Comedian Ralphie May has died of cardiac arrest at a private residence in Las Vegas this morning, after battling pneumonia for 6 weeks. He was just 45 years old.

via TMZ:

Ralphie’s stand-up comedy career took off after he finished second on “Last Comic Standing” in 2003. Since then he’s had several televised comedy specials — mostly on Netflix and Comedy Central — and he’s continued touring, almost nonstop, around the country.

His manager, Judi Marmel, tells us, “As his manager and his friend, I will miss his laugh, his generosity to fellow comedians, his trademark orneriness, and his enormous love of life. He left us entirely too soon — and we can only wonder where his comedy might have taken all of us. We send our love to his family, his fans, and all the comics who shared stages with him across the country.”

Below, three outtakes from an interview we did with Ralphie for our 2004 VH1 series Super Secret Movie Rules. Watch him riff on what makes the movies Airplane!, Scary Movie, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre so special. What a sweetheart.