#RIP: Comic Icon, Rip Taylor

Comic legend Rip Taylor has died.

Known for his confetti-clad campy comedy, his career started when he joined the army and started to perform stand-up in clubs. He developed a signature bit where he would cry and beg for the audience to laugh.

Taylor would come to be known as The Prince or Pandemonium, The Master of Mayhem and The King of Camp and Confetti.

Taylor appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 20 times as well as The Jackie Gleason Show and TV shows like The Monkees, The Addams Family (as Uncle Fester) and in Scooby Goes Hollywood in 1979. He also appeared on The Kids in the Hall, Will & Grace, George Lopez, Life with Bonnie, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and many others.

Throughout the ’70s he would often appear as a celebrity panelist on Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth, The Gong Show and The Match Game and was also a regular on The Brady Bunch Variety Hour where he played Alice’s love interest.

Taylor was a pop culture icon for six decades. He was in The Gong Show Movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Indecent Proposal, The Silence of the Hams, The Dukes of Hazzard, Wayne’s World 2 and the Jackass movie franchise.

RuPaul’s Drag Race judge, Ross Matthews posted on Facebook,

“I met Rip Taylor once, many years ago. It was not long after I started on The Tonight Show. He pulled me aside and looked me in my eyes.

You are wonderful. You are what I could’ve been if I never had to apologize for who I am. Now go take over the world.

I have thought about that conversation every day since. I am so sad to see that he has passed, but I am so grateful for the trail he blazed and the kind words he shared with me so many years ago.”

Shower the heavens with confetti, Rip.

Rip Taylor was 84.