Norman Lear Recalls The Time Jerry Lewis Lit A Candle And Sang Happy Birthday To His Penis

That Time Jerry Lewis Sang Happy Birthday To His Erect Penis

At 92 years old, television icon Norman Lear has a ton of amazing stories to tell, and he shares some of the best in his new memoir Even This I Get To Experience. One of the most memorable is a hilarious tale about Jerry Lewis -- specifically, Jerry Lewis' penis -- which Lear recounted to HuffPost Live's Roy Sekoff on Wednesday.

It happened in the 1950s, when Lear and Lewis were working on "The Colgate Comedy Hour." It was Lewis' birthday, and Lear got quite the surprise when he went to meet Lewis in his dressing room. Lear knocked on the door and Lewis instructed him to come inside. What Lear found was Lewis sitting in the dark with "somewhat of an erection" and a tiny candle "placed accordingly."

"All we saw was darkness, and a match struck, and as the match came down slowly, we saw what there was to see -- and his voice singing, 'Happy birthday, happy birthday'," Lear recalled. "But it was happy birthday to 'the greatest friend he ever had' or 'the kick of kicks' -- some lovely sentence describing what he was praising, the delight he achieved and the reason he was honoring this 'friend'."

Watch Lear recount the story in the video above, and get more tales from the life of the TV legend in his full HuffPost Live conversation here.

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