The Queens of Comedy, Part Deux Quiz

Answer: Mae West

Born Mary Jane West in 1893, Mae West's career encompassed more than sixty years on the stage, in movies and radio. She even had one of the first flotation devices named after. A "Mae West" life preserver was so named because it resembled her memorable curves when fully inflated.

Another famous line of West's is from the movie "Night After Night? (1932) in which a woman exclaims to West "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds" to which she responds "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie."

Answer: Moms Mabley

Moms Mabley (born Loretta Mae Aiken in 1894), was one of the most successful entertainers of the "Chitlin Circuit" as black Vaudeville was then known. Her routines covered unconventional themes like welfare, poverty, drunkeness and men who didn't deserve her. According to imdb.com she was taking in $10,000 per week at the Apollo Theater at her peak, a remarkable sum for a black woman at the time.

Answer: Ernestine, the operator

"Laugh In" ran on NBC from 1967 to 1973. Tomlin joined the cast in 1970, bringing with her the famous characters Edith Ann, the little girl in the huge rocking chair and Ernestine the telephone operator. In a September 1998 article in the New York Times, Tomlin "confirmed a tale often told on Madison Avenue that she once turned down an offer from AT&T to appear in a commercial as Ernestine, the snippy telephone operator..." Tomlin was cited at the time for not wanting to breach her artistic integrity in this way, a decision she later came to regret.

Answer: Annie Hall

"Annie Hall" is ranked as the best comedy movie of all time by the British newspaper The Guardian. The full quote by Keaton is "la-di-da, la-di-da, la la." Few comedic performers have won Academy Awards for Best Actress and Actor, leading Billy Crystal to opine that there should be a separate category for comedy films (citation msn.com 12/23/2012).

Answer: "I'll have what she's having."

Reiner's famous one liner was ranked by The American Film Institute as #33 on its list of the Top 100 quotations from movies. In his mother's 2008 New York Times obituary, Rob Reiner is quoted as saying that the Laura Petrie character from tv's "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was based on his mother. "My mother was Mary Tyler Moore, yes," Mr. Reiner said.

Answer: Rosanne Barr

From 1995-97, the last two years of Barr's groundbreaking television series "Roseanne", she was the second highest paid woman in television, earning $40 million. These earnings put her one slot behind Oprah Winfrey (citation Slate/Washington Post 5/18/97). According to imdb.com the roles of Peg and Al Bundy on the hit show "Married with Children" were originally offered to Barr and fellow stand up comedian Sam Kinison.

Answer: Lisa Kudrow

Kudrow's portrayal of the character Phoebe Buffay on the uber-successful television show "Friends" (1994-2004) won her the 1998 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy. On a 1997 episode Phoebe's former partner pulled the rug out from under her by selling "Smelly Cat" as a jingle for a commercial. Central Perk was the coffee house in which the main characters gathered on the show.

Answer: Oda Mae Brown

"Ghost" was the highest grossing film of 1990. Film critic Janet Maslin noted in her New York Times review of the movie: "Ms. Goldberg plays the character's amazement, irritation and great gift for back talk to the hilt. This is one of those rare occasions on which the uncategorizable Ms. Goldberg has found a film role that really suits her, and she makes the most of it." Goldberg is one of just a handful of entertainers to have won the EGOT - Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.

She was the second African-American woman to win an acting Oscar, following Hattie McDaniel for "Gone With The Wind" in 1939.

Answer: True

Degeneres made her Tonight Show debut on November 28, 1986. She was the first openly gay host of the Academy Awards (source: examiner.com 2/25/2007) during which she quipped "I want to put this out there: "What a wonderful night, such diversity in the room, in a year when there's been so many negative things said about people's race, religion and sexual orientation. And I want to put this out there: if there weren't blacks, Jews and gays, there would be no Oscars, or anyone named Oscar, when you think about that."

Answer: Chelsea Handler

Handler launched the late-night talk show "Chelsea Lately" on E! in 2007. Her third book, "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang" debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Forbes estimates her 2012 earnings put her just behind fellow comedians Jeff Dunham, Dane Cook and Terry Fator.