Revel With a Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America

589 Pages·2006·2.809 MB·English

by  Kercher, Stephen E

REVEL WITH A CAUSE

REVEL WITH A CAUSE
LIBERAL SATIRE IN POSTWAR AMERICA
Stephen E. Kercher
The University of Chicago Press Chicago &London
stephen e. kercheris assistant professor of history at the
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2006 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2006
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 1 2 3 4 5
isbn:0-226-43164-9 (cloth)
Aportion of chapter 6 was published as “‘We Hope You Like Us,
Jack’: The Kennedy-Era Satire of Victor Navasky’s Monocleand
Outsider’s Newsletter” in Studies in American HumorNew Series 3
(Winter 2001): 36–48.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kercher, Stephen E.
Revel with a cause : liberal satire in postwar America /
Stephen E. Kercher.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-226-43164-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Satire, American—History and criticism. 2. Politics and
literature—United States—History—20th century. 3. American
literature—20th century—History and criticism. 4. Liberal-
ism—United States—History—20th century. 5. Liberalism in
literature. I. Title.
ps438.k47-2006
817(cid:2).5409358—dc22 2005030535
(cid:2)(cid:3) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re-
quirements of the American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ansiz39.48-1992.
to marley

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Liberal Satire in Postwar America 1
part one: the positive uses of humor
1 Bill Mauldin and the Politics of Postwar American Satire 15
2 “We Shall Meet the Enemy”: Herbert Block, Robert Osborn,
Walt Kelly, and Liberal Cartoonists’ “Weapon of Wit” 33
part two: the cleansing lash of laughter
3 Comic Revenge: Parodic Revelry and “Sick” Humor in the 1950s
Satiric Underground 77
4 “Truth Grinning in a Solemn, Canting World”: Liberal Satire’s
Masculine, “Sociologically Oriented and Psychically Adjusted”
Critique 119
5 Spontaneous Irony: The Second City, the Premise, and Early
Sixties Satiric Cabaret and Revue 161
part three: the politics of laughter
6 “We Hope You Like Us, Jack”: Liberal Political Satire, 1958–63 193
7 “Are There Any Groups Here I Haven’t Offended Yet?”: Liberal
Satire Takes a Stand 239
8 “Well-Aimed Ridicule”: Satirizing American Race Relations 269
9 Mocking Dr. Strangelove; or, How American Satirists Flayed
the Cold War, the Bomb, and American Foreign Policy in
Southeast Asia 299
part four: the limits of irreverence
10 “Sophisticated Daring” and Political Cowardice: Television
Satire and NBC’s That Was the Week That Was 345
11 Satire That Would “Gag a Goat”: Crossing the Line with Paul
Krassner and Lenny Bruce 389
Conclusion: Liberal Satire’s Last Laughs 425
Notes 447
Selected Discography and Bibliography 543
Index 555
Acknowledgments
The preparation of this book would not have been possible without the
support of many people and institutions. Generous financial support sus-
tained this project from its inception. While research grants and fellow-
ships from the Graduate School, College of Arts and Sciences, and
Department of History at Indiana University supported early stages
of my research, a Faculty Development Grant from the University of
Wisconsin-Oshkosh proved invaluable for the final preparation of the
manuscript. I am particularly indebted to the Swann Foundation for
Caricature and Cartoon and the Prints and Photographs Division of the
Library of Congress, whose generous support assisted this project at a
critical stage of its development.
While working on this project I have been assisted by many helpful
archivists and librarians. I am indebted to Sara Duke and Harry Katz of
the Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs Division, Lucy Caswell
of Ohio State University’s Cartoon Research Library, Randall Scott of
Michigan State University’s Comic Art Collection, and Mary Ellen Rogan
of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. At Bowling
Green State University I benefited from the expertise of Bill Schurk at
the Music Library and Sound Recordings Archives and Allison Scott at
the Popular Culture Library. I also wish to thank the librarians and staffs
of the Special Collections at the University of Michigan Library, the Spe-
cial Collections and Vincent Voice Libraries at Michigan State University,
the Manuscript and the Motion Picture and Television Divisions of the
Library of Congress, Yale University Library’s Beinecke Collection, the