Bob Hope's World of Comedy was a Bob Hope special, originally aired on NBC on October 29, 1976. The special began Hope's 27th year in television and featured clips from previous shows and specials.
To introduce the clip sequences, Hope was joined by special guests, including Big Bird. (YouTube) Big Bird kicks off a section on animals (including Lassie and Trigger). In his lead-in, Hope quips that he first tried to get Francis the Talking Mule and Jaws, but neither were available.
Big Bird greets Mr. Hope with "Gee, I thought I had a funny beak" (a moment recalled by Caroll Spinney in The Wisdom of Big Bird). Hope asks his feathered friend what kind of bird he is. After a Jack Benny-style "Well!" (with his wing on his cheek), Big Bird reveals that his mother was "a yellow-breasted hornswabble talking tiki", and his father "was a yellow-winged liver-lilied fender-bender." When asked by Bob what that made him, he replied "A chicken with a gland problem?" He also distracts his host by preening his feathers before the audience. Other jokes involve the absence of the NBC peacock, Colonel Sanders, Donald Duck, the Roadrunner, and how both Big Bird and Bob Hope "lay a lot of eggs." Big Bird makes his exit to an instrumental of "Sing," which plays over the start of the first clip (with Bob Newhart and a parrot voiced by Mel Blanc).
The other guest co-hosts included Lucille Ball, Norman Lear, Don Rickles, and Neil Simon.