The Team’s Trademark: Making a Delightfully Absurd World

NEW YORK —  In a typical Bob and Ray interview, it would become quickly apparent that the guest was a complete dolt.

In one famous routine, Bob interviews Ray as Alfred E. Nelson, author of a new 1,100-page history of the United States. But, as Bob points out, the book is loaded with absurd errors. Nelson, for example, refers to the father of our country as “Nelson Washington,” has Abraham Lincoln driving to his inauguration in a car and reports that the first capital of the United States was Bailey’s Mistake, Maine.

Under Bob’s questioning, Nelson readily owns up to the errors, which he says were because of his failure to do any research whatsoever. “Yes,” he agrees, “it’s a shabby piece of work. I’m one of the first to admit it.”

But, he points out, the book was leather-bound.