There doesn't seem to be a thread devoted to Ernie Kovacs, who was a very funny and innovative comedian in the 1950s and early sixties (died in a car accident in 1962). Part of the reason he's not extremely famous now is that he never had a steady job: he was in about a dozen movies, did TV comedy specials, was a game show panelist and was a steady guest host for the Tonight Show in the Steve Allen years.

His comedy was similarly all over the place: slapstick, cornball, sight gags, crazy regular characters, spoofs of classical and intellectual genres, and use of mime, music, and inanimate objects. A lot of the stuff he did wouldn't be seen again on American TV until Laugh-In came on, and then when Monty Python came to public TV:

/watch?v=hfB3jj8vKlo

/watch?v=416o9b_pjQk

/watch?v=hQUbDGrPg9U

He was also married to Edie Adams, which is way up there on the cool guy scale:

/watch?v=y7EbLIdE88Q

I remember in the mid to late 70s when PBS ran a compilation of his shows and specials under the title The Best of Ernie Kovacs. One show i remember was an entire half hour special done without any dialogue. He was a comedic genius who influenced many shows such as "Laugh-In", "Saturday Night Live", "Monty Python" and David Letterman's talk shows.