Speaker 1: Ridiculous crime. It's a production of I Heart Radio Done.
Speaker 1: What's you doing? Nothing? Good? Good? I got a quick
Speaker 1: question for you. Yeah, you know what's ridiculous? Oh I
Speaker 1: do too. Let me let me drop this on you.
Speaker 1: Um there's a company that is partnering up with a
Speaker 1: resale retailer called thread Up and they're going to have
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty seven secondhand streetwear and designer pieces
Speaker 1: that are part of a collection. Why am I telling
Speaker 1: you this? I don't hear the ridiculous part. Now, it's
Speaker 1: part of This is the end of my trilogy of
Speaker 1: food brands getting where they shouldn't be. So I talked
Speaker 1: about Applebee's. Applebee's I talked about it was the other
Speaker 1: one in Velveta, Martin Hines. Catch Up is doing the
Speaker 1: Hinze Vintage Drip collection. Every piece comes with its own
Speaker 1: unique glob of dried ketchup. Wait what I mean? I
Speaker 1: caught the whole Like I can hear the marketing meeting.
Speaker 1: You know, the kids are saying nice drips. So we're
Speaker 1: known for drips as ketchup. We should merge that synergy.
Speaker 1: I can totally hear the meeting, But what I could
Speaker 1: not anticipate is we should also put some of our
Speaker 1: product on it. What do you mean our product? Like
Speaker 1: a nice dried dupe of ketchup? So some fashion maven
Speaker 1: has to go out and collect all these vintage pieces
Speaker 1: and then some dope has to walk around with a
Speaker 1: bottle of ketchup and just fling it at it. So
Speaker 1: each piece has some ketchup on it. And what happens
Speaker 1: when I wash my piece? You don't, because then I
Speaker 1: lose the ketchup? Who washes clothes? Long awkward pause. Um,
Speaker 1: they yeah, I don't know. I don't know how you
Speaker 1: wash it whatever. Some of the things you're basically not
Speaker 1: supposed to wear, Like you you buy it and you
Speaker 1: want to tell people you own it, You take pictures
Speaker 1: of it, and you put on I guess well. They said,
Speaker 1: you know that they kinds is iconic and that the
Speaker 1: celebrating reuse is one of the things in the statement.
Speaker 1: And then they said it's for quote fashion risk takers,
Speaker 1: is it though? And food lovers alike? So what are
Speaker 1: you going to buy it then suck on it when
Speaker 1: you're hungry? Lovers? Not Like you can just take a
Speaker 1: little with you and we can have a little favor
Speaker 1: in the in the press release that says, uh, they
Speaker 1: want to participate in the circular economy while doing good
Speaker 1: for the people in the planet. We hope it makes
Speaker 1: a splash or drip. The circular economy is that where
Speaker 1: they make a product, they sell it, and then when
Speaker 1: you come up with something creative, they take that and
Speaker 1: then they sell that again. That's the circular economy. All
Speaker 1: proceeds go to rise against hunger. Couldn't they just give
Speaker 1: the money right to them? Thank you, thank you, instead
Speaker 1: of like turning it into this whole whatever, this is,
Speaker 1: whatever gestures wildly and everything. Okay, that's ridiculous, thank you, Okay, ridiculous,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Elizabeth, I got something for you. Ridiculous And
Speaker 1: I stressed that, oh yeah, oh yeah. I mean there
Speaker 1: have been many things poised to ruin America in the
Speaker 1: course of our hundreds of years of existence. I mean
Speaker 1: so many things that we can list. It wouldn't people
Speaker 1: worried and claimed this is going to threaten the young
Speaker 1: of America, ruin the fabric of our society. Today, I'd
Speaker 1: like to tell you about one of the most sinister,
Speaker 1: one of the most pernicious threats we've ever survived, Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: Are you ready to discuss the life changing threat, the
Speaker 1: democracy wrecking threat of comic books? Oh wow, this is
Speaker 1: ridiculous crime A podcast about absurd and outrageous capers. He
Speaker 1: and cons. It's always murder free and ridiculous. Our story starts.
Speaker 1: That's when there was the Chicago newspaper that wanted to
Speaker 1: do the good thing and warrant its readers that quote
Speaker 1: superman heroics, voluptuous females in scanty attire, blazing machine guns,
Speaker 1: hooded justice, and cheap political propaganda were to be found
Speaker 1: on almost every page. What mind you could they be
Speaker 1: talking about? Of course I've already told you the answer.
Speaker 1: Comic books. Now, this writer, this is talking to in
Speaker 1: America right before World War Two. This is a different
Speaker 1: America than America we know of right. This is a
Speaker 1: isolationist America. This is a America that was basically had
Speaker 1: its head turned inward, if you will, from the world
Speaker 1: and comic books was one of our favorite fantasies for
Speaker 1: the young and you know, for the young at heart.
Speaker 1: And yet that's scared people. There were these these superman's
Speaker 1: and these wonder woman's that they just didn't understand what
Speaker 1: the kids saw in them right now, they compared this
Speaker 1: to what they did know. And so the newspaper said,
Speaker 1: and I quote, the old dime novels in which in
Speaker 1: an occasional redskin bit the dust, were classic literature compared
Speaker 1: to the sadistic drivel polaring from the presses today. So
Speaker 1: a genocide of a whole continent of people is good
Speaker 1: for children to read about, but somebody in spandex that's
Speaker 1: ruining them. So just you can see where we're going
Speaker 1: with all of this. Okay, Now, the children of America,
Speaker 1: you know, we've often hear this being the you know,
Speaker 1: there they are the sheep who we have to worry about,
Speaker 1: these wolves descending upon right Who will protect the kids?
