What was so good about Don Rickles' "art"

It’s been boring around here. Not that this will help any.
In any event, someone gave Mr. Rickles effusive praise recently.
I’ll skip the specifics, but from first exposure as a kid, let’s say I was unimpressed.
Full disclosure, I also find “Roasts” and Eating Contests disgusting, so that’s the nerdy bias I’m coming from.
Alrightie then, just for sport,
What was, is (I was amazed to find he’s still kicking) good about Don Rickles’ “art”?

It's been boring around here. Not that this will help any. In any event, someone gave Mr. Rickles effusive praise recently. I'll skip the specifics, but from first exposure as a kid, let's say I was unimpressed. Full disclosure, I also find "Roasts" and Eating Contests disgusting, so that's the nerdy bias I'm coming from. Alrightie then, just for sport, What was, is (I was amazed to find he's still kicking) good about Don Rickles' "art"?
That enough people liked it and were willing to pay for it. That's all it takes even if most people think it's terrible--or not art. I agree with your opinion of "roasts" and eating contests. But if enough people like them and are willing to pay for them, we'll have to learn to live with them or refuse to watch them. Most entertainment is aimed at the lowest common denominator. What is aimed at the more intelligent obsevers will always struggle for their existence. There are never enough intelligent observers for higher art to be self sustaining. Lois

He has great timing and delivery.
If you mean insult comedy in general, it’s just a way of communicating (like all comedy is).

I saw him live in Tahoe when I was a pre-teen. It wasn’t exactly a family show, but we’d seen him on TV and my parent’s either didn’t know or didn’t care. Anyway, he made a rather lengthy speech at the end about being able to laugh at ourselves. He said if we can’t do that, then we’ve lost any sense of humor, and that was somehow terrible, I don’t remember that clearly. Anyway, I think that theme came across even without him saying it. His jokes weren’t demeaning or even really hurtful, they were about regular silly things we do, like our pants are baggy or the food we choose is weird. He didn’t so much cut down as keep from getting to high on your horse.

I have to admit, despite all my thoughts about low art, he still made me laugh out loud with some of his lines. The weirdest thing of all was that he and Bob Newhart were the best of friends. What an odd combination! I guess they were antidotes for each other.

I was the one who mentioned Don Rickles elsewhere. Just watch him, he’s brilliant at was he does. It’s insult humor but with a purpose, not just to insult. Like someone said above…he makes us laugh at ourselves AND he did it to everybody. There’s a great clip, probably on youtube somewhere, of him at some Republican gathering for Ronald Reagan when he was president. Rickles insulted him just like any other schmo, and the top brass there too. And if you watch those old Dean Martin roasts, he’s always the best one, even by the people who were there…(I’ve seen quite a few). It was always like “ok, everybody sit down, the big dog is going to come up here” and he’d just go. And you could tell too that he did alot of ad libbing. Anywho, I could go on and on…

and so it goes