Classic Television - Weekdays

Letters to Laugh-In

Original channel

NBC

Original run

September 29 – December 26, 1969

Presented by

Gary Owens

Letters to Laugh-In is a daytime game show and spin-off of NBC's popular nighttime comedy series at the time, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, that aired on the network from September 29 to December 26, 1969. The show was hosted by Gary Owens, the announcer for Laugh-In.

Home viewers mailed their jokes to the program, during which they were read by a panel of four celebrities – two of them Laugh-In regulars. Each joke was rated on a scale of zero to 100.

The highest-rated joke that day won the home viewer a prize (such as a trip to Hawaii), while the lowest-rated joke won a trip to "beautiful downtown Burbank".

One particularly notable joke from the program asked the question, "What's the difference between a sigh, a car, and a jackass?" When the other person answered that he did not know, the questioner said, "A sigh is 'oh dear,' and a car is 'too dear.'" When pressed what's a jackass, the questioner responded, "You dear."