Speaker 1: What about the kids? Now, this Chicago paper had the
Speaker 1: exact same tone that you would recognize today. And I quote,
Speaker 1: unless we want a coming generation even more ferocious than
Speaker 1: the present one, parents and teachers throughout America must band
Speaker 1: together to break the comic magazine. Now, you don't typically
Speaker 1: hear about the ferocious thirties and forties kids. You know,
Speaker 1: I think the greatest generally turned out. Okay, from what
Speaker 1: I understand, I don't know. I mean, I think weren't
Speaker 1: they all smoking when they were eleven years old? Yes? Yes, no,
Speaker 1: I will be honest, I can understand looking back why
Speaker 1: they may have been a little worried, because, to be
Speaker 1: all the way real, there were comic books like one
Speaker 1: of the most popular characters at the time was a
Speaker 1: character named Lady Satan. Oh, and that sounds bad. Lady Satan,
Speaker 1: You're like, wait, wait, how can that be good for
Speaker 1: the kids? Right? But you have to hear her side
Speaker 1: of the story. Okay, it's actually Lady Satan. It's actually,
Speaker 1: it's a whole misunderstanding. It's French lad Now, Lady Satan,
Speaker 1: a right innocent Lady Satan. Just before she was to
Speaker 1: be married to become Lady Satan, she and her fiance
Speaker 1: were on a boat and a boat was attacked by Nazis.
Speaker 1: Nazis Elizabeth. She survived the boat wreck, but her fiance
Speaker 1: he did not. He perished, and in her fiance's dying moments,
Speaker 1: there in the wide expanse of ocean, Lady Satan was born.
Speaker 1: She swore to defeat the Nazis and Nazism. Lady Satan
Speaker 1: Elizabeth is basically the first Antifa superhero. Where are you
Speaker 1: yelling at look, this is my superhero voice, and I
Speaker 1: watch you understand these are serious times. So lady Satan, yes,
Speaker 1: you can see how the parents may get worried about
Speaker 1: that they hear Satan and yeah, it doesn't sound so hot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I mean, like the same time, right around the
Speaker 1: same time, you're gonna have the Hell's Angels. It took
Speaker 1: him at a little while to be afraid of the
Speaker 1: Hell's Angels. And they were literally hitting people in the
Speaker 1: they were literally angels from Hell. Now, this theme of
Speaker 1: like comic books being the greatest danger to America, obviously
Speaker 1: it pales in comparison to real fascism. So during the
Speaker 1: war years and you didn't see any of this talk
Speaker 1: of like, oh the kids, the fascism and the comic books. Right,
Speaker 1: But as soon as the war is over, we get
Speaker 1: right back to it. Time Magazine of all People publishes
Speaker 1: another screed against comic books. And ready for this Titleiza, Yes,
Speaker 1: the title was our comics fascist. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was just I'm just I'm just asking questions over here,
Speaker 1: and then there's yes, no, maybe. So the article featured
Speaker 1: a bevy of people, but the person that I really
Speaker 1: focused on was this dude on Walter j onng O
Speaker 1: n G Right. He was a professor at a small
Speaker 1: college in Colorado, and he'd been writing articles mostly in
Speaker 1: religious things and in local Southwest magazines like Arizona Quarterly. Right,
Speaker 1: Like in Arizona Quarterly. The headline for his article was
Speaker 1: Superman is a Nazi. He wasn't like time asking questions.
Speaker 1: He decided, you know, he just declared so in his
Speaker 1: article Superman is a Nazi. Ang had argued that quote
Speaker 1: everything is centered on one man, the leader, the hero,
Speaker 1: the duce. The herd responses not being on the rational level,
Speaker 1: this hero does not appeal by argument. He builds on
Speaker 1: the herd's dreams. He hypnotizes, thus did Hitler and Mussolini.
Speaker 1: The Superman of the cartoons is true to his sources.
Speaker 1: That is a stretch, right exactly. Now he's totally like,
Speaker 1: you know, people worry about like Antiva. Now he was
Speaker 1: like worried about FAFA or whatever whatever it is. He's
Speaker 1: convinced that kids are gonna go full fascist because of
Speaker 1: Wonder Woman and Superman, Like, I don't trust this blake,
Speaker 1: spider Man, Spiderman so on, right, he focuses obviously on Superman,
Speaker 1: but the real focus for his vim and vigor is
Speaker 1: Wonder Woman. Because of course he's also summons Yeah you know,
Speaker 1: you saw it coming. So he says, well, can you
Speaker 1: guess why Wonder Woman would be a threat to this guy? Yes?
Speaker 1: One reason? Um is it? Because what would he claim
Speaker 1: that the children would be ruined by Wonder Woman by
Speaker 1: maybe like her? Doesn't she have like an Amazon army
Speaker 1: spot there it is. It's either that of the Invisible Plane. No, no,
Speaker 1: he didn't care about the technology so much. It was
Speaker 1: that one. She swears by Zeus, which is clearly a
Speaker 1: violation of Judeo Christian gods the Creek. Yeah. Also she
Speaker 1: praised Afrodity, which, according to On is a hitler write paganism.
Speaker 1: He needs to get out. He had on his side
Speaker 1: the creator of Wonder Woman, William Marston. Not like they
Speaker 1: weren't on the same side, but William Marston was saying
Speaker 1: stuff that would make you be like, these people are
Speaker 1: saying this is yeah basically so William Marston, Uh, well
Speaker 1: here he's like, finally someone understands Wonder Woman exactly, someone
Speaker 1: gets what I'm trying to drive back, like, oh no,
Speaker 1: So basically, you know, theorized that wonder woman is as
Speaker 1: you pointed out about this Amazonian matriarchy, and that's a threat, right.
Speaker 1: But Marston had said in his own quote that and
Speaker 1: I quote men actually submit to women now. They do
Speaker 1: it on the sly with a sheepish grin because they're
Speaker 1: ashamed of being ruled by weaklings. Give them an alluring
Speaker 1: woman stronger than themselves to submit to, and they'll be
Speaker 1: proud to become her willing slaves. Marston, Man, come on
Speaker 1: over here. I love how everything has to be like
Speaker 1: one or the other. Oh yeah, no, totally. So Marstin
Speaker 1: is basically going, yeah, Feminazis are good. This guy's alongs
Speaker 1: every here's going man, Feminazis are coming. But they both
Speaker 1: agreeem the future. So this future America did look bleak.
