Joe Flaherty Dead at 82

(NewsInsights.org) – Chicago arguably became the birthplace of modern Improv comedy as an art form in the 1950s. The Second City, a theater formed in 1959, became one of the first and most lasting comedy enterprises to rise up and eventually propagate comedy shops throughout Central Canada. The comedy sketch “SCTV” spawned careers for several talented comedians. Sadly, longtime SCTV writer and performer Joe Flaherty died on Monday, April 1, at age 82, following a brief illness.

Fans knew the comedian for several of his sketches. Flaherty developed several notable recurring characters for SCTV. They included Count Floyd, a host of Monster Chiller Horror Theater who dressed as a classic vampire in a cape tasked with introducing not-so-scary horror movies, and Guy Caballero, the fictional owner and station manager of the SCTV station and network who used a wheelchair as a ploy for sympathy and respect. Big Jim McBob was another creation, a character who gave the Farm Film Report with help from Billy Sol Hurok and coined the phrase, “that blowed up real good.”

Flaherty opted to spend his final days in the comfort of his home instead of entering a medical facility, according to his daughter, Gudrun Flaherty. The Comedic Arts Alliance, Second City, and his friend and former SCTV costar, Martin Short, reached out to comedy alums asking for donations to help with home health costs. In his fundraising plea, Short credited Flaherty as “a mentor, a director, and an inspiring improviser who gave us many of the tools we are still using in the careers he helped kickstart.”

Tributes rolled in on X, formerly Twitter. Mark Hamill called SCTV “easily one of the greatest sketch comedies in the history of television” and assured Flaherty that his legacy of laughter would “last from here to eternity.” Tom Green thanked him for being his first celebrity guest on his eponymous show and for introducing him to a completely different way of thinking about comedy.

John Cusack credited SCTV as “groundbreaking” and “a worthy successor to the barriers Monty Python exploded.” Paul Feig, co-creator of “Freaks and Geeks” who cast the comedian as the show’s father figure, called Flaherty his “TV dad and a true comedy hero.”

The comedian leaves behind his daughter, Gudrun, his son, Gabriel, and his brother, Peter, who also wrote comedy sketches for SCTV.