If you left your tax return until the last minute, take some comfort in the fact that you certainly aren’t the first. Sometime in the late ‘50s/early ‘60s, the National and State Organizations of Certified Public Accountants were apparently so exasperated they had comedy duo Mike Nichols and Elaine May make these PSAs to remind Americans about the April 15 deadline.
This clip comes via the Oscars’ YouTube channel. Nichols and May launched their improv act in 1957 and become very famous very fast, but they split just four years later, Vanity Fair recounts. (“They performed at the legendary Madison Square Garden birthday party for President John F. Kennedy at which Marilyn Monroe sang,” notes the New York Times.) They worked together plenty long enough to leave a permanent mark on comedy, however.
Nichols would go on to win an Academy Award for The Graduate and make a long string of films stretching from Carnal Knowledge to Working Girl. May worked for years as a screenwriter and adapted Primary Colors; the two teamed back up for The Birdcage, in 1996.
Now, stop shaving the dog and do your goddamn income taxes.