Red Skelton's radio career started on Rudy Vallee's Royal Gelatin Hour before joining NBC's 1939 variety series Avalon Time. Broadcast from Chicago, Avalon Time featured country singer Red Foley and Red Skelton's wife and gag writer, Edna Stillwell.

Raleigh Cigarettes offered Red Skelton his own show on NBC in 1941, giving him the chance to present a full range of comedic characters. Every week, Red could be heard as dim-witted cab driver Clem Kadiddlehopper, the inebriated Willy Lump-Lump, and Junior,"The Mean Widdle Kid" who announced his mischievous intentions by proclaiming "I dood it". Radio veteran Verna Felton was on hand as Junior's disciplinarian grandmother.

Red Skelton was drafted into the Army in March 1944, but returned to NBC in December of 1945, with the same sponsor and timeslot. The Red Skelton Show ran on radio until May 1953. Red Skelton starred in his own television program from 1951 to 1971.