And you’re referring to Paulsen’s 1968 presidential campaign?
Yep. Used to see him on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In when I was a kid. I didn’t know from the elections, but I remember ‘Pat Paulsen for President’ stuff.
Wow. That goes back even farther (Laugh-In debuted in 1967).
I was 13 in 1968, and figure that was the minimum age needed to get the humor of his running for president.
Pat Paulsen actually kept doing the campaigns from 1968 until 1996 (he died in 1997 from cancer) and he’d run comedy specials about it, so you don’t need to be 60 to have encountered him ‘live’. He was much more obscure by the end, though.
It’s a different kind of flying altogether.
But seriously, while a character like Johnny might get a raised eyebrow today, it’s important to note that he was there to say absurd things and mock the other characters - he makes jokes, but wasn’t the butt of jokes. His exaggerated mannerisms are played for laughs, but no one treats him like he’s inferior to the manly men in the cast, or shows any sign of treating him like someone who doesn’t belong. From one article I read:
I somehow or other don’t remember those. Of course, I haven’t lived in the US for almost 30 years now. And before that, I really didn’t care much about any political campaign. I had much more important concerns.
It’s a different kind of flying.
Nitpick:
“Send them to me,” Sales said, “and I’ll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico.”
Shame that this one incident is all people remember of him, but it’s better than nothing. My millennial kids have heard this story.
I also told her the “This is for Pookie, this is for Hippie, this is for White Fang, this is for Black Tooth, and THIS is for THE SPONSOR!” story. Then we watched some clips from his syndicated show on YouTube. I used to watch that every weekday after school when I was in fifth and sixth grade. I especially remember the episode where he opened the door to the office and was surprised by a stripper dancing on the other side.
I had a book full of his musings when I was in sixth grade. Most of them would go over the heads of kids nowadays. About the only one I can think of off the top of my head is “If your bicuits look pink, maybe you’re cruller blind!”
5 Guys In A Limo puts them all together.
Nick Tate? NICK TATE? Alan Carter did VO work?
According to Wikipedia, Stephen Stucker wrote Johnny’s dialogue.
Lots of funny Carson bits floating around Youtube.
This afternoon, I watched the first “dream” episode of Gilligan’s Island (in B&W). The dream was a parody of Gunsmoke with Gilligan as Marshall Dillon, the Skipper as Chester (the role that made Dennis Weaver famous), and Ginger as Miss Kitty.
Forget the series itself; you have to be at least in your 60s to recognize the relevance of those characters.
Our generation had the advantage of exposure to almost everything that had ever been on TV. There were obscure shows of the late 40s and early 50s that I never saw, but still heard of some of them. A;; the best were known throughout the culture of the time. There just wasn’t that much TV programming until the age of cable. Here in the 21st century there’s just too much content to know about or see that percentage of all the available shows.
Won’t be long before this joke will need explaining too.
Was Pat Paulsen ever on Laugh-In? I remember him from the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. I even sent away for a copy of one of his “editorials,” just to see if they would send one. They did, in a Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour envelope. I still have it.
My favorite Pat Paulsen joke remains “We’re upping our standards, so up yours!”
Which hasn’t really dated at all.
2 Girls 1 Cup is a meme that was literally EVERYWHERE despite being incredibly NSFW (to the point network sitcoms referenced it) and there’s multiple major podcasts using the 2 (people) 1 (object) naming convention and yet there probably a giant majority of people who need this 10 year old reference explained to them.
Somewhat similarly, I recall a joke from when Prince Charles married Lady Diana:
“Up Chuck and Di!”
Superficially, “cheers for Chuck and Di,” but it would come out as “upchuck and die.” Now, with Charles and Diana divorced, and Diana dead for 23 years, and Charles remarried, the joke makes little sense.