Speaker 1: And so by nineteen fifties, all this tension that was
Speaker 1: bubbling up in the forties starts to come to a
Speaker 1: rock and royal and bubble. Right now, we know in
Speaker 1: the fifties we think of, oh, that's when all the
Speaker 1: conformity culture is there, and that's when you have the
Speaker 1: red scares. Well, there were more than one moral panic,
Speaker 1: and you end up having things like this TV show
Speaker 1: called Confidential File, which was hosted by serious journalist Paul Coates. Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: can you imagine what Paul Coates who had to say
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five to the American people about comic
Speaker 1: books based on what you've heard up till now. And
Speaker 1: he's trying to go past that, he's going past the
Speaker 1: Nazi thing. Well, you know, I would say past the
Speaker 1: Nazi thing. That's its own little thing. But the basic
Speaker 1: the idea of America be afraid of comic books. Look
Speaker 1: what they're doing to the kids. Do you think there's
Speaker 1: subliminal messages? Basically, his idea is that the real problem
Speaker 1: is not the comic books, it's you, the American people.
Speaker 1: Of course, so he's like, this problem is going on,
Speaker 1: why does it exist? And he says, the undesirable comic
Speaker 1: books haven't disappeared from the news stands of this country. Why.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you exactly why, Because no action has been
Speaker 1: taken by the most powerful influence in America, the people you. So, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: I gotta ask you, why don't you protect to America? Like,
Speaker 1: why won't you just get off your duff and do something?
Speaker 1: Because I'm tired, tired? Well, you know, I have no
Speaker 1: answers for you other than it's up to you. Like
Speaker 1: the with the forest, it's the same thing I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: If it's anyway, you get the point. I take care
Speaker 1: of myself. This is the problem. And On was right.
Speaker 1: So this dude, this serious journalist, Paul Coats, right, he
Speaker 1: starts warning people about the economies that the kids are
Speaker 1: using to get these comic books, because he says, look,
Speaker 1: the kids aren't buying them all. They buy one comic
Speaker 1: book and then they spread them around by sharing them
Speaker 1: with their friends, so they end up reading ten comic books,
Speaker 1: but they only buy one. So the numbers are misleading.
Speaker 1: So there's a black market out there that he's telling
Speaker 1: people parents mostly to be worried about that their kids
Speaker 1: are like, you know, pushing comic books to each other,
Speaker 1: like you'll, like a gateway drug pushers. We don't want
Speaker 1: him to read. Oh oh, I'm glad you bring that up.
Speaker 1: Because there's this scene where Paul Series Paul Coats, he
Speaker 1: has this the audience has to watch this group of
Speaker 1: ten and eleven year old boys. They all they're all
Speaker 1: from different ethnicities, economic stations. But it's mid fifties America,
Speaker 1: so they're all in like the big cuff blue jeans
Speaker 1: and the striped shirts, all running out of their houses
Speaker 1: and out of their like tenement homes. And they go
Speaker 1: and they run to this place that gets under a tree,
Speaker 1: and then under this big tree we see and I
Speaker 1: quote when I was a boy and played with the gang,
Speaker 1: we did a lot of things. We roasted potatoes, went
Speaker 1: on expeditions, We tipped over garbage cans now, and then
Speaker 1: we wrote nasty remarks about the teacher on the sidewalk.
Speaker 1: We never spent an afternoon sitting around like this reading potatoes. No,
Speaker 1: but he's talking about these kids are reading, and he says,
Speaker 1: and they continue, but they're not reading anything constructive. They're
Speaker 1: reading stories devoted to adultery, to sexual perversion, to harra
Speaker 1: to the most despicable of crimes. Sir, you weren't reading anything.
Speaker 1: You were potatoes and knocking over trash. Cand He's mad
Speaker 1: these kids are reading that. He's literally making the should
Speaker 1: I be reading? So at this point in this news footage,
Speaker 1: we see this little kids. He's the tiniest kid in
Speaker 1: the group. He gets picked up by all the others
Speaker 1: and they fly him around. Then they like hold him
Speaker 1: against a tree. Then they pull out like matches and
Speaker 1: try to burn them. Then they pull out a pocket
Speaker 1: knife and they're gonna cut him in serious journalist Paul
Speaker 1: Coates is like, I'm not suggesting that comic books and
Speaker 1: still violence in the minds of these boys. I've never
Speaker 1: heard any responsible person to suggest that. What I am
Speaker 1: suggesting is that crime and horror comic books simulate outbursts
Speaker 1: of destructive violence that might otherwise have been channeled into
Speaker 1: much less anti social activity like potato roasting. Exactly, Coats, Dude,
Speaker 1: I bet you he looks like he choose on his
Speaker 1: own to nails completely. He ended the big scene with
Speaker 1: games like this have ended in death many times. It's
Speaker 1: very fifties games, which is tossing the rent. They have
Speaker 1: the knife there, holding knife up to the kids like face,
Speaker 1: and they're like taunting him with his pen knife. And
Speaker 1: he's like, games like this have ended his death many times.
Speaker 1: But then the last thing I'll tell you about this, dude,
Speaker 1: Paul Coo, he has these these panels of experts, and
Speaker 1: so he invites these people to tell American parents and
Speaker 1: school teachers why it's so dangerous. So the first expert
Speaker 1: he talks. He was this guy, David Freeman, tell me
Speaker 1: how comic books make you feel? Dave. Now, Dave, mind
Speaker 1: you is an eleven year old boy, and saying will
Speaker 1: make a couple of times you got I threw up,
Speaker 1: Oh god, that's what he's got right, that's kids scare
Speaker 1: tactic or is this one of those I talked to
Speaker 1: my three year old son and he said pretty much,
Speaker 1: you know the the hierarchy of capitalist society. Like then
Speaker 1: know that kids? No three year old he's got to
Speaker 1: get on camera and he's saying, kids clearly been coached. Okay,
Speaker 1: My question for you simple, Elizabeth, If not you, who
Speaker 1: will save the children of America from Superman and Wonder Woman,
Speaker 1: Blake Spiderman. Yeah. Well, after this break, I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you who will save America? And it ain't you. That
Speaker 1: was a bit before the break. I asked you who
Speaker 1: other than you should America turn to in order to
Speaker 1: save the children? Not that coats Man? Yeah? And uh.
