The Longest Laugh in TV History?
Here’s Johnny Carson and his unbroken record: 4 minutes of uninterrupted laughter (and the three perfect lines that fed it)
Ed Ames unintentionally triggered the longest sustained laugh in TV history — more than 4 minutes — laughter Johnny Carson grew into a record.
Three Johnny Carson quips extended the record 4 minute laugh...
Ames explained the story in an interview on SiriusXM’s Johnny Carson Channel, which re-airs classic episodes of the show that ran from 1962–1992. In the Carson Podcast interview, Ames explains how the laugh set a record:
“That happens to be the longest laugh in the history of television, more so than any other event that occurred on any other show ever,’’ Ames said. “That got the most laugh response and lasted the longest… Four minutes of unbroken laughter.’’
History was made on April 29, 1965, just 18 months after Johnny Carson took over “The Tonight Show’’ becoming the undisputed king of Late Night television.
Ames played Mingo, a character billed as an Oxford-educated son of an Englishman and a Native American, on the popular “Daniel Boone’’ TV show (1964–70). The show was memorable for characters hurling…
