Death of a comedian

Phew! The comedians are falling like ninepins. First it was Bob Denver, then Don Adams, and now Ronnie Barker. What! You don't know who Ronnie Barker was? I'm not surprised. I know of him only because one of the nice, non-political things PBS used to do was bring over British comedy imports (how else did Americans get to know the Pythons?). One of those imports was a very funny, bawdy, silly, Music Hall-style show called The Two Ronnies. No intellectual humor here -- just pure silliness, and Ronnie Barker was part of the endless laughs. The show went of the air almost 20 years ago, and I last saw the PBS repeats probably 25 years ago, but it still feels as if the world is a little bit less funny now that Barker's gone. UPDATE: Wow! God really is calling in the comedians. I just read at LaShawn Barber that Nipsey Russell has died.