The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart

How Mad Men paid tribute to the most celebrated new comedian since Attila (the Hun)

Legendary comedian Bob Newhart’s passing on July 18th, 2024 has resulted in one of the greatest outpouring of love and celebration I have ever seen upon the death of a celebrity. Bob’s deadpan humor became the defining delivery of American stand-up and his work as an artist will influence shows, movies, and performers throughout the rest of your life.

Newhart was an unlikely character to see become one of the top comedic figures of the 20th century. In 1960, Newhart would fit right in as an overworked employee at Sterling Cooper. He was even working as a Chicago-based copywriter when he got the offer for his first album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart which appears in the fourth episode of Mad Men’s first season “New Amsterdam.”

S1 Ep4 “New Amsterdam” (© AMC/Lionsgate)

He represents the dream of anyone who has ever sat in an office like Sterling Cooper and thought “There has to be more than this for me.” All it took him was moving the jokes he told from his office into a nightclub. One record later, The Button-Down Mind made an instant celebrity out of Newhart. Listening to his comedy was like listening to a friend but still entirely unique:

• No one else had his dry and somehow surreal tone

• The performance, only a little over 30 minutes, felt like it had something for everyone riffing on advertising, historical figures, politics (in a way that somehow divides no one), and men and women alike. It is one of the most accessible comedy albums ever made, certainly the most accessible at the time of its release.

• He was like a very funny coworker making you laugh at a job you hate which is actually how he got his start. His famous “telephone routines” heard on the album were developed by having absurd fake phone calls with a coworker. After the coworker left, Newhart continued the calls by himself and developed them into material for a one-man show.

Ken, who makes no secret about wanting to become an author and rise above being a simple account man, looks to Newhart as an inspiration. (© AMC/Lionsgate)

Newhart’s comedy was a natural fit for Mad Men due to the most famous bit on the album:

“Abe Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue”