The Political Joke’s on Them : As This Year’s Candidates Are Learning, Humor Can Make or Break an Image in Voters’ Minds

It was Friday night in the LA Cabaret in Encino and 50 people had paid good money to laugh at the republic.

“Washington satirist Mark Russell says there’s not enough caffeine in the country to keep us awake if it’s Bush vs. Dukakis,” comedian Carl Wolfson told the audience.

“That’s why I like Jesse Jackson. You know, Michael’s brother.

“Recently, he was asked if the war on poverty was over,” Wolfson added.

“ ‘Yes,’ Jackson said. ‘And the poor lost.’ ”

Presidential primaries always have marked a special season for political humorists. But in this year’s campaign, comedians are often finding themselves competing for the limelight with candidates equally adept at delivering bite-size one-liners.

Leading the pack with quips is Jackson, who established his foreign policy credentials last December when he dryly noted that only one other presidential hopeful had met with more heads of state.

“If you count the dead ones, George Bush has met with more,” Jackson said, referring to the number of funerals to which vice presidents are dispatched.

Albert Gore’s absence from Iowa did not go unnoticed by Bruce Babbitt.

“You’ve been missing so long I thought they might put your picture on milk cartons,” the former Arizona governor said when the Tennessee senator finally appeared at a Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses.

When it came to his Southern roots, however, Gore was more sanguine. When Jackson prefaced a question to him in the Democrats’ first nationally televised debate with “since I’m the Southern candidate,” Gore quickly responded, “South Chicago,” earning a laugh from the Washington audience and a handshake from Jackson.

After George Bush’s disastrous third-place showing in Iowa, his staff worked to counter his wimpish image and wrote an introductory joke that drew applause from young New Hampshire voters.

“A recent poll tells why the people of New Hampshire are supporting George Bush,” the vice president began. “Forty percent like my foreign policy. Forty percent support my economic policy. And 20% believe I make a good premium beer.”

Political campaign humor has become so valuable that its cognitive affect on voters is being studied by James R. Beniger, a professor of communications and sociology at USC’s Annenberg School of Communications.

Aided by two graduate students, Beniger is surveying caucus and primary states for jokes, slogans, commercials and cartoons--anything that might explain how public and underground humor influences political images and voter attitudes.

Already they have concluded that the major topic among American voters in 1987 was not protectionism or the deficit, but the sexual escapades of Gary Hart.

Based on his research, Beniger believes humor often can become more important than reality.

“Gerald Ford was a scholar athlete, but voters considered him clumsy,” he says. “George Bush was a Yale first baseman, fighter pilot and CIA director. In both cases, however, humor left an indelible image.”

In the case of political unknowns, the Annenberg researchers found that one sarcastic jibe, if properly timed, can forever establish an image.

Plagiarism Jokes Spelled Doom

“Joe Biden’s presidential campaign collapsed the moment the plagiarism jokes began,” Beniger says. “Ted Kennedy survived similar revelations because his public image already was established. Since they didn’t know Biden, Americans just dropped plagiarist into that cognitive slot.”

At the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington last month Biden, recovering from recent brain surgery, was not mentioned. The recipient of most of barbs was George Bush.

After George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger expressed opposition to Iran arms sales “at the crucial Iran-Contra meeting,” New York Gov. Mario Cuomo recounted with a wink, “the President turned to Bush and asked, ‘Do you have anything to add?’ Bush said, ‘Excuse me--Who gets the tuna and who gets the ham and cheese?’ ”

Even Reagan found time later that evening to tweak his absent vice president.

“His 18-wheeler broke down on the highway,” Reagan jokingly surmised.

Easy to Make, Remake Image

Humor is also the most economical way to recast an image.

John F. Kennedy used humor effectively in 1960 to counter the notion that he was nothing more than a millionaire’s son. His father, Kennedy confessed repeatedly, had sent him a telegram: “Don’t buy one vote more than necessary. I’ll be damned if I’ll pay for a landslide.”

In 1984, Reagan’s only problem was the perception that he might be too old for a second term. In his initial debate with Walter Mondale, he appeared confused and forgetful. But there was no hesitation in the second meeting when he was asked if he was up to another four years.

“I’m not going to make age an issue in this campaign,” Reagan replied. “I’m not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

For professional campaign managers, modern political humor is no laughing matter. Amusing sound bites boiled down to five seconds and funny asides carefully scripted in advance are valuable commodities that can mean the difference between media exposure and political eclipse.

Campaign Fell Apart

“The candidate who can laugh at his environment usually wins because he appears more stable to the voter,” says Paul Wilson, a Washington consultant working for 15 Republican congressional candidates.

“Bob Dole’s campaign fell apart when he stopped being funny. Once he fell victim to his dark side, people remembered that Dole was the guy they felt uncomfortable with (when he ran for vice president) back in 1976.”

Campaign professionals agree that the champion of political humor is Ronald Reagan.

“When Reagan tells a joke, it’s as if he and the audience are having a private laugh together,” says humorist Robert Orben, who edits Orben’s Current Comedy, a biweekly compendium of political gags. He refers to the current crop of presidential candidates as “the stone faces.”

A political consultant and former White House staffer, Orben spent most of the Ford presidency, in which he was director of speech writing, trying to bury Lyndon Johnson’s assessment that Ford couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time because he had played football without a helmet.

“We finally decided the only way to counter humor was with more humor,” he remembers. “When the President was invited back to his alma mater he began his speech by saying, ‘It’s a great honor to be at Yale Law School’s Sesquicentennial Convocation. I defy anyone to say that and chew gum at the same time.’ ”

Jackson May Escape Jokes

Professional comedians doubt that Jesse Jackson will ever become a major subject for spoofing.

“People will laugh at their own fears of a black president, but not at a black president joke,” said comedian Argus Hamilton. “Jackson’s embrace of Castro and Arafat, and his (falsely) claiming that Martin Luther King died in his arms may lend themselves to humor, but I don’t think the public wants to hear those kind of jokes yet.”

Hamilton, a 36-year-old Oklahoman billed as “the Will Rogers of the Baby Boom” and known as one of the foremost topical comedians in the West, nonetheless does have a line on Jackson.

“Just yesterday the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gave him a star on the boulevard. Right in front of those awarded Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi.

Racist Punch Line

“It’s only fair.” Hamilton paused dramatically. “Since Michigan, Jesse’s scared more white people than the two of them put together.

“And then there’s George Bush,” Hamilton added. “I saw a bumper sticker a couple of days ago that, for me, sums up the entire mediocre field. ‘He’s tanned. He’s fit. He’s rested,’ it read. ‘Nixon in ’88.’ ”

Beninger is careful to point out that political humor often has nothing to do with reality. But jokes have become such an effective form of communication that consultants like Washington-based Gary Nordlinger, handling 12 congressional hopefuls, two state referendums and a mayoral candidate, believe they will remain a permanent part of the political landscape.

“Humor is a wonderful tool that allows access to a voter’s emotions,” Nordlinger says. “Especially when you go negative, you can get your point across without the acerbic sting.”