The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

During a 'Carnac the Magnificent' segment, a recurring sketch, technicians once rigged Carson's desk to collapse when Carnac (played by Carson) fell onto it, which was a comedic physical gag. In a memorable 1965 segment, guest Ed Ames attempted an axe-throwing demonstration and accidentally hit a target in an unfortunate, anatomically suggestive spot on a human silhouette, leading to a comedic reaction from Carson.

Reruns of 'Carson's Comedy Classics' were edited to remove certain segments that contained 'sexually lewd' jokes, which could imply instances of mild profanity or suggestive language that was deemed unsuitable for syndication. While not a direct example of profanity from the show, a discussion mentioned 'guppies' (gay urban upwardly mobile people) as a new term, and the joke 'nobody laughed, you could hear a pin drop in the studio', which suggests that some humor might have been edgy or offensive enough to cause an uncomfortable silence rather than laughter.

Johnny Carson regularly portrayed 'Carnac the Magnificent', a turbaned psychic character who would humorously 'answer questions before seeing them' from 'hermetically sealed' envelopes, parodying clairvoyance. Another character played by Johnny was 'El Moldo', described as a 'half-witted psychic' who would try to guess personal details or hidden objects from audience members.

During a 'Carnac the Magnificent' sketch, a technician-rigged desk collapsed when Carnac (Carson) fell onto it, which served as a sudden, surprising, and humorous event rather than a frightening one. The segment featuring guest Ed Ames' axe-throwing accident, where the axe landed in an unexpected, comedic spot on a target, created a moment of surprise and tension that was quickly defused by Carson's humor.