General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYou're not going to believe this. The FIRST Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award, in 1968
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Hard to imagine this kind of commentary slipping onto network programming today.
Maeve
(42,224 posts)napkinz
(17,199 posts)Greybnk48
(10,148 posts)WTF!
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)UtahLib
(3,179 posts)lark
(23,003 posts)Them and the Smothers Brothers were on those years, two of the brightest, funniest and most left wing shows to every be shown on the TV screen. How I miss those days.
elljay
(1,178 posts)CBS started censoring them over the '68 Democratic Convention and the antiwar movement.
I never missed a show. Was a big fan of Pat Paulsen, the Stag Party candidate, who made the following political statement:
"When asked if he believed in the right to bear arms: "No, I believe in the right to arm bears."" I cannot agree more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smothers_Brothers#Controversies_and_cancellation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Paulsen
Pluvious
(4,277 posts)... they got Nixon to appear on the show.
Bush Jr. never would have had the courage.
rdmtimp
(1,577 posts)... was a pal of Nixon and even wrote speeches for him. That's how they got him on there.
Lorne Michaels was on the writing staff of Laugh-In for a spell and said he could never get a Nixon joke on the air.
Pluvious
(4,277 posts)That makes more sense now.
Amazing how much courage has been exhibited by some comedians, they truly are our unsung heroes.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)We have John Oliver's sunday night show, and Samantha Bee's weekly show, and Colbert skewers the skewable on his late night show.
Best of all, they can be seen any time on YouTube.
Oh..I forgot about SNL, of course.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Larry Wilmore, Bill Maher, John Oliver, Trevor Noah--they're all button pushing.
We don't have a 'wacky variety format' because Variety Television is out of fashion right now...but political commentary is still "in."
mountain grammy
(26,568 posts)Loved that show! Congress is much worse now!
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)Almost as if someone from the early 21st century went back in time and became one of the writers.
Just look at this:
napkinz
(17,199 posts)meow2u3
(24,743 posts)and present the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate to the 114th Congress for utter obstruction and willful inaction.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)Hekate
(90,189 posts)Damn they were good.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)allan01
(1,950 posts)barbtries
(28,702 posts)there were only 200 million Americans then!?
yep. looked it up. 200.7 million, compared to over 324 million today
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)too many damn people.
Quasimodem
(441 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)and saw that all the stupid people were breeding.
The cretins cloning and feeding.....
suffragette
(12,232 posts)Sadly so, in this case.
Grassy Knoll
(10,118 posts)Good Find, Sad Then As Well.
Thanks
brer cat
(24,401 posts)What a great find, nolabear!! I loved those guys and the Smothers Bros.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)Straw Man
(6,613 posts)The 1968 bill ultimately did pass. And ...
--https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-nras-true-believers-converted-a-marksmanship-group-into-a-mighty-gun-lobby/2013/01/12/51c62288-59b9-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html
chknltl
(10,558 posts)On his show today, in an interview with Congressman Pocan where they discussed last night's 'sit-in', fellow DUer Thom Hartmann pointed out this OP.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)I wish we had a FFFF smilie!
chknltl
(10,558 posts)Other than posted videos, Thom rarely interacts here but he often cites stuff stuff he reads here. He did not mention you by name but he did say he watched the video on DU.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)greiner3
(5,214 posts)underpants
(182,273 posts)annabanana
(52,791 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,061 posts)Also the Smothers Brothers Show.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)lives on in my memories, but not on cable re-runs.
At least, not the anti-establishment part that was on display on tv as well as everywhere else.
Another generation, another round of establishment suppression.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)It was a great program!
nolabear
(41,915 posts)Things like The Daily Show are great but skit comedy and political music and such is inspiring and I think really helps us realize we're not alone.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)that show was her initial venture into entertainment and she was great playing the ditzy, bubble headed cute girl. She was hysterically funny and those who are too young to have seen that show have missed how great she and all the other characters were.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)LOL! I have always said that he couldn't figure out why people made fun of Archie Bunker.
Hoppy
(3,595 posts)The other characters were in on the change of the script but she would be there with a befuddled look. Getting that look was a goal of the director.
MADem
(135,425 posts)time at all.
Judy Carne didn't have such sanguine memories of the experience. She used to be beaten on the show every time someone said "Sock it to me."
