Two men in formal attire holding small objects; dark suits with light shirts and ties, patterned vest visible. Indoor setting with yellow chair and flowers. 9:01
The Carol Burnett Show Official channel icon The Carol Burnett Show OfficialOriginal creator 137K views Save

Tim Conway's allergy test turns him into a cat

Bobo's fiancé is due any minute to meet her strict father for the first time. Donald arrives straight from the doctor, where they tested him for cat fur, and the results are starting to show. more

Skyler (Lyle Waggoner) stops by to see his sister Bobo (Carol Burnett) before the big meeting. Their father is strict about who marries into the family; he never even approved of their mother, and buried her under her maiden name. Bobo frets that she's plain and Skyler is handsome. Skyler corrects her. He's not handsome, he's extremely handsome, and he takes after their uncle Herman, a Ziegfeld Follies girl.

Carol Burnett as Bobo, with red hair, glasses and an orange top, looks ahead while a hand rests on her shoulder. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Bobo worries that her strict father will not like Donald.

Donald (Tim Conway) comes in from the doctor's office. He has spent the day being tested for pollen, wool and cat fur, and he can't say yet whether he will react. Bobo is a wreck about him meeting Daddy for the first time. Donald can't see what there is to be nervous about, for crying out loud, and then he licks his hand.

Bobo begs him not to do that while her father is around, and Donald tries. He climbs up onto the chair and has to be told to get down. He reports that he thinks he is shedding. She's still trying to get him back in his seat when Daddy walks in, played by Harvey Korman.

Bobo, in glasses, looks up while two men stand close to her and face her. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Bobo introduces Donald to her father just as the cat-fur test starts to show.

Donald's version of how-do-you-do gets the first big laugh. Daddy wants to know if Donald means to marry his daughter, and he does, yes sir, yes sir. Daddy explains how much it matters to him who marries into the family, and Donald mentions that he thinks he has fleas. Bobo covers for him: Donald is a great tennis player, which is why he gets these cricks in his neck.

Daddy decides he needs a drink, a double. Donald asks for a glass of water, because something is stuck in his throat, a fur ball. Then Daddy settles in for a serious word. His ancestors come from very select stock, he says, all the way back to the Mayflower, the epitome of aristocratic tradition, and any son-in-law of his will take his place in society alongside him.

Two men in formal attire holding small objects; dark suits with light shirts and ties, patterned vest visible. Indoor setting with yellow chair and flowers. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Bobo's fiancé is due any minute to meet her strict father for the first time.

Daddy asks Donald to wait in the next room so he can speak to Bobo alone, and he has to ask more than once, the way you have to ask a cat. Alone with her father, Bobo pleads her case. Donald doesn't usually behave like this, honest; it's some strange reaction to the allergy tests, and he's a wonderful person. Besides, Daddy always said he wanted a grandson.

Daddy supposes he will get pick of the litter, but all right, all right, for her sake. They call Donald back in with a kitty, kitty, kitty. He had real fun in there, he reports, since he has never played with yarn before. Daddy asks everyone to sit down for a calm, mature talk, which lasts about as long as it takes him to ask Donald, politely, to sit somewhere else so he can read his paper.

Then the good news: Daddy has said yes. Donald thanks him and promises that whatever is happening to him is temporary. He accepts an invitation to dinner, right up until he hears it will be served in the dining room. On second thought he is not hungry, and he will go home and open a can of Friskies.

Daddy is meant to be stern, and Harvey Korman spends much of the sketch an inch from losing it. Tim Conway did that to him almost every time they shared a stage. Fans watch for that look the way they watch for the punch lines.

#cats