Most absurd Get Smart scene ever

Classic nonsensical scene with the Chief and Larabee talking at cross purposes. From Season 5, Episode What's It All About, Algie? Written by Mel Brooks, Buck Henry and Arne Sultan. Don Adams' final directing effort on the show, which I'm guessing had something to do with this quirky scene.

Here it is in all its inanity.

Scene opens with the Chief inspecting a potted plant on his desk


Larabee: Where’d that plant come from, Chief?

Chief: From Congressman Whitney's office. He bought it at Algie’s Nursery, and DeGrasse was a little too eager to replace it when it died.

Larabee: Well, what are you looking for?

Chief: If my hunch is right, there’ll be a bugging device hidden here somewhere. Oh, I guess I’m wrong; alright, Larabee, get rid of it.


Larabee lifts plant from top exposing roots as dirt falls on Chief’s desk


Chief: Larabee look!

Larabee: Don’t worry, Chief, I’ll clean it up.

Chief: No, I’m not talking about that; you found the microphone.

Larabee: I did?

Chief: Well, sure, look at the roots; there's a microphone connected to it.

Larabee: Well, no wonder it died; that’s a radio microphone.

Chief: What’s that got to do with it?

Larabee: Well, everybody knows radio’s dead, Chief.

Chief: Alright, Larabee, you know what to do.

Larabee: Yes, but I don’t think that’s going to do any good, Chief.

Chief: You don’t?

Larabee: No.

Chief: You sure about that?

Larabee: I’m positive about it.


As the Chief slowly rises out of chair, camera zooms in on the two men as they lean in toward each other


Chief: We are talking about the same thing, aren’t we, Larabee?

Larabee: I certainly hope so.

Chief: So do I, Larabee, so do I.

Larabee: What do you think we’re talking about?

Chief: What do you think we’re talking about?

Larabee: I asked you first.

Chief: I said you know what to do and you said you didn’t think it would work.

Larabee: That’s right.

Chief: What didn’t you think would work?

Larabee: Watering this plant.


Chief starts pounding on his desk and gestures toward Larabee


Chief: I knew it! I knew it! You got the wrong thing. I wasn’t talking about the plant; I wanted you to get Max on the phone immediately.

Larabee: Oh well, that might do some good.

Chief: Larabee, how old do you think I am?

Larabee: About 63…64.

Chief: I thought so.

Larabee: Why, how old are you?

Chief: I’m 42.

Larabee: You don’t look it; you look 63…

Chief: Get out, Larabee!



(Edward Platt was 54 at the time of the filming. He died four years later, in 1974.)

[diablojones]

I named my dog Larabee. No one gets the reference and I’m ok with that.

[fdsfdsdhfasfa]

R.i.p. Edward Platt, you cheered my childhood. Greetings from Italy.

[TheFliteCast]

All of that in one unbroken take. Outstanding.

[johnpazell]

The scenes with the Chief and Larrabee were pure comic gold.

[slatibaadfast]

Larrabee and Don Adams were cousins. Their comedic timing was brilliant.

[Grievous-]

All of the scenes in Get Smart were absurd. That was the charm of the show.

[darylcheshire]

I remember the chief threatened to fire Max, and Max reminded the chief who was next in line, Larrabee and the chief relented (shaking both fists)

[vivrowe]

It will always be a great show, my brother and myself watched it every afternoon after school. Oh, the shows for kids were so good and humorous.

[walterbyrne]

Little known fact: larabee had a twin brother. Looked exactly the same. He was my baseball coach. His name was Mr. Karavelas. Great guy. All of us kids loved Get Smart. Larabee was don adams' cousin. Funny thing was that coach karavelas never watched the show so all of our impersonations and quotes from the show were lost on him. When other teams came from out of town we would tell them that our coach was larabee. They would swarm him for autographs. He took it in stride. Nice man. Btw he was a cameraman for wide world of sports. Would tell us stories about the Olympics, etc. God bless him.

[stantheman]

A great show with moments of pure genius!

[henrybrowne]

I agree with all you guys. Even my aloof dad would come in to watch Get Smart with all of us. You always knew if he liked something it was good . . He was a big fan of Buck Henry and Mel Brooks.

[billyz]

Just look at any Get Smart clips with the "cone of silence" - Max often demanded it - but the chief hated it - he knew it would always end badly.

[Confused_Philosopher]

There is not a single episode of this series that didn't crack me up. They didn't miss my funny bone by
---> <--- this much.

[ouncebird]

There are several episodes where Larabee doesn't speak much or at all. I don't know if those were when he was first on the show and they didn't know what they had but thank goodness they started giving him speaking parts. They were always brilliant.

[paulleckner]

Larrabee was more clueless than Max. He was a great supporting actor. My favorite scene was when he was supposed to contact president LBJ, but the phones were down. So, Larrabee opens the Chief's window and screams, "Good morning, Mr. President!" The Chief is flabbergasted, until they hear a reply, "What do you want?!"

[dlotboy]

Soooo funny. Absolutely hilarious with no foul language or rudeness. Just pure unadulterated comic genius.

[drwisdom]

Spy Larabee at 0:31 "Everybody knows radio's dead Chief."

That joke was 50 years before streaming actually killed radio.

[sebastian]

looks so much better in high def. As a child, I used to watch these on an old black & white television

[nickrich]

Dick Gautier's Hymie character was the best "prop" in any scene. Better than Max's shoe phone or the cone of silence.

[warlockpaladin]

This was always one of the greatest things on television.