Frank Kelly
''Father Ted''
*Father Ted*
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Kelly was best known outside Ireland for playing [Father Jack Hackett](/wiki/Father_Jack_Hackett "Father Jack Hackett") in the comedy series *[Father Ted](/wiki/Father_Ted "Father Ted")*, which aired in the United Kingdom from April 1995 to May 1998\. Father Jack is an old, alcoholic and offensively rambunctious priest who usually shouts only "[feck](/wiki/Feck "Feck")!", "arse!", "drink!" and "girls!" and the occasional scream of "what!" and "women's knickers".

For his role in *Father Ted*, he wore [contact lenses](/wiki/Contact_lens "Contact lens") (to show Father Jack's cataract). People would not eat lunch with him during filming if he was in his Father Jack make\-up because the false flaky skin he was wearing would fall off into the food.

Interviewing Kelly in 1997 for *[The Irish Times](/wiki/The_Irish_Times "The Irish Times")*, Deirdre Falvey said of him: "In person he could not be further from Father Jack. Urbane, articulate, thoughtful, fit (he swims and hikes), charming company, full of stories, and quite serious, though his conversation is punctuated by the occasional burst of laughter—he is reputably a great slagger with colleagues, and is very well liked." Kelly himself said:

> I like humour—but I'm very suspicious of people who laugh all the time, because they never listen to what you're saying, they always—have another agenda and they generally have no sense of humour. The most untrustworthy body language I know is that of the person who laughs all the time. That terrifies me. People with no sense or a very limited sense of humour I am very wary of too, because it's not a sign of great intelligence to be without a sense of humour. If you've no sense of irony you haven't a great decision making capacity because you must see the possibilities of the downside of any decision. Without perspective you can't have any wisdom, so it frightens me when I meet captains of industry or whatever who have virtually no sense of humour. That's the kind of person I find dismaying.


Why does Kelly find people with no sense of humor suspicious?