Patrick Layton Paulsen (July 6, 1927 – April 24, 1997) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain members of an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and
satiristSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
notable for his roles on several of the
Smothers BrothersThe Smothers Brothers are an American music-and-comedy team, consisting of the brothers Tom and Dick Smothers. The brothers' trademark act was performing folk songs , which usually led to arguments between the siblings...
TVTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
shows, and for his campaigns for
President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
in 1968, 1972, 1980, 1988, 1992, and 1996, which had primarily
comedicComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
rather than
politicalPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
objectives, although his campaigns generated some
protest voteA protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the caster's unhappiness with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system...
s for him.
Paulsen was born in
South Bend, WashingtonSouth Bend is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. It is the county seat of Pacific County. The population was 1,807 as of the 2000 census. It is widely known for its oysters and scenery.-History:...
, a small fishing town in
Pacific CountyPacific County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. It is named after the Pacific Ocean. As of 2000, the population was 20,984. The county seat is at South Bend. Its largest city is Raymond....
. When he was 10, the whole family moved to
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
.
After graduating from
Tamalpais High SchoolTamalpais High School is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises more than above Mill Valley....
, in Mill Valley, Paulsen immediately joined the
United States MarinesThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Patrick Layton Paulsen (July 6, 1927 – April 24, 1997) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain members of an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
and
satiristSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
notable for his roles on several of the
Smothers BrothersThe Smothers Brothers are an American music-and-comedy team, consisting of the brothers Tom and Dick Smothers. The brothers' trademark act was performing folk songs , which usually led to arguments between the siblings...
TVTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
shows, and for his campaigns for
President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
in 1968, 1972, 1980, 1988, 1992, and 1996, which had primarily
comedicComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
rather than
politicalPolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
objectives, although his campaigns generated some
protest voteA protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the caster's unhappiness with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system...
s for him.
Early life and education
Paulsen was born in
South Bend, WashingtonSouth Bend is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. It is the county seat of Pacific County. The population was 1,807 as of the 2000 census. It is widely known for its oysters and scenery.-History:...
, a small fishing town in
Pacific CountyPacific County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. It is named after the Pacific Ocean. As of 2000, the population was 20,984. The county seat is at South Bend. Its largest city is Raymond....
. When he was 10, the whole family moved to
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
.
After graduating from
Tamalpais High SchoolTamalpais High School is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises more than above Mill Valley....
, in Mill Valley, Paulsen immediately joined the
United States MarinesThe United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States armed forces responsible for providing force projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Paulsen returned home after the war and worked several jobs, including working as a posting clerk, truck driver, hod carrier, selling Fuller brushes, toiling in a gypsum mine. Later, he was employed as a photostat operator for several years. After attending San Francisco City College, Paulsen joined an
actingActing is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play...
group called "The Ric-y-tic Players" and formed a comedy trio which included his brother Lorin.
Career in comedy
Paulsen went on to become a single act appearing as a comedic
guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
ist in various clubs on the west coast and in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. During one of his appearances in San Francisco, he met the Smothers Brothers.
In 1967,
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premiered. Paulsen said he was hired because he sold them cheap songs and would run errands. At first he was cast as their editorialist, and his
deadpanDeadpan is a form of comic delivery in which humor is presented without a change in emotion or facial expression, usually speaking in a monotonous manner.-Etymology:...
,
double-talkGibberish is a generic term in English for talking that sounds like speech, but carries no actual meaning. This meaning has also been extended to meaningless text or gobbledygook. The common theme in gibberish statements is a lack of literal sense, which can be described as a presence of nonsense...
comments on the issues of the day propelled him into the national consciousness. (His deadpan work was nearly flawless: on one isolated occasion, in a talk about
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
, he defined a
wahineWahine, the Maori and Hawaiian word for woman, can mean:* Kihe-Wahine, a Polynesian goddess* A female surfer* Any of several ships named Wahine, one of which foundered in the Wahine disaster during the "Wahine storm"....
as something you put on a
bu-hunA bun is a small, usually sweet bread. Commonly they are hand-sized or smaller, domed in shape with a flat bottom. It can also mean a savory bread roll similar to a bap or barmcake.Basic buns are usually made using flour, sugar, eggs, yeast and butter....
with lots of mu-hustard. His composure started to crack, but he recovered.) His work on
The Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour earned Paulsen an
EmmyThe Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards , Grammy Awards and Tony Awards .They are presented in various...
in 1968.
Early in 1970, Paulsen headlined his own series,
Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour, which ran 13 weeks on ABC. Guests on the first show were former Vice President of the United States
Hubert HumphreyHubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
and an animated
Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
, the latter of whom was interviewed by Paulsen.
The comedian was approached by the Smothers Brothers with the idea of running for President in 1968. His reply, he was later to recount, was: "Why not? I can't dance — besides, the job has a good pension plan and I'll get a lot of money when I retire."
Paulsen's campaign that year, and in succeeding years, was grounded in comedy, while not bereft of serious commentary. He ran the supposed campaigns using obvious lies, double talk, and
tongue-in-cheekTongue-in-cheek is a term used to refer to humor in which a statement, or an entire fictional work, is not meant to be taken seriously, but its sarcasm is subtle...
attacks on the major candidates, and responded to all criticism with his
catch phraseA catch phrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth...
