R.IP., Ya Hockey Puck

Don Rickles has died at the age of 90. A fixture in movies, the stand-up circuit, the Johnny Carson-era Tonight Show, and the stages of Las Vegas casinos, Rickles was nicknamed “The Merchant of Venom” because he was the master of insult comedy. By all accounts, it was all just an act, and he was a kind and generous man off-stage. Here are a few stories about the legendary comedian.

Rickles’ best known insult is a bit of a head-scratcher: He would insult and summarily dismiss someone by calling them “a hockey puck.” (It’s a phrase with which Rickles is so strongly associated that he even said it when he voiced Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story—to an actual hockey puck.) Sure, it sounds mean and nasty, but what does it mean? It’s a combination of nothing at all, and Rickles not being able to recall how he came up with it. Rickles prided himself on his ability to use wit and wordplay to get laughs, and never used profanity. But when he starting out playing seedy clubs and bars in the 1940s and ‘50s, he got frustrated with the characters he’d meet and perform for in such places that one night be blurted out, “Will you shut up? You’re a real hockey puck.” Rickles couldn’t remember why exactly he said “hockey puck,” only that it had the sound and rhythm of swear words…without actually being swear words.

 

From then on, Rickles would happily sign hockey pucks for fans that approached him, but oddly enough, he wasn’t much of a hockey fan—he was a baseball guy, and he particularly loved the Los Angeles Dodgers. Rickles was close friends with the team’s longtime manager, Tommy Lasdorda, and on occasion he even got to sit in the team’s dugout during games. In a meaningless late season game in 1977 (the Dodgers had already clinched their divisional championship), Lasorda let Rickles replace a pitcher. So, Rickles headed out to the mound and told the very confused pitcher to leave the field. Rickles later said that the pitcher got very angry, yelling out “You’re not the manager! You’re not even a coach! You can’t pull me out of the game!” When the home plate umpire noticed the confrontation, he too approached the mound. His reaction: “Don Rickles! Don, any chance of getting me two tickets to see Dean Martin in Vegas?”

 

Rickles worked up almost to the end of his life. He left behind a 10-episode TV interview series. Dinner with Don, produced by AARP, depicts the late comedian having dinner with comedians like Jimmy Kimmel, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, and Zach Galifianakis…and then giving them roasting them, Rickles style.

 

 

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