Speaker 1: In our one corner we had serious journalist Paul Coates,
Speaker 1: and in the other corner we had Lady Satan. I
Speaker 1: trust Lady Satan quite frankly. Well, I'll let you know
Speaker 1: that America chose differently. America turned its hopeful eyes to
Speaker 1: a team of geriatric men, many of whom were kids
Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds. That's right, the U. S. Senate
Speaker 1: Subcommittee on Comic Books in four and so many of
Speaker 1: them were born in the comic books. Yes, think of
Speaker 1: Joseph McCarthy's Red Scare, But for kids it was the
Speaker 1: social event of the season. All the all the materials
Speaker 1: written in cran with like a backwards letter, every money.
Speaker 1: I don't need that piece of paper. Our center stage
Speaker 1: character taking the role of Joseph McCarthy is Senator Estes
Speaker 1: Key father from Tennessee. Wait was his name Keith fab
Speaker 1: It sounds like you're you don't know how to say
Speaker 1: it's he was keeping? Sorry, do you know your home
Speaker 1: last name? Yes? That can't read it right here somewhere,
Speaker 1: Now keep father, he may find comic books his personal
Speaker 1: key father k father f au v e a ke
Speaker 1: ke kee father. Now keep he had for his star
Speaker 1: witness Mr Dr Frederick Wortham, Dr Frederick Dr Frederick Wortham,
Speaker 1: child psychologist. Was he a child? Like how it is?
Speaker 1: A child? Made me throw up? I'm Dudie Howser is
Speaker 1: based on me. So, I know he in a Harlem
Speaker 1: hospital and he treated under privileged children. And his research
Speaker 1: was integral to more than one nineteen fifty four media sensation,
Speaker 1: not just this case, but also for the Brown versus
Speaker 1: the Board of Education. He was integral to establishing a
Speaker 1: legal argument for why segregation was wrong. So this guy
Speaker 1: was like about it. At this time, people were listening
Speaker 1: to him often in Washington, right. So at that same
Speaker 1: time he was out, you know, in Washington at this
Speaker 1: point to testify on Capitol Hill about how the children's
Speaker 1: souls are being poisoned by lady Satan. So he was
Speaker 1: an early and vocal advocate for children's well being and uh,
Speaker 1: he also advocated for poor children. He was known for
Speaker 1: arguing for mentally challenged children as well, because he wanted
Speaker 1: all of them to be able to receive wait for it,
Speaker 1: fair criminal trials. Wow. Okay, wow, he just whipped the
Speaker 1: run out from He didn't want any children not to
Speaker 1: have a fair criminal for the prison industrial content exactly.
Speaker 1: So he wrote a book called Seduction of the Innocent,
Speaker 1: and he made some wild claims, as one does when
Speaker 1: they want to sell a book like his, and he
Speaker 1: said such things that Superman, which is an anti American fascist,
Speaker 1: which we've kind of covered. He also made claims about
Speaker 1: Batman and Robin They hitting it. They dating, aren't they? Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're a couple right now the whole chapter. And I
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on with you. So Wortham is
Speaker 1: our star witness for the Senate sub Committee, and Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: I would like you to close your eyes and picture it.
Speaker 1: I will. Okay, year you're in Washington, d C. You're
Speaker 1: a hungry beat reporter, just a cub reporter sent by
Speaker 1: your editor to meet with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. Did
Speaker 1: I get one of those cool hats? This has pressed
Speaker 1: the tag and it can just for the sake of
Speaker 1: the I can imagine it better. Could you do a
Speaker 1: quick impression that made me? Eisenhower? For me? Oh, I
Speaker 1: do a really good meaning do? Okay? I thought I
Speaker 1: have to heard you say that. Okay, hey, that that
Speaker 1: is me? Maybe it is? And how I get out
Speaker 1: of my way I'm driving the car. It's amazing. It's
Speaker 1: like Ike's ghost would be confused. Yeah, it's if I
Speaker 1: do say so of myself. It's on. I'mcanny. So as
Speaker 1: you now are well aware that's the voice of the
Speaker 1: lady who you are sent to cover, Mamie Eisenhower. And
Speaker 1: you're there to ask about beautiful voice so amazing they
Speaker 1: talked to about garden parties and the lunches with the
Speaker 1: ladies of the Beltway. And on your way to meet
Speaker 1: Mamie Eisenhower, you see this like gathering of crowd as
Speaker 1: melee a hullabaloo outside the Capitol Hill. Being a reporter,
Speaker 1: you're like, what's going on over there? I got a
Speaker 1: nose for news. Yes you do. Girls, So you go
Speaker 1: head and over and you part through the crowd because
Speaker 1: you're all business. You're right into the Capitol and then
Speaker 1: soon enough you're carried by this way of enthusiasm and
Speaker 1: action right into the Senate floor and actually you're above it.
Speaker 1: You're in the Senate Gallery. They wouldn't let you onto
Speaker 1: the Senate flower right there. Give me, give me that
Speaker 1: gabble like meanwill. There's a kid there who's testifying on
Speaker 1: these comic books. Made me feel funny inside. So you
Speaker 1: go and find your seat in the Senate Gallery, the
Speaker 1: seats above you know, the rotunda, and uh, this raucous
Speaker 1: subcommittee is going on underway. You have Chairman Robert Hendrickson
Speaker 1: banging his gabble. He's making pronouncements about his subcommittee hearing
Speaker 1: and what the purposes will be. And then Chairman Hendrickson
Speaker 1: he gives the floor to the Senator Esther's key Fall
Speaker 1: and he lays out the stakes of this case and
Speaker 1: I quote the subcommittee is looking into violations of various
Speaker 1: federal laws such as the Dire Act, the Man Act,
Speaker 1: violation of interstate commerce, and in connection with the subject matter. Now,
Speaker 1: Senator est key Fall hands it up for the press
Speaker 1: for all of you in the gallery. Right, you're like
Speaker 1: the Dire Act, the Man Act? What could he be
Speaker 1: talking about? What danger is America facing? And he keeps
Speaker 1: mentioning kids with the Man Act. Now, Senator that's his
Speaker 1: key Father is not done. He's also gonna do a
Speaker 1: little bit of name and names so that people know
Speaker 1: how serious he is. So Senator key Father and a quote.
