# Humor/satire of the 1950s and 1960s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [October 28, 2024, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348 "2024-10-28T13:33:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![XOldiesJock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/ec9cab/32.png) [@XOldiesJock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XOldiesJock)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/21 "2024-10-28T17:50:04Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > _Vaughn Meader (a career cut drastically short by an assassin’s bullet)_ Poor Vaughn Meader! He woke up the morning of November 22nd, 1963, on top of the world as the most popular comedian in America only to go to bed that night a has-been, persona non grata anywhere in the free world. We had a copy of “The First Family” in our household. (Didn’t everyone?) We played it so often we had it memorized. I picked up a copy for a dollar at a yard sale several years ago, played it one night, and after all these years, it still made me laugh. The night of 11/22/63, Lenny Bruce was set to perform at a nightclub. The audience waited in anticipation. What would Lenny say?!!. He came out on stage, stood there for a moment, as if in contemplation, and said “Vaughn Meader is screwed!” It brought down the house! But getting back to the OP’s question: Meader, with writer/producers Bob Booker and Earl Doud, were certainly among the first to do that level of political humor/satire and put it on vinyl records, leading the way for many comedians who came after. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/22 "2024-10-28T18:15:09Z")
> [@XOldiesJock](#): > > I would also put in a vote for MAD, which greatly shaped my sense of humor, along with Ernie Kovacs and the great satirical recordings of Stan Freberg. Another vote for Mad Magazine. Mad didn’t just crack me up as a kid—it built my love for satire and sarcasm, setting me on a path of irreverent humor. I’m sure it did the same for many others. To the OP: I recommend the hardcover [_Mad For Keeps_](https://www.ebay.com/itm/326316425177?_skw=Mad+For+Keeps&itmmeta=01JBA3Y74QX3BXJS8RV2V1D2K4&hash=item4bf9f97fd9:g:MKkAAOSwL3Zm9x3G&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKkdur4gxLKKrafeE8Z%2FoTMTrl4k5ih0XAp7dEoxilWKEG4E8i4AhBwV%2F8qTFQVUBFRlcAiAQPtYz43a9XgKZK%2FaC4fio5Xsbz%2Fx1MFEJbdyMpoMHhEdJnEtk3OYQ5A440XA2Mu5ALCfzEjtRS0npBRuf1UPanT%2FVdXxcASVuoix8FilRfxqP%2FqEAPoqgas%2B4QHnE6eTyz5TIqCc1pDPJj6GEQt%2Bh6Wt8XqW0IkdDuN%2B3sCgkXZgmdIO682Wj9N0lI4%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7zy-MPaZA) (1958, complete with a foreword by Ernie Kovacs)—it’s a classic. I’d grab my copy, but it’s currently “archived” in the basement chaos, somewhere beneath an avalanche of old boxes. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/23 "2024-10-28T18:32:22Z")
Going further back than Erna Bombeck, my mother enjoyed Betty Macdonald’s _The Egg and I_ and _The Plague and I_, and Peg Bracken’s _I Hate To Cook_. And for fans of Tom Lehrer, the UK produced Flanders and Swann and Paddy Roberts. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/24 "2024-10-28T18:44:52Z")
I know he is infamous now, but in the 1960s Bill Cosby recorded LP records of his stand-up routines that were absolutely hilarious - one I especially recall is “To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With.” ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/25 "2024-10-28T18:47:49Z")
> **[Terry Southern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Southern)** > > Terry Southern (May 1, 1924 – October 29, 1995) was an American novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and university lecturer, noted for his distinctive satirical style. Part of the Paris postwar literary movement in the 1950s and a companion to Beat writers in Greenwich Village, Southern was also at the center of Swinging London in the 1960s and helped to change the style and substance of American films in the 1970s. He briefly wrote for Saturday Night Live in the 1980s. > Southern's dark and often a... Arguably the greatest screenwriter of the 1960s. The few of his novels I’ve read were generally inferior, but some of the short pieces in _Red Dirt Marijuana and other Tastes_ (1967) exemplify his signature “dark and often absurdist style of satire.” ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/26 "2024-10-28T18:53:25Z")
