Lis has been showing me Youtube videos of the Ritz Brothers

The Ritz Brothers were a comedy trio who came out of vaudeville and were part of that vaudeville-to-Hollywood movement that the Marx Brothers, George Burns and Gracie Allen, and all those folks were part of. They never gained the level of fame that some of the other greats did, but they're considered to be some of the most influential comics. Harry Ritz's physical comedy style was imitated and incorporated into the styles of many other great comedians.

It's so weird watching Harry Ritz's face, because you're going, "Sid Caesar. Danny Kaye. Robin Williams. Caesar again. Jerry Lewis. Kaye again. Caesar again. Williams again. Bill Cosby. Mel Brooks." You're seeing the characteristic facial expressions and movements of every comedian who HAS characteristic facial expressions and movements. Except THEY got them from HIM -- either directly or indirectly, not the other way around. It's not that Cosby, for instance, necessarily grew up watching Harry Ritz directly (although maybe he did, I don't know), but that the Ritz Brothers' comic vocabulary turned into the American comic vocabulary.