Your Funeral of Funerals

(Props to Monty)

Howard Morris, the beloved redneck Ernest T. Bass from The Andy Griffith Show, has died at the age of 85. Morris started performing in World War II, where he was Carl Reiner’s sergeant, then became “the other guy” in the classic comic ensemble on Your Show of Shows with Reiner, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. Morris was also a prolific director, and helmed the pilot for Get Smart, a show created by Mel Brooks, who had been a writer for Morris on Your Show of Shows. Brooks also found work for him in History of the World, Part I, High Anxiety and Life Stinks. In a classic Twilight Zone episode, Morris plays a nebbish who, when given a choice of wishes by a genie, ultimately decides to become a genie himself. Morris’ high-pitched raspy voice was also a natural for cartoons, and he spent 40 years in the Hanna Barbera family as Atom Ant, Beetle Bailey and General Halftrack, Mr. Peebles on Magilla Gorilla, Jughead Jones, Professor Icenstein and Luigi La Bounci from Galaxy High School