The Doonesbury strip in question appeared in 1975, well over a year
before the beginning of the Carter presidency. If anyone would like to
see it, it is reprinted in the collection "An Especially Tricky
People" (Bantam, 1977) where it appears as the 25th strip in the
(unpaginated) book.
I am a Carter fan (I felt like I was the only person in America who
voted for Carter in 1976 AND 1980), and I have never claimed to know
that he did not, in fact, relay this story. However, the almost
complete agreement of facts (same situation, same punch line, both
situations taking place in an asian country) makes the two seem an
unbelievable coincidence. Mind you, I haven't seen Letterman or
contacted the Carter Library, so I am still not saying that President
Carter (or anyone else) is making it up. But given the fact that
Trudeau wrote the story first, and given that so many urban myths have
talk show scenes as their genesis (e.g. Burt Reynolds giving out his
calling card number on the Tonight show, Liz Claiborne espousing
satanism on Oprah, etc.) the idea that this might be an urban myth is
not an unreasonable conclusion.
> The gist of the story was that on a visit to Japan, the president's
> translator, instead of translating a joke, told the audience "please
> laugh at the President's joke." Apparently, there was some question
> as to whether this incident actually occurred or was merely an
> "Urban Myth" (See Below). The implication seems to be this; either I
> made up the story, (impossible), or, President Carter did,
> (unlikely).
> > While Idon't know whether former President Carter ever
> > appeared onCharlies Rose, or what he said if he did, the joke
> > above is an almost verbatim transcription of an old "Doonesbury"
> > strip which occured while Duke was supposedly ambassador to China.
> > The translater was the "Miss Honey" character. The story is
> > amusing, but I seriously doubt that any translater would actually
> > do such a thing to a current or former head of
> > state. Of such things are urban myths born...
Paul D. Healey, M.A.(LIS), J.D.
Reference/Instructional Services Librarian
Warren E. Burger Library
William Mitchell College of Law
871 Summit Ave. St. Paul, MN 55105
Phone: 612.290.6306 Fax: 612.290.6318
e-mail: phealey@wmitchell.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:09 PST