While my daughter’s childhood was marked by sheer terror everytime Carol Burnett came on the screen (seriously: she started screaming in fear every time Ms. Burnett came on Sesame Street or the Muppet Show), my own childhood comes with the memory of occasionally watching Carol Burnett reruns on TBS with my family. I remember the standard recurring characters (Mama, Dorf, etc.), my main memory is of the closing monologue finishing with her standard ear tug.
So what was the ear tug all about? Well…
The Burnett ear tug first made famous during the 1967-79 run of CBS’s Carol Burnett Show was a message to her grandmother, a way of saying, “Hello, I love you.” (And recently, Burnett said that when she performs now it’s also a greeting to late daughter Carrie Hamilton…
Huh. I was hoping for something a little better. Maybe something related to an ear infection or a brush with leprosy (you know, just checking to make sure her ear was still there).
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