Johnny Carson Was A Sex Addict, According to Dana Carvey
Dana Carvey has a long comedy history with Johnny Carson, from wowing the host on early Tonight Show appearances to angering him with that Carsenio character on Saturday Night Live, an impression that made Carson seem old and out-of-touch. Decades later, Carvey still does Carson in his act, including a running bit about the late-night host getting pulled over for drunk driving.
While Carson had real-life DUIs, the gag is mostly a goof on old-timey drink names and inane cocktail bars: “Sorry, Officer, I had a Strawberry Boom Boom at the Winking Rat.” Or: “I had a Feisty Feather at Slippery Tim’s.” Carvey is still improvising variations on the joke, he told David Spade on their Superfly podcast this week, revealing which improvised version killed the hardest at a recent appearance: “I had a Double Leaky Giraffe at the Desperate Sponge.”
Carvey goofing on Carson’s under-the-influence excuses sparked a serious inquiry (or possibly a joke set-up) from Spade: “I have a real question, a little outta my lane, but was Carson a sex addict?”
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Yes, replied Carvey without hesitation. “I know a lot of things,” he boasted. “I know someone who dated Johnny Carson for a year when he was 55. She was 25.”
While that claim seemed authentic, Carvey couldn’t help but turn the question into a bit. “I don’t know if this is true, I don’t want to get sued, but he liked poppers, amyl nitrate.” The comic broke into his Carson imitation: “You know, take some of this, and you’ll come like a banshee.”
But Carvey’s bit was based in truth. While it may not imply sex addiction, Carson famously collected wives and alimony obligations, tying the knot four times and turning his marital misfortunes into monologue material. Despite a revolving door of spouses, he also found time to date several celebrities, including Morgan Fairchild, Angie Dickinson, and Sally Field.
He also had multiple affairs during his marriages, including a long-term fling with a woman he referred to as “Miss Texas,” according to Johnny Carson: A Taut Portrait of a Complex Man Revealing the True Johnny Carson. Then there was a tryst with Jill Corey, a singer on one of his early shows, while he was married to his second wife, according to Carson the Magnificent.
Carson’s infidelities were part of his DNA, says the latter biography. His first wife, Jody, knew all about it. “You had a few drinks in you and some beautiful woman comes along and it’s hard not to shack up,” she once told an interviewer. “It doesn’t have to do with your home or your wife. It’s just there.”
His second wife, Joanne, echoed the sentiments. “This is the entertainment business, and there are groupies,” she explained. “There are women whose sole goal in life is to snag some big celebrity, even for the night. It didn’t upset me. … I knew Johnny would never embarrass me, and I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to know.”
