The Black Republican

I suspect that knowledge of the existence of a comedy magazine/group called National Lampoon is a generational thing, and I am of the generation that was buying the rag. More often I bought their comedy albums, it was my aural period, in those years reading took too much effort, to tell the truth.

the magazine quickly grew in popularity during the 1970s, when it regularly skewered pop culture, the counterculture and politics with recklessness and gleeful bad taste.

An example of the bad taste is the song from their off-broadway production, Lemmings which included one song that would not be permitted today. In fact, it has been stricken from the recordings of that shows soundtrack. A commenter to the Amazon site linked above says;

But VERY DISAPPOINTINGLY omitted from this CD is the Joan Baez spoof PULL THE TRIGGERS _IGGERS("Pull the triggers, _iggers- we're with you all the way... right across the bay..."). As offensive and politcally uncorrect as the song is in its brevity, it's hysterically funny- and I'm bewildered why National Lampoon would edit the song out of this revue. Anyone know why?

Yes, "Trampyre", they took it out because this nation no longer finds anything funny in the use of that word. Sure, in some circles it is still permitted language, but only in the crude parts of society, not in polite company, and especially not on terrestrial radio. Now they spell it differently, and claim that it has a different definition if spoken by a certain clique too. And, besides, who among us would find it ironic to have a white peace activist sing as though she were a black militant? Not me. It really wasn't ever funny, though I am sure that I laughed uncomfortably back then, just shocking. And, as Don Imus can attest, shock as a form of entertainment (and revelation about where we are as people) is no longer protected by the first amendment.

I wonder if this spoof would make it today?

The caption says, "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkwagon he'd be President today".

Anyway, the next time you hear Joe Biden ask how many shock jocks we had in this country in the seventies you can answer that he has asked the wrong question. The question is, how many shock jocks were we training in the seventies?

Of course, the answer is unimportant really, for we all know that it isn't what is said, it is who it is said about. So, we know that the VW ad would be in trouble, it mocks one of the untouchables.