Most of us remember how Johnny Carson would often do a "desk bit" called Carnac the Magnificent — and that character's name was spelled a whole heap o' different ways…Carnac, Carnak, Karnac, Karnak and even a few other spellings. I'm pretty sure I saw a couple different ones on NBC press releases and such.
I'm going with Carnac because that's how they spell it on the output of the company Johnny set up to handle the release and merchandising of his reruns.
The second video below is one of the best Carnac spots of the many they did. But before you watch it, watch the video link above it — a short interview below of Johnny's sidekick, Ed McMahon, recalling one joke in particular. He recalls the laugh following it as lasting "…for a minute…I know a minute…it could have been two minutes, a minute-and-a-half…we just couldn't go on."
You often hear people say things like, "The standing ovation I got…it must have lasted five solid minutes." And then if you check, it turns out to be forty seconds. I know you don't check such things but occasionally, I do. Ed got darned close on this one. According to my stopwatch, the laugh on the Carnac joke in question ran a hair under 52 seconds. That's still an awful long time for a joke this short…