Hello Dummy!

Don Rickles | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rhino Flashback
• ASIN: B001CBW13K
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,203 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Hello Dummy!

Editorial Reviews

Great collection at a low price.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don Rickles reminds us all why he is "Mr. Warmth", June 24, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hello Dummy (Audio CD)

It was 1968 and even if you were not alive during that year you certainly know about the assassinations, the war, the rioting in the streets. If someone wanted to argue that racial tensions in this country were at an all time high in 1968 it would be hard to argue with them. But at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas Don Rickles was insulting everybody, as is proven in his one classic comedy album, "Hello Dummy!" Ultimately what was hysterical about Rickles was not so much the quality but the quantity of the insults. You have to take my word for this because I do not think I could quote any of the attacks Rickles makes on this album as her insults every race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, hair color, etc. on the face of the earth, all at the rate of a machine gun being fired by the Terminator. It is just that he keeps piling it faster and higher so that you cannot help but get caught up in the momentum. Remember, this was the guy whose stepping stone to national recognition was spotting Frank Sinatra in his audience and saying: "Make yourself at home, Frank. Hit somebody." Sinatra became the comedian's biggest booster and every star in Vegas was showing up to be insulted by Rickles.

On this classic comedy album (which peaked at #54 on the Billboard charts) Rickles starts close to home, ripping apart what his wife Barbara is like in the bedroom, and then goes after the audience. Pay attention, because more often than not it is the fact that he brings up these subjects rather than what he has to say that is "shocking." A lot of his insults are so inane that you can never take any of it seriously, but like the audience trapped with this insane man while he performs you just go with the flow of laughter. True, it is never as funny the second time around, which is the one shortcoming of his comedy in general and this album in particular, but Rickles was not that sort of comedian. His point was that you could not take what he said seriously, which leaves laughter as your only response. "Hello Dummy!" offers proof positive that Don Rickles was the ultimate put-down artist and comedy's unquestioned master of the insult.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Warmth himself !, September 17, 2000

By 

Ozzie (Brugge, Flanders) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hello Dummy (Audio CD)

"Nice to see you in a red shirt, right in the front. I never entertained a Mountie ! Forty million Americans and I gotta get a Mountie ! Hello dummy !" This album was first released in 1968, but you'd never think it ! This is just about the ultimate CD to make anybody who's politically correct blead from the ears ! Extremely funny, extremely rude, extremely modern ! How anybody was able to get this released in the late '60s is unbelievable ! Well done, Warner Bros. ! WARNING ! Do not buy this album for your grandmother's birthday ! She'll either die laughing, OR cut you from her will ! (Perhaps both.)

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars two thumbs up on Don Rickles at his best!!!, August 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hello Dummy (Audio CD)

If you are a real Don Rickles fan you will like this album. I've reviewed it and listened and found it very funny. Take my word for it if you like to hear him insult people in the audience it a rib tickling album.

Michael Walker