Comments on: Art Buchwald Couldn't Make This Man Laugh

CBSNews.com Exclusive: Famed Columnist's FBI File Shows J. Edgar Hoover Was No Fan

[hermitdave]

WOW--so the old queen in the red dress didn''t have a sense of humor. I wonder if his lover Clyde thought Buchwald was funny.

[johnnyzmee]

Humor is in the eye of the beholder. I liked Buchwald, but I never Loved Lucy.

Political humor has come a long way. A free press, and Freedom of Speech are the bedrock of our nation, but in Buchwalds time there was a taboo about criticizing a sitting president. There was a line that couldn''t be crossed.

JFK started to break that ice as he invoked self depreciating humor. Nixon was a regression in that respect.

And now, the annual white house roast tells us it''s ok to poke fun at our country and president, and still be patriotic.

But, I see a regression on the horizon. One of the current campaigns is waging a war against criticism of their candidate. Any critic is charged with ______.

If you can fill in that blank, you know it to be true.

Centralized dictatorships make a priority of controlling discourse. That is a road we do not want to revisit. Criticism, like humor, is in the eye of the beholder. But, in this country, any attempt to stifle it, is unpatriotic.

[yongamerica]

Makes you wonder how many pages they have on you for making postings on-line, now don''''t it?
Posted by Nancy_Naive

Perhaps its just you and your paranoia that needs to fret.

[zykracosmos]

For those of you mourning Buchwald, I invite you to a nightly dose of satire with Steven Colbert (pick you time- 8:30pm or 11:30pm) on Comedy Central. He is number 1 today for folks with an intelligent sense of humor. I''ll leave Joe (below) with his "son of a gun" humor (hyuck hyuck).

[bogusbones]

the problem with our government is that we''re so paranoid. to allow a pudgy, bespecatled humorist to cause our government''s spy agency to worry is amazing. i can''t understand why the gorilla has to worry about the gnat. and our iherent paranoia continues. look out everyone, the iranian army is steaming directy to new york harbor. give me a freaking break.

[taddles3]

"He wasn''''t funny.

Posted by joe1022joe at 11:26 AM : Jun 25, 2008"


Good thing there are so many lefties with his kind of sense of humor that kept him contentedly in business for 60 years. I''m sure if he wrote bathroom humor or wrote in crayon you might have found him more humorous.

[missingamerica]

Makes you wonder how many pages they have on you for making postings on-line, now don''''t it?

Regards,

Posted by Nancy_Naive at 12:12 PM : Jun 25, 2008


lollll...methinks everybody should probably record everything they say themselves, because when you have people like Bush and Cheney - who have been known to hire people like Gonzo, and who want to make the Telcos immune from prosecution for anything that they do that this Administration has asked them to do - in charge, you probably should worry about them ad-libbing some stuff into any "recordings" they may have if what you have said isn''t QUITE enough to sic the dawgs on ya...

[zorar-2009]

Edgar in his cross dressing outfits would make anybody laugh!

[gangesdak]

It is rumored that Hoover was a Soviet mole who used to cross dress to hide his identity. But he used to frequently forget his Soviet identity, and used Soviet techniques to expose the enemies of the state.

[homespunlady]

Satire takes a certain sense of humor to appreciate it. Satire may be the Child of Irony and frustration.

We need MORE satire, not less when power becomes too pompous and oppressive.
It''s much harder to dehumanize, torture or kill a person if you have shared a laugh or personal insight.

BRAVO for the Art Buchwalds and Jonathan Swifts of the world. May they always exist to poke holes in overinflated egos.

[joe1022joe]

Art Buchwald''s writing wasn''t funny. It may have been many things such as 1) a vent for the political left wing, 2) a paycheck for Mr. Buchwald, etc. But funny it was not. Now Erma Bombeck''s column was funny. Also try Lewis Grizzard''s column. His book "My Daddy Was A Pistol and I''m a Son of a Gun" is hilarious. Sadly these two writers are dead. The political affinity of the media left wing kept Buchwald''s column alive. He wasn''t funny.

[magoo2u1]

"The rumors of J. Edgar Hoover being a sexual deviant and/or cross dresser are certainly entertaining... but without so much as an iota of fact behind them."

True. He is the victim of the sort of rumor campaign the FBI invented. There was no dress in his closet. A disgruntled ex-driver said it once to 1 reporter. It grew from there........

[cfin5]

I suppose Mr. Hoover being in the job that he was in pretty much kills any levity of heart knowing what really goes on. Nothing funny about crime. I would think that after awhile in that public service branch, or like it, you begin to see connections in the direction of a mans ways unto what he will/might do in the future. I don''t blame Mr. Hoover in this because to me it says he was serious about his job. And for someone to constantly use their freedom of speech to berate ones job to protect that right to begin with would get to be old stuff after awhile. There''s a time and place for a joke in good taste now and then, just not all the time. I think Mr. Hoover was a great American. Perfect? Probably not, but who is anyway even when they try real hard?

[gangesdak]

Freedom of Speech and Land of the Free melt away quickly when the national psyche degenerates into panic. Land of the Brave is really populated by mousy people. Japanese Americans, perceived communists (includes people from any profession) have their tales to tell. Hoover, Geaorge W understood how insecure we Americans really are. Today other countries found our underbelly.

[czmdm]

Must be even harder to laugh now that Hoover is rotting in hell.

[babooph]

I myself got a laugh out of the propaganda system not showing the irony of a ww1 draft evader hunting down Nam evaders-the gay cop coverup by the propaganda system is great too.Almost as good as Stroms black child "that all knew of",but never on the news.

[Gary Kempf]

J. Edgar Hoover, America''s poster child of Anal.

[talkingham]

He was too busy dressing in women''s clothing and looking at pictures of the Kennedy''s with pretty women and too busy googling his assistant director to laugh.

[missingamerica]

Should be easy for every American to believe the level of paranoia and distrust that Hoover possessed...after all, they only have to remember recent Republican heroes who have had statues clothed more modestly...

And take that into consideration when they consider the FISA act.

[ianlou]

J. Edgar Hoover gave Cross-Dressing a bad name.

If Hoover''s legacy is well respected than the term "Hoover-boy" should be blessed, not discouraged by the FBI.