{"id":1736327,"date":"2022-11-12T06:30:15","date_gmt":"2022-11-12T11:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1736327"},"modified":"2022-11-12T11:17:59","modified_gmt":"2022-11-12T16:17:59","slug":"gallagher-watermelon-smashing-comedian-dead-at-76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gallagher-watermelon-smashing-comedian-dead-at-76\/","title":{"rendered":"Gallagher, Watermelon-Smashing Comedian, Dead at 76"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgallagher-watermelon-smashing-comedian-dead-at-76%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1736327&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/a9446c93ff30bec51ba68046a27e6b70\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2022\/11\/gallagher-comedian-dead\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gallagher, Watermelon-Smashing Prop Comedian, Dead at 76\" class=\"link\">Gallagher, Watermelon-Smashing Prop Comedian, Dead at 76<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Consequence\" class=\"link\">Consequence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Gallagher, the observational and prop comedian known for smashing watermelons as part of his act, has died at the age of 76.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tmz.com\/2022\/11\/11\/comedian-gallagher-dead-dies-watermelon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:TMZ\" class=\"link\">TMZ<\/a> reports that Gallagher passed away Friday, November 11th, under hospice care. He had been in ill health after suffering several heart attacks in recent years.<\/p>\n<p>Born July 24th, 1946 as Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr., he graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 1970 but chose a life in show business, first as the road manager for songwriter and comedian Jim Stafford, and then striking out on his own. In 1980, he released <em>An Uncensored Evening<\/em> on Showtime, which is credited as the first standup comedy special to air on cable television.<\/p>\n<p>During his heyday in the 1980s, Gallagher was one of the most popular acts in comedy, filming 17 specials and becoming a mainstay on Showtime and HBO. His signature bit involved using a large wooden mallet \u2014 which he called the \u201cSledge-O-Matic\u201d \u2014 to smash watermelons and other objects. The segment actually began as a parody of the Veg-O-Matic commercials that saturated television in the 1960s, but Gallagher\u2019s wit ensured that the Slede-O-Matic lasted long after the Veg-O-Matic had been all but forgotten.<\/p>\n<p>In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Gallagher as the 100th best standup comedian of all time. He took issue with his placement, however, saying in an interview at the time: \u201cI looked at the other people and I was trying to find anyone I ever heard of. How could I be behind people I never heard of? \u2026 I made 13 one-hour shows for Showtime. I invented the one-man show on cable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2003, Gallagher ran for governor of California in the state\u2019s gubernatorial recall election, and finished in 16th place after receiving nearly 5,500 votes.<\/p>\n<p>As time went on, his act expressed more conservative political beliefs, and Gallagher was often criticized as being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2015\/11\/that-time-gallagher-displayed-his-true-awfulness-and-then-stormed-out-on-marc-maron.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:racist, sexist, and homophobic\" class=\"link\">racist, sexist, and homophobic<\/a>. During a famous appearance on\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Qjmpqgkde0s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:WTF with Marc Maron\" class=\"link\">WTF with Marc Maron<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Gallagher stormed out after being pressed on his stereotypical and bigoted jokes.<\/p>\n<p>In the recently released <a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2022\/11\/weird-the-al-yankovic-story-review-daniel-radcliffe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:\u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic biopic\" class=\"link\">\u201cWeird Al\u201d Yankovic biopic<\/a>, Gallagher was portrayed by Paul F. Tompkins.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/2022\/11\/gallagher-comedian-dead\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Gallagher, Watermelon-Smashing Prop Comedian, Dead at 76\" class=\"link\">Gallagher, Watermelon-Smashing Prop Comedian, Dead at 76<\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/consequence.net\/author\/axyoung\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Alex Young and Wren Graves\" class=\"link\">Alex Young and Wren Graves<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Popular Posts<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consequenceofsound.activehosted.com\/f\/3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Subscribe to Consequence\u2019s email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.\" class=\"link\">Subscribe to Consequence\u2019s email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The post Gallagher, Watermelon-Smashing Prop Comedian, Dead at 76 appeared first on Consequence.Gallagher, the observational and prop comedian known for smashing watermelons as part of his act, has died at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1736330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1736327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1736327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1736327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1736327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1736330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1736327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1736327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1736327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}