Editing Bob Newhart (section)

== Comedic style ==
Newhart was known for his [[deadpan]] delivery and a slight [[stammer]] that he incorporated early on into the persona around which he built a successful career.<ref name=autobio />  The hesitant stammer was his natural speaking style – "Truly, that's ... the ... way I talk"<ref>{{citation |last=Newhart |first=Bob |page=11 |title=I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This!: And Other Things That Strike Me as Funny |date=September 19, 2006 |publisher=Hachette Books |isbn=978-1-4013-8599-6 |language=en}}</ref>  – and he used it to build tension in the audience, "Tension is very important to comedy. And the release of the tension – ''that's'' the laugh."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Spencer |first=Amy |date=August 21, 2022 |title=Bob Newhart Reveals the Greatest Moment in His Comedy Career |url=https://parade.com/celebrities/bob-newhart-comedy-legacy |access-date=July 19, 2024 |website=Parade |language=en}}</ref>

On his TV shows, although he got his share of funny lines, he worked often in the [[Jack Benny]] tradition of being the "straight man" while the sometimes rather bizarre cast members surrounding him got the laughs. But Newhart said, "I was not influenced by Jack Benny", and cited [[George Gobel]] and [[Bob and Ray]] as his initial writing and performance inspirations.<ref name="Thorn">[[Jesse Thorn|Thorn, Jesse]]. (May 16, 2012) [https://web.archive.org/web/20120517221643/http://www.avclub.com/articles/bob-newhart-talks-about-standup-sitcoms-and-why-he,75185/ Bob Newhart talks about stand-up, sitcoms, and why he stays busy · Interview · The A.V. Club]. [[Avclub.com]]. Retrieved April 12, 2014.</ref>

Several of his routines involved hearing half of a conversation as he spoke to someone on the phone. In a bit called "King Kong", a rookie security guard at the [[Empire State Building]] seeks guidance as to how to deal with an ape that is "between 18 and 19 stories high, depending on whether there's a [[13th floor]] or not." He assured his boss he has looked in the guards' manual "under 'ape' and 'ape's toes'." His other famous routines included "The Driving Instructor", "The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company)", "Introducing Tobacco to Civilization", "Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue", "Defusing a Bomb" (in which an uneasy police chief tries to walk a new and nervous patrolman through defusing a live shell discovered on a beach), "The Retirement Party", "Ledge Psychology", "The [[Khrushchev]] Landing Rehearsal", and "A Friend with a Dog."

In a 2012 podcast interview with [[Marc Maron]], comedian [[Shelley Berman]] accused Newhart of plagiarizing his improvisational telephone routine style (although not any actual material of Berman's).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_332_-_shelley_berman|title=Episode 332 – Shelley Berman|work=WTF with Marc Maron Podcast|date=November 5, 2012 }}</ref> However, in interviews both years before and after Berman's comments, Newhart never took credit for originating the telephone concept, which he noted was done earlier by Berman and&nbsp;— predating Berman&nbsp;— [[Nichols and May]], [[George Jessel (actor)|George Jessel]] (in his well-known sketch "Hello Mama"), and in the 1913 recording "[[Cohen on the Telephone]]". Starting in the 1940s, [[Arlene Harris]] also built a long radio and TV career around her one-sided telephone conversations, and the technique was later also used by [[Lily Tomlin]], [[Ellen DeGeneres]], and others.<ref>{{cite news|last=Martel|first=Ned|title=For Bob Newhart, Dean of Deadpan, the Laughs Go On|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/arts/television/12bob.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 12, 2005}}</ref><ref name="Thorn" />