Speaker 1: Mr Jack Hoover's report of yesterday shows that where as
Speaker 1: the increase of population last year was five percent, crime
Speaker 1: had gone up twenty and a particularly large increase was
Speaker 1: in connection with burglar reis and stealing the Automobile's interesting
Speaker 1: part is that the large part of the burglaries are
Speaker 1: committed by juveniles. Juveniles, Elizabeth, juveniles. Now Senator s his
Speaker 1: key father takes a moment and refreshes his Southern linguistics.
Speaker 1: You recognize this is a dramatic pause, just for the
Speaker 1: news cameras to get a close up of him. Right,
Speaker 1: your reporter instincts are fully piqued. You're still wondering what
Speaker 1: the Man Act and the Dire Act is going on
Speaker 1: right now? You, since you're a good reporter, you know, oh,
Speaker 1: that the Dire Act is the nineteen federal law that
Speaker 1: prohibits interstate commerce of stolen vehicles. You take a stolen
Speaker 1: vehicle over state lines, boom, in violation of the Dire Actor. Okay,
Speaker 1: that explains the juveniles with the cars. Yeah, where does
Speaker 1: the Man Act come in? Because being the cub reporter
Speaker 1: that you are, Elizabeth, sitting here in two you may
Speaker 1: be confused. I don't know if you know the Man Act.
Speaker 1: But mid century Elizabeth, she knows that that is in
Speaker 1: direct reference to the white slave trade. Yep, so Plucky
Speaker 1: reported that you are You're like white slave trade in
Speaker 1: comic books. I'm not seeing it, Senator, But the Senator
Speaker 1: is not answering questions to you, miss Elizabeth, so he
Speaker 1: doesn't have to tell people what the man act in
Speaker 1: the white slave trade has to do with comic books. Instead,
Speaker 1: he just insinuates the senators. They go and they ask him, but, sir, sorry,
Speaker 1: what about a growl and Poe, which is that I
Speaker 1: was a boy used to read the stories of that
Speaker 1: growland Poe. And he's like, well, yeah, Now, some of
Speaker 1: the senators they're like, you know when I like dead
Speaker 1: around poh, there were stories about, you know, all sorts
Speaker 1: of crimes and criminality, but none of the boys went
Speaker 1: around like walling up the neighbor kid in the basement.
Speaker 1: I don't see the issue. What's changed for today's kids? Right?
Speaker 1: Good questions, super solid question, and luckily we have Dr
Speaker 1: Worth them here to answer it. It is said that
Speaker 1: children from secure homes are not affected, Mr Chairman, As
Speaker 1: long as the crime comic books industry exists in its
Speaker 1: present form, there are no secure homes. You cannot resist
Speaker 1: infantile paralysis in your home alone. You must take into
Speaker 1: account the neighbors children. You see, it's not just you
Speaker 1: the neighbors. Wait, aren't most of these comic book cats
Speaker 1: crime fighters? Yeah? But you have to have a crime
Speaker 1: to fight it, don't you. And so they're worried that
Speaker 1: these kids are focused on the crime, doing things hope
Speaker 1: that Superman comes down, and they're getting the message. Here's
Speaker 1: citizen snapped a woman entire up on to the railroad
Speaker 1: tracks like the case they want to do that, trying
Speaker 1: to summon that they don't want any kind of copycat
Speaker 1: crimes like no using your X ray vision goggles kids.
Speaker 1: So Elizabeth, mid century Elizabeth knows where I'm coming from
Speaker 1: in this everything. Yeah, but when you know nothing, you
Speaker 1: may hear the words of Dr Wortham and be confused.
Speaker 1: But I'll just lay out another quote for you. Mid
Speaker 1: century Elizabeth would get this, okay, but you try to
Speaker 1: stick with me. And Mortham said, and I quote. I
Speaker 1: would like to point out to you one other crime
Speaker 1: comic book we have found to be particularly injurious to
Speaker 1: the ethical development of children, and those are the Superman
Speaker 1: comic books. They arouse in children fantasies of sadistic joy
Speaker 1: in seeing other people punished over and over again while
Speaker 1: you yourself remain immune. We have called it the Superman complex.
Speaker 1: So there's your answer, joy and punishment. He's punishing the criminals.
Speaker 1: You're stoked because it's not you, because you're not a criminal.
Speaker 1: I don't think you see a future of It's right
Speaker 1: there in front of you, don't you see it, Superman, Uberman, Deutschland, Deutschland,
Speaker 1: It's right there. It's just a road to fascism. You
Speaker 1: know what I have to say to that lady Satan Satan, Well,
Speaker 1: he wants you to know that. And I quote Dr Wortham.
Speaker 1: In these comic books, the crime is always real. Then
Speaker 1: Superman's triumph over good is unreal. More Over, these books,
Speaker 1: like any other, teach complete contempt of the police. For instance,
Speaker 1: they show you pictures where some preacher takes two policemen
Speaker 1: and bangs their heads together. Or to quote from all
Speaker 1: these comic books, you know, you can call a policeman
Speaker 1: a cop and he won't mind. But if you call
Speaker 1: him copper, that is a derogatory term. And these boys,
Speaker 1: we teach them them to call policemen coppers. I just
Speaker 1: can And you're not ready for there's such a logic
Speaker 1: chasm going on here. Oh dude, Well, the thing is
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, my mother was alive and fifties, and
Speaker 1: I remember a joke that she told me from this
Speaker 1: time she was a schoolgirl, and she used to have
Speaker 1: a joke when they be sitting there at the school
Speaker 1: bus stop at a Coppa drive by. One of the
Speaker 1: kids just would shout, what are old pennies made out of?
