I remember seeing President Carter telling this story on Letterman. Of
course it could be that the translator was a Doonesbury fan.
Jim Voelker
On Tue, 9 Jan 1996, Paul Healey wrote:
>
> 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
>
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