I used to trip out on how cool the Unknown Comic looked when he came out on The Gong Show and did his stand up while wearing a paper bag over his head.
It was avant-garde performance art, it was edgy in a "he might be in the witness protection program" kinda way and it made me want to become a Baghead.
But after watching this animated short created by D.R. Beitzel for Cartoon Hangover called "The Bagheads: Get Trashed" I'm starting to think the Unknown Comic's bag was actually a mask of shame.
Interesting story behind "The Unknown Comic", who was Murray Langston (everything I'm aware of in his Wikipedia listing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_Comic is accurate), and who, after many other TV appearances, was semi-ashamed he had to do The Gong Show because he needed the money (and every Hollywood union member who appeared on it got paid scale). And made that shame into an anonymous character who was also an extreme stereotype of a 'bad comic' who became one of the show's most popular regular characters and Langston's second career.
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