Speaker 1: And these kids are all like seven eight. They would
Speaker 1: look at the cop and Yale dirty copper. Right, So
Speaker 1: that that is like what he's basically describing. My mother
Speaker 1: went on to become a school teacher. I don't think
Speaker 1: that she read a lot of Lady Satan. She loved
Speaker 1: Ladies saying that's her favorite. She's got a poster still
Speaker 1: up in her room. Whatever your postings. So Senator to
Speaker 1: Kei Faba is not like Keith's like, you know this
Speaker 1: guy dr Worthing while I brought in, he's stealing up
Speaker 1: all the crazy air. I need to get some of
Speaker 1: this from myself, right. So he's like, if I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get any the headlines, I'm gonna need to move beyond
Speaker 1: this whole fascism Nazis. We beat the Nazis, We got
Speaker 1: new concerns. So what does he do? He pushes it
Speaker 1: down the road, Senator to Kei Faba, and I quote
Speaker 1: while you're on that subject, Dr Wortham, mass see that thing.
Speaker 1: Anybody who opposes comic books is a red Dr Wortham, Yes,
Speaker 1: that is a that is part of it. Because the
Speaker 1: comic book industry that apparently accused Dr Wortham of being
Speaker 1: a communist, which is patently so. Ender Kiefab and then says,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm not done. We need to get
Speaker 1: this two man crazy train further down the tracks. Next
Speaker 1: up Hitler. He's like, back it up, sir, Senator Kiefab,
Speaker 1: would you like in this situation you talk about showing
Speaker 1: that same thing over and over again until they finally
Speaker 1: believed it to what we heard about during the Last
Speaker 1: War of Hitler's theory that they tell the same story
Speaker 1: over and over again. Now, Chairman Hendrickson, he jumps in,
Speaker 1: he's like the big lie technique. Dr Wortham jumps on
Speaker 1: the spot. Well, I hate to say that, Senator, but
Speaker 1: I think Hitler was a beginner compared to the comic
Speaker 1: books industry. They get the children much younger, and they
Speaker 1: teach them race hatred at the age of four before
Speaker 1: they can even read. The train is so far off
Speaker 1: the rail detritus. So can mid century Elizabeth go down
Speaker 1: and just start slapping slap sense into him. Is Keifa
Speaker 1: sounds sounds like the way you're doing it, sounds like
Speaker 1: he lives on just drinking water down molasses. This is
Speaker 1: full sustenance. Pretty close throwing a little, maybe little whiskey
Speaker 1: in that water. I just this is making no sense. Well, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: so confused. So not only are Wonder Woman and Superman
Speaker 1: teaching the American children to hate cops, and they're also
Speaker 1: primed for fascism and they have the whole race hatred
Speaker 1: in their hearts and they're looking around for a new hitler.
Speaker 1: But they're also against America. So not only are they
Speaker 1: supporting fascism, but they're not down for mom and dad
Speaker 1: and apple Pie. I don't think you understand this. Absolutely
Speaker 1: did not understand that we're going to take a short break,
Speaker 1: and after the short break, we're going to meet the
Speaker 1: man who's willing to stand up for comic books and
Speaker 1: your Lady Satan. Now, Elizabeth, you're up on Capitol Hill,
Speaker 1: sent there to meet with the Lady Maymie Eyes and
Speaker 1: our first lady Mamie Eyes. Yes, and you spotted that
Speaker 1: hullabaloo going down. You went into the Senate, you saw
Speaker 1: the Senate Subcommittee. You saw Dr Wortham and he's still waiting. Well,
Speaker 1: you're still in the Capitol rotunda, and you're still in
Speaker 1: the Senate Chambers, and you're still in the gallery in
Speaker 1: time to see William Gaines are anti Hero take the stage.
Speaker 1: He is the publisher of Intertaining Comics Group. Okay you
Speaker 1: may not know them now, but they were the first
Speaker 1: comic book company, essentially, and it's a family company, one
Speaker 1: that he's now inherited from his dad. And under his
Speaker 1: new young leadership, he's decided, let's do horror comics. Why not?
Speaker 1: I love those. I don't want some more crime stories.
Speaker 1: And so he's making stories that are not just for
Speaker 1: young kids, but for teens and for young adult readers.
Speaker 1: He's basically doing y A before it exists. Okay, it
Speaker 1: becomes wildly successful, especially the horror comics. He also prints
Speaker 1: biblical comics, horror horror like Scary not not horror comics,
Speaker 1: sex worker comics Elizabeth for the children, no horrors stories
Speaker 1: with sex workers. It's Mary Magdalen series of thought. It
Speaker 1: was like Horrors going up. You gotta love a horrors bath. No,
Speaker 1: all of us in this show. We support the Hols
Speaker 1: not my pro sex worker. We all know this. No,
Speaker 1: this guy, William Gaines, he's unafraid to speak his mind
Speaker 1: because he's unafraid of the imagination of the American kids.
Speaker 1: He's also unafraid of a row of old geriatric senators.
Speaker 1: He's young, he's got all sorts of confidence. Also, he's
Speaker 1: high on speed. Yeah, so well, he had the scheduled
Speaker 1: senate testimony, so he got hopped up on some like
Speaker 1: some speed pills, right, and they rescheduled and pushed him
Speaker 1: after lunch. Now the speed is draining out of as
Speaker 1: system and he's going through amphetamine withdrawals when he takes
Speaker 1: this day a little bit of a comedown. So how
Speaker 1: I like you to focus on this young, cocky, thirty
Speaker 1: two year old comic book air publisher with a nasty speed.
