Bob Newhart – raising a smile

Bob Newhart, the American comedian, who won fame through deadpan monologues that reflected wry bewilderment at everyday aspects of 20th-century life, has died. One award described him as “a person whose gentle satire and wry and irreverent wit waft a breath of fresh and bracing air through the stale and stuffy electronic corridors”.

 Born 5 September 1929 9.10am Oak Park, Illinois, he started as an accountant who turned to stand-up and became a hit with best-selling albums like The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, which topped the US album charts for 14 weeks in 1960; as well as tv shows with multiple Grammys, other awards and an Emmy for his role in The Big Bang Theory.

   He had a Virgo Sun on the cusp of the 12^th with an influential/controlling Pluto in conjunct his Cancer Midheaven. What probably drove his quirky take on life was Mercury, Mars, Moon in Libra opposition Uranus and trine Jupiter. Although he appeared mild-mannered his Mars Moon opposition Uranus would be sparky and at times short tempered.

   What intrigues me is that he has Chiron closely conjunct his Taurus North Node in the 8^th which is deep and would have made him all too aware of the destructiveness inherent in daily living no matter how mundane it seemed on the surface.  

  His wife of six decades, mother of his four children, Ginnie, 9 December 1940, tapped into his 8^th house with her Saturn Jupiter in Taurus on the cusp of his 8^th close to his North Node Chiron and her Mars Venus in Scorpio in opposition. It would not always be an easy bond but she clearly spoke to his deeper needs. In an interview he said: “The marriages of comedians, no matter how stormy, seem to last a long time, and I attribute it to laughter.” And with a composite Uranus opposition Sun Mars square Pluto in their relationship chart it would get heated at times.

Some examples of his wit to raise a smile:

“The driving instructor bends over backwards to make every allowance for his student: “You want to start the car? You turned on the lights. The controls all look alike, don’t they? All right, let’s pull out into traffic. What’s the first thing we are going to do before we pull out into traffic? I mean besides praying, let’s say. No, what I had in mind was checking the rearview mirror. DON’T PULL OUT! Haha! Please don’t cry. I’m sorry, but there was this bus . . .”

Another from “The Driving Instructor”: “How do you do, you are Mrs Webb, is that right? Oh, I see you’ve had one lesson already. Who was the instructor on that, Mrs Webb? Mr Adams. I’m sorry, here it is: Mr Adams. Just let me read ahead to kind of familiarise myself with the case. How fast were you going when Mr Adams jumped from the car? 75! And where was that? In your driveway! How far had Mr Adams got in the lesson? Backing out, I see, you were backing out at 75 and that’s when he jumped.”

 He even had historical telephone conversations the best known being between Sir Walter Raleigh and the non-comprehending head of the West India Company in England on the subject of Raleigh’s new discovery, tobacco:

“You can chew it! …

Or put it in a pipe! …

Or you can shred it up …

And put it in a piece of paper. Ha! Ha! Ha! …

And roll it up… Ha! Ha! Ha! …

Don’t tell me, Walt, don’t tell me. Ha! Ha! Ha! … You stick it in your ear, right? Ha! Ha! Ha! …

Oh! Between your lips! …

Then what do you do, Walt? Ha! Ha! Ha! …

You set fire to it! Ha! Ha! Ha! …”

  He had a talented array of harmonic charts, ranging from the build-a-successful-life 5H; seeking-and-searching 7H; giving and finding pleasure 9H; victim/healer 12H; and global influencer 22H.