Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch in 1926) is an American comedian, noted for the wacky style of his comedy and, more recently for his long-running annual telethons for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Lewis is generally considered to have been at his peak in The Fifties (when he worked with Dean Martin) and The Sixties. Trope Maker for a lot of things.


 * Adam Westing: he is one of the few who use this trope for drama.
 * Ambiguously Jewish: Almost every Lewis character, or even any knockoff character based on one of Lewis's characters, will come off as this.
 * Animated Adaptation / Ink Suit Actor: A number of Lewis-based characters (including one called Jerry Lewis and some from The Family Jewels (See Double Vision, below) formed the cast of a 1970 Filmation cartoon series, Will The Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down?. (Lewis did not voice the part (Squiggy did), though Lewis did contribute to some of the scripts.)
 * Borscht Belt: Performed there in his childhood alongside his parents, and the style influenced his comedy.
 * Double Vision: Was well known for his tour-de-force performance in The Family Jewels, in which he played seven different characters.
 * Man Child: Not quite the Trope Codifier, but damn close.
 * Missing Episode: The Day the Clown Cried is a famous example. It exists but is locked up due to legal issues.
 * Oh God, with the Verbing!: Trope Maker
 * Spiritual Successors: Pee-wee Herman, Adam Sandler, Gilbert Gottfried...
 * Telethon: Trope maker codifier. The first telethon, broadcast by NBC in April 1949, was a fundraiser for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.
 * Variety Show: The Colgate Comedy Hour.
 * Yiddish as a Second Language