Speaker 1: And so Mr Gaines introduces himself and a quote, I'm
Speaker 1: here as a voluntary witness. I asked for and was
Speaker 1: given this chance to be heard. Two decades ago. My
Speaker 1: late father was instrumental in starting the comic magazine industry.
Speaker 1: He edited the first few issues of the first modern
Speaker 1: comic magazine, Famous Fundies. My father was proud of the industry.
Speaker 1: He helped found he was bringing enjoyment to millions of people, right.
Speaker 1: So he starts solid, he's like, look these are this
Speaker 1: is family name dropping. Yeah, exactly, I'm about this. I
Speaker 1: was first where were you then? You know? So he
Speaker 1: then admits he's like, look, I'm culpable and I quote
Speaker 1: I am responsible. I started them. Some may not like them.
Speaker 1: This is a matter of personal taste. And what he's
Speaker 1: referring to is the horror comic books that are really
Speaker 1: offending people. Right. And while he's at it, he also
Speaker 1: wants to take a little shot at a Dr Wortham.
Speaker 1: So he says it would be just as difficult to
Speaker 1: explain the harmless thrill of a horror story to a
Speaker 1: doctor Wortham as it would be to explain the sublimity
Speaker 1: of love to a frigid old maid. Exactly. Someone came
Speaker 1: loaded for better, So young dude, games, He's like, you know,
Speaker 1: the Senate Subcommittee of Geriatrics and your whatever your hound dog,
Speaker 1: Dr Wortham, I am afraid of this, right, So he
Speaker 1: starts launching into society, being being a citizen in a
Speaker 1: free society. What does this mean? Right? And I quote,
Speaker 1: Our American children are for the most part, normal children.
Speaker 1: They are bright children. But those who want to prohibit
Speaker 1: comic magazine seem to see dirty, sneaky, perverted monsters who
Speaker 1: use the comics as a blueprint for action. What are
Speaker 1: we afraid of? Are we afraid of our own children?
Speaker 1: Do we forget? They are citizens too, and entitled to
Speaker 1: select what to read or what to do. We think
Speaker 1: our children are so evil, simple minded that he takes
Speaker 1: a story of murder to set them to murder, a
Speaker 1: story of robbery to set them to robbery. So you see,
Speaker 1: he's trying to like, basically breathe a little reality back
Speaker 1: proceedings right, how great? How well do you think it goes?
Speaker 1: Not too well? Well, unfortunately I know how these things.
Speaker 1: He doesn't give up because now he makes his real, solid,
Speaker 1: timeless point, which is the truth, is that delinquency is
Speaker 1: the product of real environment in which the child lives,
Speaker 1: and not of the fiction he reads. There are many
Speaker 1: problems that reach our children today. They are tied up
Speaker 1: with insecurity. No pill can cure them, no law will
Speaker 1: legislate them out of being. The problems are economic and social,
Speaker 1: and they are complex. Are people need understanding? They need
Speaker 1: to have affection, decent homes, decent food. Now these pleas
Speaker 1: that he's throwing before the sentence up committee, They're like,
Speaker 1: none of these are good for headlines, none of these
Speaker 1: are good for firing up my base. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to ignore everything you're saying. And they do. Right. So
Speaker 1: the this falls on deaf ears right now as the
Speaker 1: amphetamine is draining away from his brain because he's on
Speaker 1: a good roll at first, right, he's still on a
Speaker 1: good head of speed going. And then it pretty much
Speaker 1: starts to like just you can watch like they level
Speaker 1: in his eyes falling down. Right, So by this point
Speaker 1: he's about half eye level full of speed, right, and uh,
Speaker 1: he starts making mistakes right because he's now that after
Speaker 1: he makes his opening remarks, the sanators you can start
Speaker 1: questioning him, and that three starts stepping into all sorts
Speaker 1: of potholes, and uh, one of the first things that
Speaker 1: he says it's a big mistake is and I quote,
Speaker 1: my only limits are the bounds of good taste. What
Speaker 1: I consider good taste. That's gonna go. Yes, So they
Speaker 1: jump on this good taste into Senator estes Key fall. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he sees this as his opportunity, seizes on it, and
Speaker 1: he's like picks up a comic book starts waving it around.
Speaker 1: He's like his May twenty second issue. This seems to
Speaker 1: be a man with a bloody axe holding a woman's
Speaker 1: head up which has been severed from her body. Do
Speaker 1: you think that is in good taste? Now gains, he's
Speaker 1: got to be like, yes, sir, I do for the cover,
Speaker 1: for the cover of a horror comic. Yeah, A cover
Speaker 1: in bad taste, for example, might be defined as holding
Speaker 1: the head a little higher so that the neck could
Speaker 1: be seen dripping blood from it, and moving the body
Speaker 1: over a little further so that the neck of the
Speaker 1: body could be seen to be bloody. And Senator key
Speaker 1: fob is uh, you have blood coming out of her
Speaker 1: mouth a little, Senator and Senate kei fab here is
Speaker 1: blood on the axe. I think most adults are shocked
Speaker 1: by that. And boom, here's the rub. What obsets us
Speaker 1: most adults is not what upsets most kids. And this
Speaker 1: is what they're basically arguing. Games is like, the kids
Speaker 1: see this as ludicrous. You're the only ones who are
Speaker 1: like that could be my head on that right A right,
Speaker 1: So the Senate Subcommittee, it just keeps going off the rails.
Speaker 1: Games is allowed to leave and they kind of like
Speaker 1: realize that they're not going to be able to scare
Speaker 1: the American people. They want it last two days. They
Speaker 1: have another hearing in June. So the first ones are
Speaker 1: twenty second another June one boom. The summer happens. Kids
Speaker 1: are let out, So now you're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to scare the parents anymore. You don't really want to
Speaker 1: scare them because they're out where they can't see them.
Speaker 1: Really good and useful when they were school children, and
Speaker 1: you could be like wagging a finger right now the
Speaker 1: comic book code. Though they're worried about their wallet. We
Speaker 1: gotta get on this. Come up with the comic book code.
