https://www.tmz.com/2022/11/11/comedian-gallagher-dead-dies-watermelon/

Comedian Gallagher, famously known for smashing watermelons as part of his legendary act, has died ... his longtime manager tells TMZ.

Gallagher died while under hospice care in the Palm Springs area early Friday morning, TMZ has learned. His manager tells TMZ Gallagher died of massive organ failure. He had been in ill health for a while, suffering numerous heart attacks over the years.

The rep tells TMZ, "Gallagher stayed on the road touring America for decades. He was pretty sure he held a record for the most stand-up dates, by attrition alone," adding, "While Gallagher had his detractors, he was an undeniable talent and an American success story."

Gallagher started working as a comedian after college ... getting his big break after appearing on Johnny Carson's 'Tonight Show' back in 1975 ... showing off his prop humor and quickly becoming one of the most popular and recognizable comedians in America.

His trademark bit was the "Sledge-O-Matic," where he'd use a large mallet to destroy a bunch of foods and objects -- always ending with a watermelon. While it started as a parody of the Veg-O-Matic commercials, it would go on to be what millions would remember him for.

Gallagher's since become a pop culture phenomenon, getting parodied and referenced over the years for his act ... most recently being played by fellow comedian Paul F. Tompkins in "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story."

The comedian had 17 specials spanning decades of his work ... with his first special, "An Uncensored Evening," debuting in 1980. He appeared in episodes of "Hollywood Squares," "WTF with Marc Maron," "Tosh.0" and "Celebrity Big Brother."

He had a health scare back in 2011, as we reported, he collapsed onstage during a performance in Minnesota. He also suffered a heart attack the following year in Texas, moments before he was supposed to perform.

We last saw the comedian back in 2014 ... and he offered us some fantastic advice for those looking to get someone a gift while stuck on a budget -- and it's as hilarious as you'd expect.

Gallagher, who was retired, is survived by his daughter, Aimee, and his son, Barnaby.

He was 76.

RIP

You gotta be a straight Gen X and Baby Boomer to know what pleasure
and laughs his odd, witty and one of a kind comedy specials gave people!

I was little a 11- 12 year old kid watching Gallagher.

most people know him just for the fruit smashing but his actual Jokes were actually Funny

Once Gallagher kept brushing him off he was like ahh ok I see what this is...then proceeded to bully him mercilessly the rest of the show lol

Would have been so great to have him around during the Trump White House years alone. What a creative comedic perspective.

Is that rude to say in a post about Gallagher dying?

thats so fucking funny

Pre-internet before you could research his whole deal, I thought he was pretty funny.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/gallagher-watermelon-smashing-comedian-bigoted-jokes-dead-1234629556/

seriously.. never understood how people thought it was funny

never knew he was a POS either

Does this mean we aren't allowed to call a piece of shit a piece of shit?


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

sat well with me.....
always came off like some symbolic shit aimed at Black folks....

I just posted this as a knee jerk reaction of "Oh, one of the biggest clowns from the 80's croaked" it really isn't an R.I.P.

Then let the thread roast him.

I must confess I never read his book - I was too busy reading the Paul Reiser trilogy "Boyhood", "Childhood", "Couplehood" - but some of these excerpts are much much worse than anything he said on Showtime in the 80s: https://www.thestranger.com/blogs/2010/07/08/4408953/gallagher-bonus-jokes

n/m

after like 20 minutes.

Maron talking about it is probably funnier than the actual clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsN70L2EX2I

But thankfully this clip is mostly just him rehashing the story as opposed to those idiots chiming in haha.

Anthony was racist (pretty openly) even when the show was popular. Patrice and him going at it hard while somehow still managing to stay cool made for some good radio.
Without Patrice, it just turned into right wing radio rants by Anthony. The show didn't last long after that.

Dude's racism was so hypocritical and made to fit his own desires. He used to bash the hell out of Trump before he was President, then became a super duper Trumper. Love that Patrice used to go right at him.

dude was so weird and full of himself
"screeches like an old queen" is so accurate lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjmpqgkde0s

He's probably in heaven smiling. Haha

goes without saying we don't know, but part of why he never blew up is because he was so headstrong and refused do or say anything other than exactly what he wanted. I remember a clip of Chris Rock trying to talk sense to him... to play the game even a little.

Patrice today would be def interesting, but also things would get pretty ugly lol

His refusal to "play the game" (to use your phrasing) is why he was head and shoulders above most.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKvD1ytfLbk

it's been forever but youtube says i've played it before lol. i'm not sure if i've seen the tough crowd clip numba33 is referencing, but i think it's probably something similar.

>goes without saying we don't know, but part of why he never
>blew up is because he was so headstrong and refused do or say
>anything other than exactly what he wanted. I remember a clip
>of Chris Rock trying to talk sense to him... to play the game
>even a little.
>
>Patrice today would be def interesting, but also things would
>get pretty ugly lol

That Chris Rock snippet you're referring to and a segment I remember from Tough Crowd both centered around the fact Patrice became his biggest impediment towards 'blowing up' because he would notoriously burn bridges and anger the wrong people; normally by treating non-comics as if they were comics by breaking balls and making snarky comments if I remember the segments right. If others pointed it out to him on more than one occasion, I'm more than certain Patrice was well aware of this since he wasn't a dullard.

In terms of things getting potentially getting ugly, you're referring to Patrice potentially getting #metoo'ed when that was more of a thing?

when he was young he got locked up for a rape accusation (i don't remember the story). but i wasn't necessarily referring to anything he did or was accused of.

but Patrice was pretty mysoginistic in a lot of ways, he was huge on free speech, and against any kind of language policing, he talked a lot of shit about political correctness (he died before 'cancel culture' and 'woke' were out there like that)

he was also buddies with alex jones, and pretty open to conspiracies. He'd talk alot of shit about obama, but would stop short because he felt weird siding with the people who just didn't like obama based on race (i think he hit that in elephant in the room)

i'm not saying he'd be hard right wing. its hard to picture him not supporting Kaepernick, or George Floyd. but i could easily picture him, say, taking a similar line as chappelle on the trans stuff even if he didn't go that hard.

I mean i think he was too smart to get fully sucked into the foxverse, or by a bunch of hacks whose only goal is to own the libs, but it's easy enough to picture him in that Rogan sort of lane. I legit have no idea how he would feel about Trump

and yeah of course i have no idea about any of it, because there's no way to know. I can only go off what we've seen from him

yeah.. he would’ve been a target