!" By the late 1980s, Barr had her own sit-com, "Roseanne", in which she played Roseanne Conner, a role that won her an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and three American Comedy Awards.

In July of 1990, she opened a game between the San Diego Padres and the Cincinnati Reds by singing the national anthem of the United States.

However, she screeched the song as loudly as possible and grabbed her crotch and spat at the end to mimic stereotypical crass baseball player behavior. She later explained that she could not hear herself sing, and she was told to add humor to her performance. However, she received a great amount of criticism, and President George H. W. Bush called her behavior "disgraceful". In 2011, Barr announced her candidacy for President on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno. She originally ran on the Green Party ticket, but when she lost the nomination to Jill Stein, she switched to the Peace and Freedom Party and won the nomination to represent that organization.

Answer: Jim Carrey

James Eugene Carrey was born in 1962 in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. He is one of Hollywood's highest paid actors; for example, he was paid $20 million for his work in "The Cable Guy", which was not even one of his best performances, according to many critics.

However, critics loved his performances in many other films, such as "The Mask", "Liar, Liar" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". His roles in the three previously mentioned films earned him Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and he won the award for his performance in "Man on the Moon".

He also won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor-Motion Picture Drama for his role in "The Truman Show". As of 2013, the Academy has neglected to nominate him for an Oscar of any kind.

His success definitely completes his "rags to riches story"; he had to drop out of school at age 15 to work as a janitor because his parents were struggling financially. His parents, however, were sympathetic towards his desire to be a comedian and at one point his father helped him put together an act for the stage and drove him to Toronto, where he performed at Yuk Yuk's, a comedy club.

His first outing was a failure, but obviously he did not give up. While born in Canada, Carrey received United States citizenship in 2004 and maintains dual citizenship.

Answer: Jerry Seinfeld

Jerome A. Seinfeld was born in 1954 in Brooklyn and then grew up in Massepequa, New York. He grew interested in stand-up comedy while attending Queens College, CUNY, and took a chance one evening at New York City's Catch a Rising Star. He was successful enough to catch Rodney Dangerfield's attention, who gave him a spot in one of his HBO specials. Seinfeld also managed to grab a spot as a minor character in the American TV sit-com "Benson", but was later fired because of "creative differences". Of course, in 1989, he and Larry David teamed up to create "The Seinfeld Chronicles" and soon changed the name of the show to just "Seinfeld".

The show became a multi-million dollar success; in fact, Seinfeld himself earned a whopping $267 million in 1998 from the sit-com. Seinfeld not only acted in every episode of the show but wrote many of the scripts and even produced it during its final two years. "Seinfeld" was a parody of Seinfeld's own life as a stand-up comic and was famous as well for being, as he and David phrased it, "a show about nothing". Seinfeld has claimed that the greatest influences on his comic career have been Bill Cosby, George Carlin, Jay Leno, and Jean Shepherd.

He also claims that he never overcame his nervousness about appearing on Carson's "Tonight Show". He explained, "Those first couple of years, every time I did "The Tonight Show", I'd be up all night the night before. I remember one time asking myself, 'Why do I do this? Why would anyone put themselves through this?'" He compared the experience to having "the stomach flu, except it's in your whole body".

Answer: Jay Leno

James Leno was born in 1950 in New Rochelle, New York, but grew up in Andover, Massachusetts. While working on a degree in speech therapy at Emerson College, he started a comedy club. Despite being a highly successful host of "The Tonight Show", which has consistently ranked above all the other late night talk shows, Leno's hosting career has been marred with controversy. To begin with, when he took over "The Tonight Show", David Letterman was upset as he had been led to believe that he would succeed Carson as host of "The Tonight Show".

Then in 2009, Leno stepped down as host to allow Conan O'Brien to take the job, but in 2010, O'Brien was "given the boot" to allow Leno to return to "The Tonight Show". Many of Leno's colleagues were angry at him or at least disappointed. Of course, there were many others who felt Leno was as much a victim of NBC's manipulations as O'Brien had been.

Another interesting job of Leno's is providing the voice for The Crimson Chin, who is a superhero in the Nickelodeon animated program "The Fairly OddParents".