Constructor: Joy Behar and Lynn Lempel
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (gotta know comedian names *and* figure out all the punniness...) (still finished in just a shade over 3:30)
![]()
THEME: Comedian puns— familiar phrases reclued (and -spelled) as if they had something to do with famous comedians:
Theme answers:
![]()
This puzzle was ... a joy. (Sorry. Sorry ... But only kinda sorry.) The theme is simple but consistent, tight, and appropriate (to the celebrity constructor), and it all just works. Much more delightful and interesting than your average Tuesday puzzle—a low bar, yes, but it's the only bar that matters for a Tuesday puzzle. The fill is pretty darned clean, and you get some interesting longer Down answers in the bargain (I particularly liked RESCUE DOG). The comedians skew ... let's not say "old." Let's say, "established." Kevin HART is (by far) the youngest of the bunch, and the only one still doing stand-up. Unless Roseanne is still doing it and I'm just unaware. I don't think Eric Idle ever did stand-up. The other two comedians are long dead. You definitely have to be Of A Certain Age (i.e. my age or older) to remember Freddie Prinze, who died in 1977, in his early 20s. His son (Jr.) is a pretty successful actor.
The puzzle is pretty name-heavy—both because of the nature of the theme, and because of a lot of incidental names—and this sets up some pretty serious possibilities for failure. I had no idea how SUSIE Essman spelled her name, so I'm just lucky that I had (vaguely) heard of LOIS Lowry (and that LOIZ is not, you know, a plausible human name). It is absolutely completely possible to be a reasonably intelligent person and never have heard of LOIS Lowry or SUSIE Essman *or* Freddie PRINZE, in which case, yikes. NYAD is another bygone name that's come swimming out of the past and into this puzzle (44A: Swimmer Diana), and she could cause trouble, as her weird name has two *other* names crossing it; but dear god let's hope solvers know AMY March and IDA Lupino. That's pretty basic stuff. (Although now I kinda hope some poor sap out there guessed IRA Lupino)
I didn't like the clue on NOTORIETY, which is too abstract and vague a concept to qualify as an "Achievement." An "achievement" should be a specific thing, like a rank or a prize, not FAME or ILL-REPUTE or RENOWN etc. Maybe I would accept ORGASM, but that's not exactly NYT territory. Also, booo to the corniness at 54D: What Tarzan's friends advised him to do? (GO APE). Why are there friends here? Who "advises" a "friend" to do that?! The whole hypothetical situation is ridiculous and contrived. I mean, you can have your Tarzan/APE joke, I guess, but ditch the "friends." They just make it weird.
I haven't heard "Attention K-MART shoppers!" since I was a kid. Wikipedia tells me that: "At the height of Kmart's popularity, the phrase "Attention Kmart shoppers!" entered into the American pop psyche, appearing in films and other media such as Troop Beverly Hills, Six Days Seven Nights, Rain Man, Beetlejuice, Madea Goes to Jail, and Dawn of the Dead." That is one hell of a motley watch list. But now if anyone ever asks you what Troop Beverly Hills and Dawn of the Dead have in common, you'll have at least one answer. Unless there's a zombie Shelley Long in Dawn of the Dead that I forgot about. Then, two. Two answers.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (gotta know comedian names *and* figure out all the punniness...) (still finished in just a shade over 3:30)
Theme answers:
- PURPLE HART (17A: Comedian Kevin after having a sloppy jelly snack?)
- PAW PRINZE (25A: Get frisky with comedian Freddie?)
- PRYOR COMMITMENT (40A: Comedian Richard being sent to a psychiatric facility?)
- BARR FIGHT (51A: Cause of comedian Roseanne's black eye?)
- FALLEN IDLE (62A: Result of comedian Eric's untied shoelaces?)
Freddie James Prinze (/ˈprɪnz/born Frederick Karl Pruetzel; June 22, 1954 – January 29, 1977) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. Prinze was the star of 1970s NBC-TV sitcom Chico and the Man. He is the father of the actor Freddie Prinze Jr.. (wikipedia)
• • •
The puzzle is pretty name-heavy—both because of the nature of the theme, and because of a lot of incidental names—and this sets up some pretty serious possibilities for failure. I had no idea how SUSIE Essman spelled her name, so I'm just lucky that I had (vaguely) heard of LOIS Lowry (and that LOIZ is not, you know, a plausible human name). It is absolutely completely possible to be a reasonably intelligent person and never have heard of LOIS Lowry or SUSIE Essman *or* Freddie PRINZE, in which case, yikes. NYAD is another bygone name that's come swimming out of the past and into this puzzle (44A: Swimmer Diana), and she could cause trouble, as her weird name has two *other* names crossing it; but dear god let's hope solvers know AMY March and IDA Lupino. That's pretty basic stuff. (Although now I kinda hope some poor sap out there guessed IRA Lupino)
I didn't like the clue on NOTORIETY, which is too abstract and vague a concept to qualify as an "Achievement." An "achievement" should be a specific thing, like a rank or a prize, not FAME or ILL-REPUTE or RENOWN etc. Maybe I would accept ORGASM, but that's not exactly NYT territory. Also, booo to the corniness at 54D: What Tarzan's friends advised him to do? (GO APE). Why are there friends here? Who "advises" a "friend" to do that?! The whole hypothetical situation is ridiculous and contrived. I mean, you can have your Tarzan/APE joke, I guess, but ditch the "friends." They just make it weird.
I haven't heard "Attention K-MART shoppers!" since I was a kid. Wikipedia tells me that: "At the height of Kmart's popularity, the phrase "Attention Kmart shoppers!" entered into the American pop psyche, appearing in films and other media such as Troop Beverly Hills, Six Days Seven Nights, Rain Man, Beetlejuice, Madea Goes to Jail, and Dawn of the Dead." That is one hell of a motley watch list. But now if anyone ever asks you what Troop Beverly Hills and Dawn of the Dead have in common, you'll have at least one answer. Unless there's a zombie Shelley Long in Dawn of the Dead that I forgot about. Then, two. Two answers.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]