Gordie Tapp

Gordon Robert "Gordie" Tapp, was a Canadian entertainer, best known as a radio and television host, comedian and writer who was best known to American audiences for his characters on the musical-variety series Hee Haw.

Tapp began his career at a radio station in Hamilton, Ontario, as a jazz disc jockey and switched to country music when he joined the show Main Street Jamboree. He went on to host the CBC television show Country Hoedown.

On Country Hoedown, he created Cousin Clem, a bumpkin character he brought with him to Hee Haw when he joined the show as a writer and performer in 1969. He stayed with the show for its entire 24-year run, during which he regularly sang the familiar songs “Gloom, Despair and Agony on Me” and “Pfft! You Was Gone!”

Tapp died on December 18, 2016, in Burlington, Ontario. He was 94.