Looking the Part

Phyllis Diller observed: “… comics must find a persona—one immediately understood by the audience, the quicker, the better.” To complement her delivery of gags, she wore outrageous and grotesque costume elements that challenged an idealized view of women as objects of beauty. Her accessories included a wildly disheveled “fright” wig, wrist-length gloves, cloth-covered ankle boots, and a bejeweled cigarette holder with a wooden cigarette, because—“I never smoked.” Adding to her physical persona, she developed a signature laugh, a raucous “ha, ha, ha” to emphasize her punch lines and elicit audience response. She referred to this technique as “priming the pump.”