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The Canadian Gas Station Worker Who Became World Famous Because Of His Dirty Name
An unassuming man in his 60s became an overnight sensation when he was brought to the public’s attention by a TV show
“What’s in a name,” William Shakespeare once asked in Romeo and Juliet. Some names are considered common and others quite exotic. However, few become famous purely because of what they are called. One exception was a simple Canadian gas attendant, who became a widely known celebrity as an older man in the 1990s because of the dirty nature of the name he was born with.
A native of Saskatchewan, Richard (Dick) Arthur Assman was born on Valentine’s Day in 1934. He lived a rather uneventful life into his 60s, working at a series of Petro Canada gas stations. However, in 1995, his employer, amused by his employee’s name, took out an ad in a local newspaper to announce that his filling station had moved to a new location, mentioning Assman by name. In turn, that ad was sent along to American television personality and funny man, David Letterman.
The comic also found Dick Assman to be a funny name and starting in July of that year, did a nightly feature on the unassuming Canadian. When he first talked about the gas station attendant, all he could say as he showed the…
