# FBI Kept Tabs on Mort Sahl's Jokes About It, and Hoover Thought Sahl Was a 'Sick' **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [July 3, 2022, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-kept-tabs-on-mort-sahls-jokes-about-it-and-hoover-thought-sahl-was-a-sick/967361 "2022-07-03T22:57:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-kept-tabs-on-mort-sahls-jokes-about-it-and-hoover-thought-sahl-was-a-sick/967361/21 "2022-07-09T22:47:49Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Other than this clearly close relationship, Hoover had no other known intimate partners. He lived with his mother until he died, and was otherwise a lifetime celibate. Live with his mother until he died? You mean until she died? She per-deceased him by quite a bit, I think. > [@davidm](#): > > The joke just doesn’t seem to be up to Carlin’s usual quality. I can not be sure, but this is either before Carlin changed his entire act or very early in the “new George” phase of his comedy. I have it in my mind that it was around 1972 that he really came out as a better comedian, probably because that is when Class Clown came out. I’ve never heard him being all _that_ funny before 1972, to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2022, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-kept-tabs-on-mort-sahls-jokes-about-it-and-hoover-thought-sahl-was-a-sick/967361/22 "2022-07-09T22:56:38Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Live with his mother until he died? You mean until she died? She per-deceased him by quite a bit, I think. You are correct, of course, and I apologize for my typo. Hoover’s mother, Anna Marie Scheitlin, died in 1938, when Hoover was 43. He lived with her until her death. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2022, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-kept-tabs-on-mort-sahls-jokes-about-it-and-hoover-thought-sahl-was-a-sick/967361/23 "2022-07-09T23:22:33Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Hoover had a preoccupation with the sexual activities of high profile people, and devoted considerable Bureau resources to obtaining such information, discounting theories that he was asexual. What would this have to do with theories that he was asexual, one way or the other? Gathering intel on other people’s sex lives has obvious utility regardless of one’s own proclivities or lack thereof. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2022, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-kept-tabs-on-mort-sahls-jokes-about-it-and-hoover-thought-sahl-was-a-sick/967361/24 "2022-07-10T00:06:12Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > What would this have to do with theories that he was asexual…Gathering intel on other people’s sex lives has obvious utility regardless of one’s own proclivities or lack thereof. Hoover, who was a well known public figure, had no female romantic companion. Under the mores of the time, he presumably died a virgin. And that is indeed a possibility. Maybe Hoover simply had no sexual desires, and was solely devoted to his work. After all, it is really all he did. And we have since come to understand that there are such asexual people out there in the world. But, if that be the case, I would expect that Hoover would find sexual activity uninteresting, or dull, or odd. To the contrary, Hoover was said to have a vast pornography collection (in the name of fighting smut, you see) and seemed downright preoccupied with sexual activity. It’s just idle speculation, but I find that reflects somebody who is decidedly not indifferent to sex. (Contrast that, for example, with Ralph Nader, another known public figure who I don’t think has ever been associated with a romantic partner. I truly think Nader doesn’t think of sex, but if it came out that he had a prodigious collection of sex “research”, I’d figure he had a freaky side as well). ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-kept-tabs-on-mort-sahls-jokes-about-it-and-hoover-thought-sahl-was-a-sick/967361/25 "2022-07-21T19:04:12Z")
Exactly. Even Comey used Hoover’s name as a pejorative during his live testimony. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-kept-tabs-on-mort-sahls-jokes-about-it-and-hoover-thought-sahl-was-a-sick/967361/26 "2022-07-21T19:13:20Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > “‘I’m J. Edgar Noover. I have just come back from a stakeout with Ramsey Clark - that is a cookout in the backyard.’“ > > What is the joke there? > [@Jackmannii](#): > > Steak 🥩-out. > > Chuckle. > [@davidm](#): > > I get the stake/steak pun, but surely there’s more to the joke than just that. To put it in today’s perspective, imagine [Donald Trump](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/jan/01/j-edgar-hoover-secret-fbi) partying with [Barack Obama.](https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/apr/25/ramsey-clark-obituary) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fbi-kept-tabs-on-mort-sahls-jokes-about-it-and-hoover-thought-sahl-was-a-sick/967361.md?page=1)