Alan Buz Kohan: Fred was the thinking man’s comedian. And he was just so bright. And there, again, I’m sure he had a much bigger hand in the writing of the shows than a lot of the other comics who relied on the writers.     And I just I just don’t know if I, I may have this right, but some things stick in your mind even though, you know, a half a century or more has passed. And I remember one radio show where Fred, he used to play a character like a Charlie Chan character, it was called One Long Pan. And he was a detective. And there was a crime being committed at the circus. And he was called in to solve the crime. And the crime was that the, the contortionist had been killed, murdered, and he was found him in the shape of an R. He had bent his body in the shape of an R because he would do the whole alphabet, that was his, his act. And One Long Pan looked at the situation and he figured out who the murderer was and why the crime was committed. And the solution was that the contortionist wife killed him because she didn’t wanna see him make an S of himself. And I still remember for no reason. I, I don’t know many contortionists. I haven’t been to the circus in years. But certain jokes, certain lines, certain things stand out and that was one and that’s a well thought out joke, you know. It’s really you’ve gotta think about that to come up with it in the first place.

Michael McKean: Rock and roll takes itself very seriously.  It can.  It shouldn’t.  I mean, the people I’m attracted to like you know, the songwriters, especially Tom Waits and- and They Might Be Giants and Richard Thompson and Elvis Costello, Loudon Wainwright.  These are all people who are capable of breaking your heart, but they’re also practitioners in the- in the other- in the other thing.  I think all great songwriters can do both.  Randy Newman, he can tear your heart out, but he can also write a really, really funny song.  Noel Coward, same thing.  But there is something about the self-importance of this kind of bubble mentality.  I mean, when bands are on the road and you know, doing what they do, and making money, and- and scoring chicks and- and doing all this stuff, they don’t rea- really reference anything else in the world except     themselves.  They’re living in this kind of tunnel.  And I think that Chris- the- the films that Chris has done subsequent to “Spinal Tap” all have that in common.  You know, little theatre and the dog show and the- and the you know, the- the folk concert, it- it- it’s all about people taking themselves very seriously.  You know, if you’re not riding high, then your fall’s not amusing.  You know?  That’s why I- I- I’ve always felt that the idea of getting a laugh by trashing someone who’s beneath you is- it doesn’t appeal to me.  It’s- it’s kind of easy, you know?