>>212563656 (OP) Was this ever done before the Dick Van Dyke show? (I'm too lacking in self-control to check TV Tropes.)
Besides being funny it was also "meta": TV writers visit auction to brainstorm humorous ways for their star to accidently over-bid for crap...and do exactly that.
>>212563656 (OP) >88 "Our next lot is a rare collection of canvases from a young artist who went on to take the world (or at least Europe) by Sturm...er...storm. In these early works, you can see beyond the modest architectural depictions to a deeper zeitgeist of ressentiment, weltschmerz, doofenschmerz, etc. This is a one-in-a-lifetime collection, folks, so bidding will start at $6 million."