“Why is there air?” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/27 "2024-10-28T18:56:40Z")
@ggf.nyc asked me this question in my thread about my humor website, but it made more sense to tag it on to everybody’s else’s answers. He wanted books specifically about New York, too. I did some hunting on my shelves and came up with a load of possibilities. Terry Southern was the best dark humorist of the era. He’s known for _Candy_ but try _Flash and Filigree_. The Firesign Theatre stole that novel’s “What’s My Disease” game show as “Beat the Reaper.” And by all means listen to the Firesign Theatre. My roommate and I would not only memorize their records, but try to uncover ever allusion and reference. Bruce Jay Friedman. Robert Coover’s Pricksongs & Descants is one of the great collections of short stories. Don DeLillo_Great Jones Street_ is about early rock in Greenwich Village. He’s a 70s writer but close enough.) Philip Roth for _Goodbye, Columbus_ and _Portnoy’s Complaint_, his early Newark novels. E. L. Doctorow for books about New York, with _Ragtime_ and _Billy Bathgate_ the lightest. _The Book of Daniel_ isn’t funny but packs a punch. Donald Barthelme’s short stories could be hilarious. So could some of John Barth’s. _The Sot-Weed Factor_ is very long and not my taste but some says it’s his best. Jean Kerr’s books of humorous essays were the bestselling ones in the fifties, topped by _Please Don’t Eat the Daisies_, later made into a film and sitcom. She wrote about life in the New York suburbs. Cornelia Otis Skinner was another major writer of humorous essays. And of course Erma Bombeck was already writing her column and collecting those in books. Work through the names in _The Playboy Book of Humor and Satire_. Most of those already mentioned in this thread are there, but others aren’t like Shepherd Mead (good novels, too), William Iverson, H. Allen Smith (lots of 40s writing about New York). _Playboy_ did another half dozen paperbacks collecting their humor, but they’re relatively easy to find. Dan Greenberg is in several and had a number of books as well. When Jack Paar hosted the _Tonight Show_, he brought on wits and raconteurs who loved to talk. Many of them wrote funny memoirs that sold like crazy based on those publicity or maybe because of their great titles. Alexander King - _Is There Life After Birth?_ Jack Douglas - _My Brother Was an Only Child_. Oscar Levant - _Memoirs of an Amnesiac_. Patrick Dennis. Brits Robert Morley and Peter Ustinov’s books were bigger in England, but everything is findable somewhere. Jonathan Winters broke out on Paar’s show. Few remember he wrote several books, including _Mouse Breath, Conformity and Other Social Ills_. Cliff Arquette played hayseed Charley Weaver and got several books out of it. Bruce Jay Friedman also edited an important anthology titled _Black Humor_. It shades over into nonfiction, but a must if you want to take a deep dive into that era. ---
**Author:** ![ggf.nyc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ggf.nyc/32/17864_2.png) [@ggf.nyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ggf.nyc)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/28 "2024-10-28T19:18:00Z")
Thank you! I was familiar with some of these (Southern, Roth, Coover, DeLillo, Barthelme), but Jean Kerr, Iverson, Allen Smith, and others are new to me! I’m also definitely picking up the Playboy Book of Humor and Satire (though sadly that doesn’t sound like it will include a centerfold). This is great. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/29 "2024-10-28T20:27:48Z")
Leo Rosten: > **[The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated - Kindle edition by Rosten, Leo,...](https://www.amazon.com/New-Joys-Yiddish-Completely-Updated-ebook/dp/B003FCTYWU)** > > The New Joys of Yiddish: Completely Updated - Kindle edition by Rosten, Leo, Blechman, Ro, Bush, Lawrence. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while... As Leonard Q. Ross: > **[Amazon.com: The Education of H\*Y\*M\*A\*N K\*A\*P\*L\*A\*N: 9780156278119: Ross, Leonard...](https://www.amazon.com/Education-Leonard-Q-Ross/dp/0156278111)** > > Amazon.com: The Education of H\*Y\*M\*A\*N K\*A\*P\*L\*A\*N: 9780156278119: Ross, Leonard Q.: Books In my family, one need only remark “Mine oncle has a gless eye” to undo any grammar correction. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/30 "2024-10-28T20:32:40Z")
