What is it about Leslie Nielsen that can render a person so powerless against any efforts to not laugh? How does he destroy us so, with gags that often in and of themselves, aren’t that funny. What does he do? What is happening to us in the process? Why are we rolling around on the floor gasping for breath with our sister? Okay- maybe that last part is more just me…
Where did I first see Leslie Nielsen? It was “Airplane!” – where he played Dr. Shirley Rumack — “Surely you can’t be serious!” “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley!”. This is where many of us first saw Nielsen because this was his pivotal role that launched his career in comedy.
His deadpan delivery is what sent him soaring into popularity as a comedic actor. And he had over 30 years of experience as a serious actor beforehand, starring in such films as “The Forbidden Planet” and “The Poseidon Adventure” along with lots and lots of television performances.
But it’s his straight face, his deadpan look in the midst of total absurdity that gets us. With “Airplane!” his niche was made and many hilarious spoofs followed, like “Police Squad” and “The Naked Gun” series.
So let’s look at his chart.
Can we see anything at play here? We are looking for an energy that can best express DEADPAN humor. In other words, EMOTIONLESS in it’s delivery. What sign is the most detached from emotion? That would be AQUARIUS. Aquarius needs to be detached from the murky weight of emotion. It doesn’t have time to dwell in peoples moods and feelings because it seeks a larger framework in which to be effective. It can’t afford to have intensely hurt feelings when he doesn’t fit into a certain crowd because it is NOT SUPPOSED TO FIT IN. It wants to embrace it’s uniqueness and the freedom that brings so it can find it’s rightful, true place in society. This is AIR, light, detached, and maybe a little strange…
Nielsen has just about everything in Aquarius and mostly all in the first house of self-projection. These roles come naturally to him because he literally has great ease in turning off the emotional switch, much to our delight. With out the emotion some lines are much funnier, like, “Well, we shot a lot of people together. It’s been great. But today I retire, so if I do any shooting now, it will have to be within the confines of my own home. Hopefully an intruder and not an in-law, like at my bachelor party”
I love Leslie. It was sad to say goodbye to him a couple years ago. But then it was pretty funny to see what he did with his tombstone…
Toroidal Zodiac 