She didn't like it very much. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/08/the-tragic-tale-of-judy-carne-sock-it-to-me-girl-of-laugh-in-dead-at-76/
The joke now seems as cruel and as difficult to explain to millennials as it seemed hilarious in the 1960s: A young, lithe woman, often in a miniskirt or less, stands onstage. She announces that its sock-it-to-me time. Then, she is hit with a bucket of water, or dropped through the floor, or otherwise clobbered in some form or fashion. Sure, Richard Nixon famously said the words but he didnt have his clothes ripped off.
Sock it to me: Television runs on catchphrases consider the instant memories sparked by De plane! or What you talkin bout, Willis? but none seem as strange four decades later as the four words routinely uttered by actress Judy Carne on Rowan & Martins Laugh-In. And now that Carne, who died at 76 last week reportedly of pneumonia, is gone, her derailed career and tragic life can have no other epitaph.
Born Joyce Audrey Botterill to a grocery-store owner in England in 1939, Carnes training at the Bush Davies Theatrical School for Girls led to a spate of appearances on British television, as Variety reported. Her resume stateside was bolstered by appearances on such 60s staples such as Gidget, I Dream of Jeannie and The Patty Duke Show, culminating in a starring role on the little-remembered Love on a Rooftop, (1966) which was canceled after one season.
Then, it was sock-it-to-me time: Laugh-In hit the airwaves in 1968. A representative exchange with the smirking Dan Rowan and Dick Martin.
Carne: All right, fellas. Its about that time. Let me have it. Im ready.
Martin: Cmon, Judy, open your eyes. Theres no sock it to me anymore!
Carne: There isnt? You wouldnt lead me on, would you?
Rowan: Why, of course not. Just once, fellas, lets spare our blameless moppet from these unending indignities to which, Judy, I must say you have displayed amazing fortitude and endurance. You have held in there no matter what theyve done to you. Youve taken it all, never a whimper.
Carne: Dan, thats really sweet of you. But the audience is getting bored.
(Carne is hit by a board.)
Carne: Well, at least it wasnt water.
(Carne is hit with a bucket of water.)
Carne: I get it all now. It was all just a trap, wasnt it?
(Carne is dropped through the floor.)
After a few decades, this didnt seem funny anymore......
lunatica
(53,410 posts)which I agree with but I was talking about Goldie Hawn who used it as a springboard to have a great career as a unique comedienne.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Every now and again I come across an old movie with actors in it who are now famous, but at the time were just starting out--sometimes, those scripts are just hideous. Ya gotta eat, so you take whatever work you can get!
It's interesting to see how really talented actors handle a shit script!
CRH
(1,553 posts)of Rowan and Martin and the whole laughin' cast.
Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)Details, details...
skylucy
(3,734 posts)have changed.
raven mad
(4,940 posts)I'd just started high school.............. when it was 9, 10, 11, and 12 grades. I was 13.
Todays_Illusion
(1,209 posts)ThoughtCriminal
(14,010 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... we thought they'd never end." And actually, they didn't. Congrats on getting mentioned by Thom Hartmann!
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)burrowowl
(17,606 posts)When America was not as brainwashed as today!
Dustlawyer
(10,493 posts)The FCC wasn't bought off yet.
Now they are nothing but propaganda crafted by psychologist to manipulate the rest of us. How much time do they devote to Climate Change, zero. How much time do they talk about the arms manufacturers lobby, zero. They only mention the NRA who takes all of the heat.
We are seeing clear evidence in the power the Lobbyiests weld in Congress right now. The Republicans cannot hold a vote even though we have had all of these sad tragedies and over 90% of us want some gun regulation.
What do we expect when we allow them to legally bribe our Representatives? Remember a few years ago there was a stink when it came out that Congress had carved an exception that allows them to receive stock tips that would be classified as insider trading? They took that right away from themselves and quietly gave it back 6 months later. Yet another way Wall Street owns them!
TheBlackAdder
(28,073 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)so I could remember all of the jokes. Back then recording from television was considered to be the act of a crazy person. Recording television became much more popular later on. Craig reel to reel tape.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)I was shocked out of my shoes a few years ago when I heard an audio recording of a special on Simon and Garfunkel that I'd carefully recorded too and listened to over and over. It's not just us.
malthaussen
(17,065 posts)Duval
(4,280 posts)Thanks nolabear.
struggle4progress
(118,039 posts)nolabear
(41,915 posts)Pat Paulson creeped me out big time.
Different Drummer
(7,528 posts)Crunchy Frog
(26,548 posts)It's time for the reign of terror to end.
SunSeeker
(51,367 posts)benld74
(9,888 posts)My parents thought it disgusting of course.
Made fun of everything and everyone who deserved it.
Ahead of their time.