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