In all the recent celebrity deaths the one you may not have noticed hit me a little harder than the rest. Lost among the others you may have missed the passing of a great comic, Fred Travalena.

Fred was one of those guys who I saw on TV when I was a kid growing up in Kentucky. My Dad loved comedy and would laugh out loud at the comics on late night shows. Fred Travalena, the young and unhip George Carlin, John Byner, and a host of others were the ones that inspired me to get into stand-up. Years later it was a great thrill when I got to meet a lot of them. I met Fred on a cruise ship when we worked together several years ago. He was gracious and friendly and we talked about comedy for several hours one afternoon.

Know as “The Man of 1000 Faces” Fred wasn’t the most famous comic but few surpassed his work ethic or longevity in the toughest business in the world. He worked constantly and was still a frequent guest on the talk show circuit. Most of all he was a regular guy. He never was in trouble with the law or in rehab. Married to his wife for 39 years he lived a normal life and what I have heard from folks who knew him well is that he was always a gentleman.

He had battled several types of cancer over the last six years and finally lost his battle last week. If you want to know more about Fred or contribute to his memorial charity fund drop by his web site.

The only no-show of the night was David Letterman, who opted for a re-run. Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, Craig Ferguson, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert all weighed in last night with attempts at presidential humor. 

The two topics universal throughout all the shows were Aretha Franklin’s hat and Dick Cheney’s wheelchair. Jon Stewart suggested that Aretha was wrapped up like a present and Jimmy Kimmel speculated that it was capable of flight. As for Dick Cheny’s Wheelchair: Craig Ferguson and Kimmel both suggested that it was the result of a pact with Satan; Jon Stewart and Jay Leno thought he should be petting as cat like Dr. Evil; Conan O’Brien  suggested, that he looked like Mr. Potter from the Frank Capra classic. 

Both Conan and Stewart took Obama’s biblical quote: “The time has come to set aside childish things.” for an opportunity to do some introspection. Conan retired three childish jokes and John Stewart giggled at corespondent Samantha Bee who looked at all the Balls in Washington. (Craig Ferguson also made a similar reference.)

For those of you who read my last post, and were curious, only Leno and Kimmel mentioned the botched oath of office.

The surprise of the evening came from Jon Stewart. He did a bit where he contrasted lines from Obama’s speech and found them surprisingly similar to lines that George W. Bush once uttered.

There are very few signs the writers will stop using President Bush as a material source. Conan and Stewart suggested that the exiting President might have pulled some kind of prank on Obama. (Ironic, considering the squalid condition George Bush found the White House in back in 2001.)  Sarah Silverman composed a mostly unfunny goodbye to President Bush video for Keith Obermann’s show.  Leno claimed the Obama Spider-Man comic book might help the President understand the transition and Conan said it was soooo cold the Bush approval rating hit minus 13.

All the hosts were tremendously self conscious about making fun of the new President. One of the funnier bits of the night was Jimmy Kimmel going into a black barbershop with a notepad to ask permission from actual black people on comedy topics that would be acceptable. Their first suggestion was making fun of Obama because he cannot dance. Strange, most comedians have been suggesting that he was the first President that could. Correspondent Wyatt Cenac even alluded to that on Stewart’s show in a segment about Obama as the first cool President*. Tim Meadows, (as PK Winsome) on Stephen Colbert also touched on the racial aspect of the new administration by making fun of a recurring question he hears from white journalists.

On a laugh scale, Colbert probably scored the lowest. He watched moments from the Inauguration, so touching and patriotic, that even a hard right wing Republican like himself burst into tears. Craig Ferguson was probably the funniest monologue of the night and the comic most willing to do Obama material.

On a whole I give all the late night hosts a C for the evening. They’re still way too apprehensive about making fun of the new president. I’m reminded of the scene from the movie “2001,” where the apes kept circling the monolith, and grunting; afraid to actually touch it.

I don’t blame them. In my lifetime, I’ve never seen a more monolithic President.

 * I speculated that Obama was ruining the stereotype way back in  July, when I gathered with three other comics on the Jerry Agar Show to make Obama jokes for a full hour. Here’s the news clip on my website about that show.

Let’s be honest.

#1: They love Barack Obama.

#2: He’s African-American.

That’s the bottom line and everybody knows it. The facts are, Barack Obama is a gaffe machine and has done more flip-flopping in the last two months than Jimmy Buffet in Grand Cayman. But do you think for a minute David Letterman would do a “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches,” with Obama saying; “I’ve already visited 57 states”…?

Not on your life. Why? Refer to #1 and #2 above.

Sorry to pick on one of my heroes, David Letterman, but it’s just the easiest example. However, I myself will not be doing any Obama Administration humor for an entirely different reason. Why? Because I feel sorry for him.

That’s right. I mean, he’s not even president yet and look at what’s already happened:

D.C. police have placed warning signs on the streets, declaring that during tomorrow’s inauguration, our capital will be a “Prostitution-Free Zone.” Great – so now Obama has to call his pal Blagojevich and tell him he can’t come. Awkward.

And poor Leon Panetta. People in his own party saying he has no experience in intelligence… What? As Clinton Chief of Staff for four years, how many chubby interns you suppose this guy snuck in and out of the Oval Office – and only got caught, what – once? I’d say he knows a thing or two about covert operations.

North Korea has made a request to send its chief nuclear envoy to attend the inauguration. Now what are you gonna do? If you say ‘no’, everybody thinks you’re rude. If you say ‘yes’ and the Communist guy gets close enough to Obama to whisper the code words, then we’re all in trouble.

Then we find out Carol M. Browner, Obama’s first pick as global warming czar, has said that to address climate change, rich countries must shrink their economies. Then she suggested adding Flomax to the water. Then it got weird.

C’mon – how can you make fun of this guy?