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
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In hippie culture, terms that were, in turn, derived from "sit-ins", common in protests associated with civil rights and antiwar demonstrations of the time. In 2002, "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" was ranked number 42 on "TV Guide's" 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. "Laugh-In" had its roots in the humor of vaudeville and burlesque, but its most direct influences were Olsen and Johnson's comedy (such as the free-form Broadway revue "Hellzapoppin'"), the innovative television works of Ernie Kovacs, and the topical satire of "That Was The Week That Was". The show was characterized by a rapid-fire series of gags and