Thought I'd know who he was by now

August 30, 2007 11:52 PM

Who is the guy wearing the "To know me is to love me" button on page 36 of MAD magazine issue #119 (Bonnie and Clyde cover) and why was that slogan picked?

I didn't know who he was when I was 11 and still don't recognize him 28 years later on the DVD-ROM--though I can identify Nasser and the Duke of Windsor.

posted by brujita to media & arts (16 comments total)

you're probably going to need to scan it
posted by white light at 12:23 AM on August 31, 2007

Is it in any of these pages? scroll down
posted by doctor_negative at 1:33 AM on August 31, 2007

The guy above Nixon, right?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:40 AM on August 31, 2007

I think that's Jerry Lewis.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:43 AM on August 31, 2007

"to know you is to love you" is the title of a song covered by, apparently, many different singers.
Not mentioned on that Wikipedia Page is that it's also a lyric occurring in the '90s Madonna song "Beautiful Stranger."
Maybe he's playing off the song?
posted by lostburner at 1:44 AM on August 31, 2007

I'm certain the guy above Nixon in Ambrosia Voyeur's picture is Jerry Lewis. (but I don't see the Duke of Windsor there. Is it the wrong pic? Or do I not know my dukes?)
posted by bunglin jones at 1:50 AM on August 31, 2007

(it's doctor_negative's picture more than mine, I just picked out the text on the button, I think.)
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:58 AM on August 31, 2007

Uh, the duke of windsor isn't on those pages.
posted by rcavett at 4:00 AM on August 31, 2007

Yeah, it's Jerry Lewis. I bought that MAD, used, in the eighties, and had to ask my dad who it was.

Incidentally, I think reading old copies of MAD is probably the best, least partisan way to learn about the 60's and 70's - they skewered everyone, right and left.
posted by notsnot at 4:27 AM on August 31, 2007 [1 favorite]

This was exactly the time that The Jerry Lewis Show was on TV and while none of the episodes I've looked at seem to indicate that this was a song on the show, it did hit the charts in 1965 and would have been a possible musical number on the show. Since people only watched one of three channels of TV in the sixties this would have been a more widely known pop culture reference if this is in fact what it's referring to.
posted by jessamyn at 6:54 AM on August 31, 2007

I agree that it is clearly Jerry Lewis. (He will be on TV again this weekend for his annual telethon for MD) Maybe the reference is to his fights with and break-up with his comedic partner Dean Martin? Using a popular song of the times to make fun of their relationship?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:36 AM on August 31, 2007

Thanks all...the serene gaze in the picture is what threw me off. :-)


Rcavett, the guy on page 38 under Sophia Loren wearing "Stamp out First Marriages" looks like the Duke of Windsor to me--and that button makes sense.
posted by brujita at 9:33 AM on August 31, 2007

brujita: could you transcribe the other slogans? We can't really read them, and it would be helpful in figuring out the angle MAD was using to riff on the celebrities and their "Protest Buttons". Maybe it has something to do with something that happened to Jerry that year...
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:05 AM on August 31, 2007

it did hit the charts in 1965 and would have been a possible musical number on the show.

Uh... no it didn't. It was seven year's earlier, like it says in your link.

BTW, To Know Him Is To Love Him and To Know You (Is To Love You) are two different songs.

And I can't believe anybody wouldn't recognize Lewis. I am old, aren't I?
posted by timeistight at 12:22 PM on August 31, 2007

Page 36 clockwise: Hubert Humphrey--Dump Johnson in '68; Jerry Lewis; Nixon--Impeach Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson--Draft George Hamilton (who was dating Lynda Bird).
Page 37: Bobby and Ethel Kennedy--To Hell with Birth Control, Pills, Please; Ronald Reagan--Hire the Morally Handicapped (jab at Nixon?); Nasser--Jewish Power.

Page 38: J. Edgar Hoover (?)--I'm a Plainclothes Hippie; Sophia Loren--Italian Power; Duke of Windsor; Julie Andrews--Mary Poppins is a Junkie

Page 39: Billy Graham--Tax the Churches; Twiggy--Ban the Bra; Alfred E. Neuman--Support Mental Health or I'll Kill You; LBJ--War is Good Business: Invest Your 29K(?)

Timeistight, I should have recognized Jerry Lewis (I'm 39), but the only context with which I am familiar is him bouncing off the walls.
posted by brujita at 12:12 AM on September 1, 2007

The original slogan was:
War is Good Business: Invest Your Son
posted by doctor_negative at 12:33 AM on September 2, 2007