This cartoon keeps popping into my mind. It’s 30 years out of date, and has no bearing on anything. It was in Playboy magazine. (Yes, children could find porn before the Internet. )
Richard Nixon, in his traditional five o’clock shadow (heavier than in IRL, natch) is dressed in “hippy garb”: A paisley shirt, a leather vest, and a headband. He’s holding a guitar.
The caption (paraphrased): “People say I’m pandering to the younger generation in order to gain support for voting rights for 18-year-olds. That’s not true, as I’ll explain in this song.”
My favorite from that era was simply a picture of the Presidential Seal with a quote from Nixon beneath it that began “Those who come holding an olive branch of peace in one hand and weapons in the other. . . .”
I’ve been thinking about Nixon a lot lately. He WAS Big Brother personified, and as president during my adolescence (from about age 10-16) I had a lot of anger and frustration to use up on him.
My favorite Nixon-era political cartoon (by Pat Oliphaunt) had Nixon on top of a gigantic crate, labeled “INFLATION”, with a mouth full of nails, hammering the lid down furiously. The monster inside has just stood up, so that the top and sides of the crate have separated from the bottom. All you can see of the beast is its four hairy legs and clawed feet.
The look on Nixon’s face is priceless. The little bird in the corner (an Oliphaunt trademark) is calling offscreen for “More Nails!”
I remember the Gary Troudeau cartoons of the time, especially the wall being built around the White House, brick by brick, day after day. And was it Zonker or Mark? who broadcast over the college radio station, “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!” about John Mitchell.
I remember one from Hustler back in the early 80s when I was about 8 or 9. Although it was really a live action political cartoon. It showed a naked woman on her hands and knees with Lebanon written on her side. A guy dressed up as the Prime Minister of Israel I presume was entering her from behind and a guy dressed up as Arafat was in her mouth. The caption read “I’ll pull out when you do.”
Sorry. It was “Marvelous” Mark Slackmeyer in his role as dj and newsreader for radio station WBBY. He even made the cover of the 1974 book titled Guilty, Guilty, Guilty!.
The one I liked best was a joke, not a cartoon (though also in Playboy,) in 1972 or so. A guy goes into a coma in 1958 (when Nixon is Vice President). He wakes up in 1972 and immediately asks “How is Eisenhower?” He is gravely informed that Eisenhower is dead.
“Oh, my god!” he cries in horror. “That means Nixon is president!”