Watch Carol Burnett as “Nora Desmond” wreak havoc in a Hollywood Restaurant
Carol’s recurring silent screen star character, accompanied by Harvey Korman as her faithful German servant “Max,” bring down the house in this classic sketch
If you recall watching The Carol Burnett Show every Saturday night throughout the 1970s, then you surely remember Carol and the gang’s hilarious take-off on the Hollywood classic movie Sunset Boulevard, a film noir about a delusional silent screen star named Norma Desmond who can’t deal with the fact that she’s been forgotten.
In this lost classic, “Nora Desmond” tries to dine in a fancy restaurant incognito. She relies on her devoted and oft-abused valet “Max” (Harvey Korman in a bald cap) to protect her from the hordes of autograph seekers, even though no one in the restaurant recognizes her.
In fact, try as she might, no one pays attention to her, even when Max rolls out a red carpet to announce her arrival.
This sketch delivers nonstop one-liners and gags that will leave you rolling in the floor laughing. Wait until you see Nora’s reaction when she spots her old friend Rudolph Valentino’s photo on the wall and thinks he’s really there.
“Hello, Rudy, how have you been?,” she says to the picture. “Max, what’s the matter with Rudy? Why won’t he answer me?”
“He only did silent pictures,” retorts Max dryly. Oh, he definitely deserves a slap for that one, and Nora Desmond delivers.
“Goodness gracious, this woman is amazing,” wrote one appreciative fan of this gut-busting clip. “Thank you for sharing this with us; it’s good to see it again!”
Another nostalgic fan put it even better. “Growing up our family never missed The Carol Burnett Show. My father always laughed uproariously at Nora Desmond, but I never saw what was funny about her. I had never seen Sunset Boulevard, and didn’t realize at the time that Nora Desmond was a spoof of Gloria Swanson’s character in that film. Now that I am fifty-four years old, Nora is my favorite of Carol’s creations.”
Are you ready to be transported back to the silent era by way of the 1970s in “Nora Desmond at a Restaurant”? Click the video below and share it with all of your friends. And…action!