"Picky, picky, picky". His campaign slogan was "Just a common, ordinary, simple savior of America's destiny."
Paulsen's name appeared on the ballot in
New HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of...
for the Democratic Primary several times. In 1996 he received 921 votes (1%) to finish second to President
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
(76,754 votes); this was actually ahead of real politicians such as Buffalo mayor James D. Griffin. In 1992 he came in second to
George BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
in the
North DakotaNorth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America; on the Canadian border halfway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the U.S.; it is the 3
rd least populous, with just over 641,481 residents as...
Republican Primary. In the
1992 Republican Party primariesFor only the third time in the 20th century, after the elections of 1912 and 1976, a sitting Republican president was seriously challenged for his party's nomination. President George H. W...
he received 10,984 votes total.
During later years, Paulsen appeared in nightclubs, theaters, and conventions throughout the country. He also appeared each summer in
Traverse City, MichiganTraverse City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was 14,532 at the 2000 census. In 2007, the Traverse City...
, at the Cherry County Playhouse where he produced and starred in some 25 different plays, including
The FantasticksThe Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It was produced by Lore Noto. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play "The Romancers" by Edmond Rostand , concerning two neighboring fathers who put up a wall between their houses to ensure...
,
The Odd CoupleThe Odd Couple is a 1965 Broadway play by Neil Simon, followed by a successful film and television series, as well as other derivative works and spin offs, many featuring one or more of the same actors. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates, one neat and uptight, the other more easygoing but...
,
HarveyHarvey is an English given name, surname, place-name, derived from a Breton personal name meaning "battle-worthy". It is thought to have come to England with the Breton mercenaries of William the Conqueror as "Hervé". As a given name, the diminutive Harry is sometimes used...
, and
The Sunshine BoysThe Sunshine Boys is a play by Neil Simon that was produced on Broadway in 1972 and later adapted for film and television.-Plot:The play focuses on aging Al Lewis and Willy Clark, a one-time vaudevillian team known as "Lewis and Clark" who, over the course of forty-odd years, not only grew to hate...
.
He died of complications from colon and brain cancer and
pneumoniaPneumonia is an inflammatory illness of the lung. Frequently, it is described as lung parenchyma/alveolar inflammation and abnormal alveolar filling with fluid ....
in
TijuanaTijuana , is the largest city of the Mexican state of Baja California, situated on the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to its sister city of San Diego, California. Tijuana is the westernmost city in Mexico, however, the westernmost population center is located in Isla Guadalupe...
,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, on April 25, 1997.
Discography
- Pat Paulsen for President (1968)
- Live at the Ice House (1970)
- Unzipped (1998).
Quotes
"All the problems we face in the United States today can be traced to an unenlightened immigration policy on the part of the
American IndianNative Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
."
"I don’t want to say too much about illegal immigration. I’m afraid my views will be reported on the Cinco O’Clock News" [cite: http://www.paulsen.com/pat - Retrieved on 2008-07-29]
"Why should we tell kidnappers, murderers, and embezzlers their
rightsA Miranda warning is a warning given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody, or in a custodial situation, before they are interrogated. A custodial situation is one in which the suspect's freedom of movement is restrained , even if he is not under arrest...
? If they don't know their rights, they shouldn't be in the business."
"A good many people feel that our present
draftDraft or draught may mean:* Draught beer, beer served from a keg or tap-Watercraft dimensions:* Draft , distance from waterline to keel* Draft , degree of curvature in a sail...
laws are unjust. These people are called soldiers."
"Sex doesn't have to be taught. It's something most of us are born with."
When originally "denying" he was running, borrowing from General William Sherman in 1884: "I will not run if nominated, and if elected I will not serve."
Presidential Campaign Slogan: "I've upped my standards. Now, up yours."
Presidential Campaign Slogan: "If elected, I will win."
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself...and of course the boogieman."
"I am neither left wing nor right wing. I am middle-of-the-bird."
"If either the right wing or the left wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles."
"Marijuana should be licensed and kept out of the hands of teenagers. It's too good for them."
When asked if he believed in the Right to bear arms: "No, I believe in the right to
arm bears."
On network
censorshipCensorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor.-Rationale:...
: "I feel proud to be living in a country where people are not afraid to laugh at themselves and where political satire is tolerated by the government, if not the television network."
On network censorship: "Censorship does not interfere with the constitutional rights of every American to sit alone in a dark room in the nude and cuss. There are realistic taboos, especially regarding political comments. Our leaders were not elected to be tittered at. For example, we're allowed to say Ronald Reagan is a lousy actor, but we're not allowed to say he's a lousy governor-which is ridiculous. We know he's a good actor. And we're not allowed to make fun of President '
JohnsonLyndon Baines Johnson , served as the 36th President of the United States from 1963 to 1969 after his service as the Vice President of the United States from 1961 to 1963...
'. But if we praise him, who would believe it?"
On his political affiliation: "I belong to the Straight Talking American Government Party, or STAG Party for short."
External links