José Jiménez

A character created and performed by comedian Bill Dana for The Steve Allen Show in 1959, for which he became famous. José Jiménez was an ambiguously Latin individual (a Bolivian, although many thought he was supposed to be Mexican) who could be found performing a wide variety of jobs, about which he was frequently interviewed; some of his most famous sketches were performed with the help of Steve Allen or writer/producer Don Hinkley, who found themselves playing the Straight Man to Jose's often ... unusual stories.

His most famous sketch was "José Jiménez the Astronaut" from 1961 (embedded below), in which he was introduced as "the chief astronaut of the United States Interplanetary Expeditionary Force", who was about to be launched on a flight to Mars. Several of the lines from the routine -- such as "I plan to cry a lot" -- entered the pop culture meme pool for a while, and the character became a favorite of the actual Mercury astronauts. This led Dana to eventually become good friends with them and an honorary Mercury astronaut himself, and for the character to become the unofficial mascot of the program.

Dana went on to release an album of José Jiménez material (José Jiménez in Orbit (Bill Dana on Earth)) in 1962, and parleyed the character into his own TV show (The Bill Dana Show, a Spin-Off from Make Room for Daddy) as well as guest appearances on other programs in the 1960s, including Batman and Get Smart. However, in 1970, Dana retired the character after complaints from Hispanic groups that José was offensive, and officially declared the character "dead" in 1997.

Despite this, even more than sixty years after his first appearance, José Jiménez can still be found lurking in unexpected corners of American pop culture.

José Jiménez provides examples of the following tropes:

Catch Phrase: The character always introduced himself with "My name... José Jiménez."

Corpsing: The José sketches frequently reduced Steve Allen to helpless laughter even though he was a part of them.

Funny Foreigner: Although he never actually said so (and sometimes claimed or implied otherwise), Jose was Bolivian. (Not Mexican, as many believed.)

Genre Savvy/Leaning on the Fourth Wall: From "José Jiménez The Broadway Writer":

Steve Allen: Sir, would you tell us your name?
Bill Dana: Well, I might as well. It always gets a laugh.

Informed Judaism: In "José Jiménez The Broadway Writer", Jose claims his native country is Israel and his native language is actually "Jebrew".

"The Hewish people speak Jebrew".

Improvisation: Given Steve Allen's reactions to some of the things Dana said as José, it appears a fair amount of the sketches were off-the-cuff improvisational comedy.

Literal-Minded: José was more likely than not to take a question or comment absolutely literally, and answer accordingly. For example, again in "José Jiménez The Broadway Writer", José (encountered at Sardi's) was asked if he was in the theatre. His reply was "No, I'm in the bar."

Negative Continuity: Possibly as a result of being Improvisation, it was not uncommon for José to contradict himself or change his story several times over the course of a single sketch.

Obfuscating Stupidity: There is a current of this flowing in a lot of José sketches, alongside what appears to be an equal amount of genuine stupidity.

Once-Acceptable Targets: Dana officially retired the character in 1970 after intense lobbying by Hispanic groups who saw José as offensive. Even so, José still made the occasional appearance at least until 1988.

Poirot Speak: Bolivian-Spanish subvariety, with random additions from whatever other foreign language was most amusing at the moment.

Shaggy Dog Story: A lot of José Jiménez sketches ended like this, or with a similar Twist Ending. For example, in "José Jiménez The Broadway Writer", José is interviewed in Sardi's during a Broadway writers' strike, and it is not until the end of the sketch that he admits he doesn't write plays, he writes the signs for the strikers.

Shout-Out:
- When Alan Shepard took off on his first flight to space in the Mercury capsule, fellow astronaut Deke Slayton quipped, "Okay, José, you're on your way!"
- Because of this and his other connections to the space program, José the Astronaut is mentioned in both The Right Stuff and From the Earth to the Moon.
- Jim Steinman included José's Catch Phrase as the punchline to a parody of Eminem at the end of the song "Wonderful Toys" from his never-produced Batman musical.
- In the Farscape episode "Unrealized Reality", John Crichton, when asked his name, says, "My name... José Jiménez."
- Crow of Mystery Science Theater 3000 occasionally used the catch phrase.

Very Loosely Based on a True Story/Ripped from the Headlines: Many of the José sketches were inspired by current events of the day, with José inserted into some key role or present simply as a "man on the street" nearby. One such would be "José Jiménez The Submarine Officer", in which he purports to be the captain of the USS Triton, which had just completed the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

Visual Pun: At least one can be inferred in "José Jiménez The Submarine Officer". After introducing Jiménez as the captain of the USS Triton, Steve Allen then congratulates him on his "tremendous feat". There is a long moment with nothing but audience laughter, followed by José saying, "Well, I'll accept the congratulations, but they're only size eight." One can imagine what happened in that long moment.

Waking Non Sequitur: One common gag Steve Allen used when José was a "man on the street" was an overly-long, overly-complex question during which José would lose interest or actually fall asleep; upon waking he would utter something like "Good morning, darling."