Breaking with Tradition
In the 1950s, a new generation of comedians produced political satire that was biting, experimental, and irreverent. Comics like Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, and Dick Gregory took Bob Hope’s topical style a step further by ad-libbing up-to-the-minute material in front of live audiences. The new political satirists, along with comedians specializing in social commentary, were dubbed the “sick comics” by the press. The “sick” label, cartoonist Jules Feiffer has argued, was mistaken: “A humorist will hold up a mirror, look at its reflection chuckle warmly and say ‘Well it’s silly but it’s not such a bad reflection after all’; a satirist will have a darker view.” These satirists, Feiffer contended, “weren’t sick. But they had to be handled, tagged, pinned down somehow because they were dangerous.”
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