Jerry Lewis Skate-A-Thon (marathon) Participant Pin 2-14” Lithograph Metal 58mm Button Circa 1970’s.

Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch;[a] March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in pop culture, Lewis was nicknamed "The King of Comedy". Starting in 1946, he teamed with singer Dean Martin to form the famous Martin and Lewis, then in 1956, went on as a solo act on stage, top-grossing movie star, a staple on television and filmmaker.

As a humanitarian, philanthropist and "number one volunteer", Lewis supported fundraising for research into muscular dystrophy. In 1951, he and Martin made their first appeal for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (simply known as MDA and formerly as the Muscular Dystrophy Associations of America and MDAA) in early December on the finale of The Colgate Comedy Hour. In 1952, after another appeal, Lewis hosted New York area telethons until 1959 and in 1954, fought Rocky Marciano in a boxing bout for MDA's fund drive.[citation needed]

After being named national chairman in 1956,[69] Lewis began hosting and emceeing The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon in 1966 and aired every Labor Day weekend for six decades. Ed McMahon, announcer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and host of Star Search, began his involvement in the telethon in 1968, before coanchoring with Lewis from 1973 to 2008. The show originated from different locations including New York, Las Vegas and Hollywood, becoming the most successful fundraising event in the history of television.[70] The songs "Smile" (by Charlie Chaplin), "What the World Needs Now Is Love" (by Jackie DeShannon) and "You'll Never Walk Alone" (by Rodgers and Hammerstein) have been long associated with the telethon.[citation needed]

It was the first to: raise over $1 million, in 1966;[71] be shown entirely in color, in 1967; become a networked telethon, in 1968; go coast-to-coast, in 1970; be seen outside the continental U.S., in 1972. It: raised the largest sum ever in a single event for humanitarian purposes, in 1974; had the greatest amount ever pledged to a televised charitable event, in 1980 (from the Guinness Book of World Records); was the first to be seen by 100 million people, in 1985; celebrated its 25th anniversary, in 1990; saw its highest pledge in history, in 1992; and was the first seen worldwide via internet simulcast, in 1998.

In popular culture

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Between 1952 and 1971, DC Comics published a 124-issue comic book series with Lewis as one (later, the only) main protagonist, titled The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. In The Simpsons, the character of Professor Frink is based on Lewis's Julius Kelp from The Nutty Professor.[202] Lewis himself would later voice the character's father in the episode "Treehouse of Horror XIV". In Family Guy, Peter recreates Lewis's 'chairman of the board' scene from The Errand Boy. Comedian, actor and friend of Lewis, Martin Short, satirized him on the series SCTV in the sketches "The Nutty Lab Assistant", "Martin Scorsese presents Jerry Lewis Live on the Champs Elysees!", "The Tender Fella", and "Scenes From an Idiots Marriage",[203][204][205] as well as on Saturday Night Live's "Celebrity Jeopardy!".[206]

Also on SNL, the Martin and Lewis reunion on the 1976 MDA Telethon is reported by Chevy Chase on Weekend Update.[207] Comedians Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo both parodied Lewis when he hosted SNL in 1983. Piscopo also channeled Jerry Lewis while performing as a 20th-century stand-up comedian in Star Trek: The Next Generation; in the second-season episode "The Outrageous Okona", Piscopo's Holodeck character, The Comic, tutors android Lieutenant Commander Data on humor and comedy.[208] Comedian and actor Jim Carrey satirized Lewis on In Living Color in the sketch "Jheri's Kids Telethon".[209] Carrey had an uncredited cameo playing Lewis in the series Buffalo Bill on the episode "Jerry Lewis Week".[210] He also played Lewis, with impersonator Rich Little as Dean Martin, on stage. Actor Sean Hayes portrayed Lewis in the made-for-TV movie Martin and Lewis, with Jeremy Northam as Dean Martin.[211] Actor Kevin Bacon plays the Lewis character in the 2005 film Where The Truth Lies, based on a fictionalized version of Martin and Lewis.[212] In the satiric novel, Funny Men, about singer/wild comic double act, the character Sigmund "Ziggy" Blissman, is based on Lewis.[citation needed]

John Saleeby, writer for National Lampoon has a humor piece "Ten Things You Should Know About Jerry Lewis".[213] In the animated cartoon Popeye's 20th Anniversary, Martin and Lewis are portrayed on the dais.[214] The animated series Animaniacs satirized Lewis in several episodes. The voice and boyish, naive cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants is partially based on Lewis, with particular inspiration from his film The Bellboy.[215][216] In 1998, The MTV animated show Celebrity Deathmatch had a clay-animated fight to the death between Dean Martin and Lewis. In a 1975 re-issue of MAD Magazine the contents of Lewis's wallet is satirized in their on-going feature "Celebrities' Wallets".[citation needed]

Lewis, and Martin & Lewis, as himself or his films, have been referenced by directors and performers of differing genres spanning decades, including Andy Warhol's Soap Opera (1964), John Frankenheimer's I Walk the Line (1970), Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), Randal Kleiser's Grease (1978), Rainer Werner Fassbinder's In a Year of 13 Moons (1978), Robert Zemeckis's Back to the Future (1985), Quentin Tarantino's Four Rooms (1995), Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002), Hitchcock (2012), Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), Jay Roach's Trumbo (2015), The Comedians (2015), Baskets (2016) and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017, 2018).[citation needed]

Similarly, varied musicians have mentioned Lewis in song lyrics including, Ice Cube, The Dead Milkmen, Queen Latifah, and Frank Zappa.[217] The hip hop music band Beastie Boys have an unreleased single "The Jerry Lewis", which they mention, and danced to, on stage in Asheville, North Carolina in 2009.[218] In their film Paul's Boutique — A Visual Companion, clips from The Nutty Professor play to "The Sounds of Science".[219] In 1986, the comedy radio show Dr. Demento aired a parody of "Rock Me Amadeus", "Rock Me Jerry Lewis".[citation needed]

Apple iOS 10 includes an auto-text emoji for 'professor' with a Lewis lookalike portrayal from The Nutty Professor.[220] The word "flaaaven!", with its many variations and rhymes, is a Lewis-ism often used as a misspoken word or a person's mis-pronounced name.[221] In a 2016 episode of the podcast West Wing Weekly, Joshua Malina is heard saying "flaven" when trying to remember a character's correct last name. Lewis's signature catchphrase "Hey, Laaady!" is ubiquitously used by comedians and laypersons alike.[222]

Sammy Petrillo bore a coincidental resemblance to Lewis,[223][224] so much so that Lewis at first tried to catch and kill Petrillo's career by signing him to a talent contract and then not giving him any work. When that failed (as Petrillo was under 18 at the time), Lewis tried to blackball Petrillo by pressuring television outlets and then nightclubs,[225] also threatening legal action after Petrillo used his Lewis impersonation in the film Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.