Arte Johnson Arte Johnson Arthur Stanton Eric Johnson (born January 20, 1929) is an American comic actor who was a regular on television's "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In". His best-remembered characters on the sketch show were a German soldier with the catchphrase "Verrrry interesting...", and an old man who habitually propositioned Ruth Buzzi's spinster character. Johnson was born January 20, 1929, in Benton Harbor, Michigan, and is the son of Abraham Lincoln and Edythe Mackenzie (Golden) Johnson. His father was an attorney. Johnson attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he worked at the campus radio station and the UI Theater Guild
Game for a Laugh to host You Bet! (replacing Bruce Forsyth), and Stars in their Eyes (replacing Leslie Crowther, with Crowther having been injured in an auto accident). "Game for a Laugh" was spoofed in "Not the Nine O'Clock News", in a sketch showing a man (played by Rowan Atkinson) returning home from work to find his wife brutally beheaded. He runs out into the street screaming before being approached by the crew who then shout "Game for a Laugh", whereupon they all share the joke, despite the fact that the man's wife is dead. This parody featured Pamela Stephenson (in the Sarah Kennedy