It started simple — just two guys at a gas station. But when Tim Conway took over as the clueless attendant in The Carol Burnett Show’s “Self-Service Gas Station” sketch, it turned into an all-out comedy catastrophe.
Conway, in full deadpan mode, moved slower than a broken pump. Every time Harvey Korman tried to stay composed, Tim found a new way to derail him — twisting the nozzle the wrong way, spraying gas everywhere, and asking the most ridiculous questions with a straight face that could kill. Korman’s patience evaporated on camera; you could see him clenching his jaw, fighting back laughter, and finally losing it completely.
The brilliance wasn’t in the script — it was in Conway’s chaos. He pushed every pause just a little too long, turned silence into suspense, and somehow made fumbling with a fuel hose feel like Shakespearean farce. By the end, Korman was red-faced, the audience was roaring, and Conway was standing in triumph — the king of comedic sabotage.
Even decades later, that clip still feels electric. It’s proof that when Tim Conway decided to go rogue, not even Harvey Korman — or the laws of logic — could stop him.
