World’s a Little Less Funny Without Minnesota’s Louie Anderson

It's been a rough year so far for the comedy world. We lost some great ones, Bob Saget, Betty White, and now Minnesota's own, Louie Anderson.

I was really surprised and saddened at how rapidly his death was reported just days after the story broke that he was being treated for blood cancer. He died just 3 days after being diagnosed with complications of lymphoma.

I've been a fan of Louie since the beginning. If you grew up in the Midwest and especially if you were from Minnesota, Louie was so relatable to your own life.

Louie got his national exposure first on a Rodney Dangerfield special in 1984 and soon after appeared on the Tonight Show w/ Johnny Carson.

From then on Louie appeared in several movies. You may remember him as the telegram guy in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".  He also appeared in the Eddie Murphy 1988 hit movie "Coming To America" and in the sequel in 2021.  Movies, TV, his own cartoon "Life With Louie" on FOX in 1995, stand up, game show host, and more. Louie did it all.

Louie came from, by any account, a very large family in St Paul, MN. Louie was kid # 10 out of 11. Louie claims his mother actually gave birth to 16 children but one brother and 2 sets of twins died at birth. Louie claimed his father was an abusive alcoholic.

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Maybe, one of my favorite roles was Louie's as Christine Baskets on the FX series "Baskets. Louie claims he channeled his mother when playing Christine Baskets.

I only met Louie once for a few minutes and found him to be just as genuine as he was on stage. So relatable and very likable.

In a time that we can't afford to lose any "funny", we lost one of the funniest in Louie Anderson.