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December 2nd, 2008
Tommy Smothers, “Mom always liked you best”

“Mom always liked you best”

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Tommy Smothers: When Dick was really good, if he really got on my case, the audience would sometimes boo him. Actually hiss a little bit and boo. And it kind of hurt his feelings. I said “that’s – you’re really doing a good job.” Bud Abbott was relentless on, on Lou Costello. Just relentless – he – didn’t show any humanity or – but you believed him. And people believed my brother too so when really gets – he’d do this one litany, about five or six lines in a row, when we were recording an album in St. Louis and he said “you’re stupid. You’re dumb. You’re not a man. You’ve never done anything right. You’re a failure. Da da da da.” And he finished up, he ran out of things and – and “You’ll never amount to anything.” And I said, “Yeah, and mom liked you best.” It was like the – and just the audience fell apart. Don’t know where it came from. So it – we have one enduring, uh, idea that will always live on with the Smothers Brothers, that mom always liked you best. We’re the universal, uh, feeling that every child, every sibling has had somewhere along the line. Or who did she like best? And that became kind of a little mantra.

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6 comments

#1

This brings back many happy memories of watching the Smothers Brothers. When the shows originially aired I was just a kid and laughed at the jokes, but with time, I came to realize how much these two brothers tapped into and captured the essence of sibling rivalry. Sheer genius!

#2

“Mom liked you best” gets to the heart of every siblling rivalry, real or imagined.

#3

I loved the Smothers Brothers–I was 8,9,10–ect.
wow–Tommy is really sexy at this age!!!!
e-mail me!!

#4

At 14 or 15 I actually shouted that very thing at my Mom when she was yelling at me to stop teasing my kid brother. “You always liked Paul best!” She didn’t disagree….

#5

Shortly after Tommy came up with the “Mom Always Liked You Best” line, Dickie started using this response as a topper: “Do you want to know why she liked me best? Because I happen to be an only child!”

#6

I remember that line that Mr.Tom Smothers said in his tv skits with

his brother Mr.Dick Smothers.

It still makes me laugh to this day..in real life though?

I believe that Mrs.Smothers liked her sons the best..not just Mr.Dick

Smothers.

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