Jack Douglas - “The Jewish-Japanese Sex and Cookbook and How to Raise Wolves,” “My Brother Was an Only Child,” “Going Nuts in Brazil with Jack Douglas,” “Rubber Duck” and quite a few more, all sadly out of print. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/31 "2024-10-28T20:39:40Z")
American humorist writer [Richard Armour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Armour) is about the first name that comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![ggf.nyc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ggf.nyc/32/17864_2.png) [@ggf.nyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ggf.nyc)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/32 "2024-10-28T20:51:54Z")
I ordered a book by him after finding @ [Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)’s Forgotten Humorists website! I can’t wait to get it. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/33 "2024-10-28T20:55:38Z")
To my shame, I went through the entire _The Marvellous Mrs Maisel_ without realising Lenny Bruce was a real life person. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/34 "2024-10-28T21:04:13Z")
If you’re trying to get a bead on the type of humor/satire one would find in a mid-century issue of the New Yorker, I’d suggest starting with James Thurber. ---
**Author:** ![ggf.nyc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ggf.nyc/32/17864_2.png) [@ggf.nyc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ggf.nyc)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/35 "2024-10-28T21:09:12Z")
Oh yeah, I’ve read a ton of Thurber, he’s the reason I read De Vries (he got De Vries his gig at the New Yorker). Thurber’s autobiographical stuff is really the best. ---
**Author:** ![Happytree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happytree/32/3555_2.png) [@Happytree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happytree)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/36 "2024-10-28T23:02:49Z")
If you do plan to consume any Jean Shepherd radio recordings, i highly recommend The Great Ice Cream War. My dad made me listen to it once, then forgot, and played it for me again a few weeks later. I didn’t mind because it was so good! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/37 "2024-10-28T23:09:37Z")
I’m pissed they’ve never collected Jean’s Army stories that were published in Playboy, like “Banjo Butt Meets Julia Child.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/38 "2024-10-29T00:07:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Terry Southern I read somewhere that Southern was actually recruited/hired as the head writer of a TV show (maybe _ **SNL** _ after Lorne Michaels left in 1980), but was so turned off by network executives that he went home and got rid of his TV set. The UK version of _ **That Was the Week That Was** _ starred David Frost and featured performers like a very young Millicent Martin (Daphne’s mother on _ **Frasier** _). It had segments drawn from the news and could be really biting with its satire. (I know there was an American version of the show, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it—just the British version.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/39 "2024-10-29T01:08:42Z")
I left off writers that I knew ggf could find on my site, but that was a mistake. Not a mistake was taking it over here, where a flood of names resulted. Others I’ve written about from the fifties include Corey Ford and Marvin Kitman. For _Monocle_, the political satire magazine that ripped apart Johnson, Kitman wrote a parody of _Animal Farm_ called _Animal Ranch,_ larded with amazing caricatures of everyone famous from Johnson to Martin Luther King. Nobody remembers it. I also did Will Cuppy, whose comic history of famous people, _The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody_, certainly inspired Armour’s comic histories, starting with _It All Started With Columbus_. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348/40 "2024-10-29T01:25:38Z")
Oh, I forgot. Terry Southern is unimaginable on television. Michael O’Donoghue was as dark as could live with the censors. _The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist,_ a cartoon parody of fifties’ men’s magazine misogyny, had to be published in _Evergreen_ magazine. No standard magazine could have touched it. Southern was darker than that and much more political. And he got into fights with everyone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/humor-satire-of-the-1950s-and-1960s/1009348.md?page=3)