The punchline to “You know what the last thing Jesus said was?” left me gasping for air, I was laughing so hard, when I saw Sam Kinison’s routine on SNL in October 1986 (Windows Media: dialup, highspeed). Presumably much cleaner than his regular routine, it was nevertheless heavily censored when the episode was rerun (in one bit on drugs, the audio was killed; they excised the Jesus joke altogether).

For a while I thought this was the funniest thing imaginable; I was 16, and it was the 1980s. Now I’m twice that age and the stand-up comedy’s a lot stronger than it used to be, and old Sam Kinison jokes don’t seem as risqué — or as funny — as they once did. We’ve come a long way.

Links: Sam Kinison Official Web Site, Kinison.com: A Multmedia Tribute to the Life and Comedy of Sam Kinison.