When I was in college back in the 1990s, I like so many other students began getting my political commentary Monday through Thursday nights on Comedy Central with The Daily Show with John Stewart. While the show was not an official news show and Stewart, who had graduated from the same university a decade before, never claimed to be a legitimate news anchor, his brand of humor and take on politics was appealing.
In fact, for the 2004 presidential election, male viewers between 18-34 got their news more from The Daily Show than any other news program. Considering this was a comedy show that is both funny and sad.
But The Daily Show was not the first to satirize the news.
Starting in 1975, those “not ready for primetime players” roasted politicians every weekend on Saturday Night Live. Their political mocking was so popular that today, if you pay attention, when people impersonate George W. Bush, they are not actually doing Bush, but instead impersonating Will Ferrell doing Bush. While shows like SNL and The Daily Show have been called groundbreaking, they are not.
They are standing on the shoulders of two brothers who came be-fore them.
While not as famous today, the show that really kicked off political satire was The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Last month, half of the duo, Tommy Smothers died of cancer at the age of 86, but his legacy lives on in the many political shows that have aired in the decades since.
The Smothers Brothers began its run in 1967, a turbulent year. Vietnam was ramping up and that year saw over 10,000 killed as thousands took the streets to protest the war. Race riots occurred in several major cities all summer long and hippies flocked to San Francisco for the Summer of Love.
During all this, two new shows began, The Carol Burnett Show and The Smothers Brothers. Both shows put audiences in stiches from their comedy. While The Carol Burnett Show lasted for 11 seasons, due its controversial content, The Smothers Brothers was canceled after only three years.
Seeing them as controversial might be confusing as the brothers were clean cut and wore suits in a time where most protesters were hippies with long hair and beads. It was a sketch comedy show with plenty of music as the brothers were a folk musical act with Tommy playing the guitar and Dick playing the standup bass. While they were skilled musicians, it was their lyrics and commentary between the songs that got them in hot water with censors and their network.
Most of their work was subtle with lyrics that had different meanings and jokes that were cute. For example, “Tom: You can tell who’s running the country by how much clothes people wear? Dick: Do you mean that some people can afford more clothes on, and some people have… less on? Is that what you mean? Tom: That’s right. Dick: I don’t understand. Tom: See, the ordinary people, you’d say that the ordinary people are the less- ons. Dick: So who’s running the country? Tom: The morons.”
Yet at other times they lost their subtilty such as with jokes like, “Dick: It’s a very difficult situation. People keep spending our money abroad and it’s hurting our economy. People keep wanting to travel to other countries instead of staying in the good ol’ United States. Tom: Yeah, well, the way I think is that, see, President Johnson should just come up with something positive as an inducement to keep the people here. Dick: But what could the president do to make people want to stay in this country? Tom: Well, he could quit.”
Their biggest target was the Vietnam War which they sang about in songs like the Draft Dodger Rag. The chorus went like, “Sarge, I’m only 18, I got a ruptured spleen, And I always carry a purse, I’ve got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat, My asthma’s getting worse.” The song went one for several more verses just the same.
Finally, President Johnson had had enough, especially after a skit where it turned out that Johnson’s BBQ sauce was years behind the Russians secret BBQ sauce. Johnson began demanding the show be pulled from the air. When the network told the brothers to calm it down, they vamped it up instead. They brought on singers like Pete Seeger and Harry Belafonte who both sang strong antiwar songs. The network cut Seeger’s song and replaced with a Nixon for President ad instead, infuriating the brothers.
With the election of Nixon, the show did not last long. The brothers promised to take it easy on the president- elect, but then did not live up to their promise.
Only three months into Nixon’s term, the show was canceled.
The network claimed Tommy did not get that week’s show to the censors in time. The brothers claimed it was Nixon. While the show would be considered tame today, it was one of the first to call out politicians and it became an early victim of cancel culture. However, the Smothers Brothers did set the stage for programs like SNL which came out six years later.
The later time slot helped SNL, but the Smothers Brothers had broken down some of the barriers that allowed SNL and later programs to thrive. Even more, the brothers did it with class. Their jokes were funny and not crude making them suitable for an entire family to watch together. Tommy Smothers’ humor should be remembered alongside some of the greats in entertainment and his show deserves to rank up there with the most groundbreaking of all time.
James Finck is a professor of history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He may be reached at HistoricallySpeakingl 776@gmail.com.
