Rogues’ gallery of Lily Tomlin’s comedic sizzlers

TOMLIN. To the sarcasm born. Photo from claudiafoundation.org

Our recent notes on “Web Therapy” have elicited follow-up questions on the innovative TV series and its comebacking senior comedy lead, Lily Tomlin.

She plays Lisa Kudrow’s “smothering” mother with acerbic, gimlet-eyed expertise—to the sarcasm born, as it were. For viewers born after the 1960s, here are revealing notes on Tomlin’s iconic TV career:

Born in 1939, she is regarded as a major force in American comedy since the ’60s, when she began making people laugh as a stand-up comic, then as a featured performer on the seminal and pioneering TV comedy show, “Laugh-in.”

Standout

She was also a standout in “Murphy Brown” and “The West Wing,” and starred in such films as “Nashville,” “9 to 5,” “All of Me” and “Orange County.”

On her TV comedy showcases, Tomlin created zany characters who became famous in their own right—like Ernestine, a nosy, condescending telephone operator who generally dealt with customers in a most un-helpful way.

Also popular with viewers was Edith Ann, a little girl who had an unexpected penchant for coming up with humorous “philosophical” observations about life and other people. Edith Ann had a doll-“sidekick” named Doris, who became famous in her own right.

“The Tasteful Lady,” for her part, was a prissy woman who acerbically dispensed unsolicited advice about “elegant” and “gracious” living.

Imperfections

“The Consumer Advocate” was a sniffy, snitty woman who rigidly inspected and tested products for their alleged imperfections. “Lucille” was addicted to—eating rubber! And “Tess” was a homeless bag lady who communicated with—aliens from outer space!

Those zany character enabled Tomlin to delight and “outrage” viewers for decades, until her semiretirement in the 1990s. But, she’s made a big comeback—with a vituperative vengeance!

—on “Web Therapy,” so a new generation of Lily Tomlin fans is currently being won over!

Although Tomlin is an iconic comedienne, there’s a common thread that binds her funny screen personas together, and that’s the sourness and peevish outlook on life they share—probably because the comedienne’s facial features are sharp, denoting a strictness and “nastiness” that can be productively mined for nervous giggles and bellylaughs.

On “Web Therapy,” Tomlin still plays it sarcastic and sometimes even vitriolic, but her portrayal is more mature and insightful, and occasionally reveals her own, idiosyncratic kind of “love” for her similarly daunting daughter. It takes one to know one, and the comedy series’ resident mother and daughter know each other—only too well!