No Script, No Mercy: The Once-in-a-Lifetime Sketch That Remains Comedy’s Holy Grail 50 Years Later

LOS ANGELES – November 18, 2025 – It’s been called “the funniest four minutes in television history,” the moment when comedy transcended script and became pure, uncontrollable anarchy. On October 27, 1973, during Season 7, Episode 7 of The Carol Burnett Show, Tim Conway unleashed his legendary “Slowest Sheriff Alive” sketch, reducing co-star Harvey Korman to a wheezing, tear-soaked wreck in front of a live studio audience and millions at home. What began as a simple Western saloon bit spiraled into a masterclass in slow-motion chaos that still leaves modern viewers gasping for air half a century later.

The premise was innocent enough: Conway as Oldest Man’s son, the painfully slow new sheriff, entering a saloon to arrest a card cheat (Korman). But Conway, notorious for improvising to break Korman, had other plans. From the moment he shuffled through the swinging doors—each step an agonizing eternity—he weaponized silence, squints, and glacial pacing. “I’m… the… new… sher… iff,” he drawled, stretching every syllable like taffy. The audience tittered. Korman, already fighting a smile, bit his lip.

Then came the genius. Conway began describing his badge—“It’s… a… star… with… a… little… circle… in… the… middle…”—pausing so long between words that the studio fell into a vacuum of anticipation. Korman’s face contorted; his shoulders shook. When Conway finally produced a tiny, crumpled star from his pocket, declaring it “took… me… three… days… to… draw,” Korman lost it completely—choking, wheezing, tears streaming as he slammed the table in helpless surrender. Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence, seated at the bar, buried their faces in their arms, shaking with laughter. Even the boom mic reportedly trembled.

The sketch wasn’t scripted to be this long. Conway had deliberately padded it with ad-libs, knowing Korman’s breaking point. “Harvey hated when I went off-book,” Conway later recalled in his memoir What’s So Funny?. “But that night, I saw the devil in his eyes—and I kept going.” Director Dave Powers let the cameras roll, capturing four minutes of pure comedic carnage that became the gold standard for live TV breakdowns. The episode aired uncut, and legend has it that CBS switchboards lit up with viewers demanding reruns.

Fifty years on, the clip has racked up over 100 million views across platforms, routinely topping “funniest TV moments” lists from Rolling Stone to Reddit. Comedy historians call it “the Big Bang of physical improv,” citing its influence on everything from Saturday Night Live’s “More Cowbell” to The Office’s cold opens. “Conway turned time into a weapon,” wrote Vulture in a 2023 retrospective. “He broke Korman, broke the fourth wall, and broke comedy itself—in the best way possible.”

Harvey Korman, who passed in 2008, once admitted the sketch haunted him sweetly: “Every time I see it, I start laughing again—and I still don’t know how Tim did it.” Carol Burnett, now 92, calls it “the night Tim became a comedy god.” Fans agree: “This is peak television,” one YouTube comment with 50k likes reads. “Nothing will ever top it.”

As streaming services revive classic sketch comedy, the “Slowest Sheriff” remains untouchable—a once-in-a-lifetime eruption of genius that could never be scripted, never repeated, and never forgotten. Watch below… if you think you can keep a straight face.