Humor, Sex, and Power in American Society

According to Alan King, former President Richard Nixon freely admits that his election efforts were hurt by the widespread cynical joke, “Would you buy a used car from this man?” It certainly did not help in his effort to win, and in fact, he lost the election in 1960 to John Kennedy. Some years later it was not surprising, therefore, to find comic Alan King in the prognosticator role again when he warned Americans about Spiro Agnew with “Beware of Greeks accepting gifts.” This comment was made a full one and a half years before former Vice President Agnew had to resign his office under fire, a first in American history. Political humor had come of age in America.

The dramatic upsurge in comedy, seen in the huge explosion of interest by the public in comedy performances as well as in the vastly proliferating numbers of young comics and comedy showcase theaters, points to a phenomenon rife with psychosocial implications. Continual world crises from World War II, the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, the Middle East, and Korea in 1976, and, on the domestic grounds, the incredibly demoralizing aspects of the Watergate affair, have left Americans feeling very vulnerable and impotent, and thus have given rise to the political comedian. Indeed, with the image of former President Nixon tarnished beyond repair-having lived up to the “Tricky Dicky” appellation of the 1960s-and with the image of President Ford as the do-nothing bumbling buffoon, the American public has experienced a severe crisis of loss of confidence. No longer can, or do, Americans sit back with a sense of ease that their elected representatives will competently manage the affairs of state for them. In addition, the recent rash of sex scandals involving Representatives Hayes, Mills, Albert, Howe, Leggett, Wagonner, Grey, and numerous others-and the revelation that their female partners have been forced into sex roles and been paid salaries for such out of government funds-has eroded moral confid