José Jiménez (character)

José Jiménez was a fictional character created and performed by comedian Bill Dana on The Steve Allen Show in 1959 and who became increasingly popular during the 1960s.

[1] Writer/producer Don Hinkley (who Dana had met when they were writers for the Allen show) played the part of the newscaster, asking José questions about his purported spaceflight.

(Coincidentally, there was a real test pilot named Bill Dana, who flew as high as 59 miles up and qualified for NASA's Astronaut Badge.)

[3] In the 1983 film The Right Stuff, Alan Shepard (played by Scott Glenn) is a fan of the character and uses the catchphrase in radio talk while piloting his airplane in for a carrier landing.

In the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000, the puppet character of Crow uses the phrase "My name José Jiménez."

In the third episode of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, called "We Have Cleared the Tower", someone mentions Bill Dana during the Apollo 7 pre-launch breakfast.

This inspires Commander Wally Schirra (played by Mark Harmon) to recite some of José Jiménez's lines, to the great amusement of everyone at the table.

In a cameo appearance in the Get Smart episode, "Supersonic Boom", Dana alludes indirectly to Jiménez, in that his only line was "Sorry fella, don't speak Spanish.