Speaker 1: And the comic book code is this this stamp you
Speaker 1: can put on a comic book that says it's following
Speaker 1: all these rules which the comic book publishers come up
Speaker 1: with where they can self police. I think they come
Speaker 1: up with his rules, Elizabeth. I don't know the height
Speaker 1: of the head, dripping blood on the cover. I sympathize
Speaker 1: on behalf of all those to drop gross outs all
Speaker 1: the time, right, you know, it's like, look, I'm being cartoonish,
Speaker 1: being cartoonishes when I say gross things on this show.
Speaker 1: In my head, it's a it's a cartoon, um, but
Speaker 1: some people hear it and take it very literal. Send
Speaker 1: it as to key, father has issue. What you do,
Speaker 1: Ms Elizabeth? I got issues with him. I'll see him outside,
Speaker 1: I'll see him after class. So the couple, I'll just
Speaker 1: run you out a couple of There's a lot of rules,
Speaker 1: but they basically go into like, one crime, She'll never
Speaker 1: be presented in a way as to create sympathy for
Speaker 1: the criminal, blah blah blah. Another one policeman judges government
Speaker 1: officials and respecting institutions. She'll never be presented in such
Speaker 1: a way as to create disrespect for established authority. Blah
Speaker 1: blah blah. Wait, how bootstepping is okay? Well, exactly criminals
Speaker 1: should not be presented as to be rendered glamorous. Right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: So they apparently they think children are dumb and they're
Speaker 1: gonna be like, oh, we gotta make sure kids aren't confused.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like kids are savviier than a generally.
Speaker 1: My mother always used to tell me that you're you're
Speaker 1: at your absolute smartest at eight years old. Yes, I
Speaker 1: would completely agree. You're paying the most attention and for
Speaker 1: me Downhill peaked at five. Oh well, I feel for
Speaker 1: you girl. The comic codes, right, they don't just have
Speaker 1: rules for just for the heroes and heroines about like oh,
Speaker 1: for crime. It's also about how they live because it's
Speaker 1: the fifties, so there's rules like if case Superman gets
Speaker 1: a divorce, here's how you show it. Right, divorce shall
Speaker 1: not be treated humorously nor represented as desirable. But it's
Speaker 1: so funny it is and desirable. And there's also like
Speaker 1: the like romance stories, right, because like what if you know,
Speaker 1: before Superman gets divorce, he's got to have some love time.
Speaker 1: So he and Lois are like having their love time.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to put this in, senator asked his key.
Speaker 1: Father's right, Well, you have to emphasize the value of
Speaker 1: the home and the sanctity of marriage. I don't know
Speaker 1: if they mean the economic value of the home or
Speaker 1: just like like it feels good to own a home
Speaker 1: in the ladder. Yeah, they're championing homeownership, Like what kind
Speaker 1: of like what interest rates are we getting these years? Kids?
Speaker 1: Do you know the answers you should One rule that
Speaker 1: was prominently listed amongst these guidelines, which seems to have
Speaker 1: fallen somehow out of favor with all these other ones,
Speaker 1: like respect the law, don't show criminals are bad, you know,
Speaker 1: don't show Superman getting a divorce and being happy about it.
Speaker 1: Here's the one rule that they left out because it's
Speaker 1: in there. It's like high up on the list. Females
Speaker 1: shall be drawn realistically, without exaggeration of any physical qualities. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they really stuck to them. So you know, I'm not complaining.
Speaker 1: As a former teenage boy, I'm not complaining. I was like, look,
Speaker 1: I get it. I can see why you did. I
Speaker 1: bought the comics, none of them. None of them had
Speaker 1: stretch marks. Wonder Woman was hiper stripes, Elizabeth Well. When
Speaker 1: all was said and done right coming out of the fifties,
Speaker 1: the comic code basically saves the comic industry, and then
Speaker 1: all these small publishers and independent publishers, the big ones emerge.
Speaker 1: We get d C Comics, which was originally Action Comics
Speaker 1: becomes DC. Marvel Comics emerges, and you get these people
Speaker 1: like your familiar names, Stanley, Jack Kirby. They come out
Speaker 1: and they become the comic book industry. Will stan Lee
Speaker 1: end up having to battle with this dude, doctor Wortham
Speaker 1: for much of his early career, and even in his
Speaker 1: autobiography he takes a couple of shots to Dr Wortham,
Speaker 1: and I quote to me, Wortham was a fanatic, pure
Speaker 1: and simple. I used to debate with him, which was
Speaker 1: fun because I usually won, but that was rarely publicized.
Speaker 1: He once claimed he did a survey that demonstrated that
Speaker 1: most of the kids in reform schools were comic book readers.
Speaker 1: So I said to him, if you do another survey,
Speaker 1: you'll find that most of the kids who drink milk
Speaker 1: are also comic book readers. Should we band milk? His
Speaker 1: arguments were patently sophistic and they're I'm being charitable, But
Speaker 1: he was a psychiatrist, so people listened. Yeah. So the thing, though,
Speaker 1: that really saved comic books wasn't all this hype and everything.
Speaker 1: It was TV. Interestingly enough, Sam was a huge hit
Speaker 1: on t V. So fromift, Superman's a hit, and eventually
Speaker 1: that meant that the Human Torch and Captain America and
Speaker 1: all these familiar comic books, Wonder Woman, they all get
Speaker 1: new runs in the fifties, right, and we see that
Speaker 1: the superhero starts to become a staple of American culture,
Speaker 1: which I know you love because you're always like, hey,
Speaker 1: there's a new comic book movie. When can we go
Speaker 1: the comic book culture? No idea what any of those
Speaker 1: things are. I'm not hearing you say them because you
Speaker 1: will missmash them together. What's with the Flashman? Is that
Speaker 1: new movie coming out? Dr? Flashman? Lake, spider Man, A
Speaker 1: local Dentists. So the Hollywood movies, the streaming which you love,
Speaker 1: all the superheroes, we wouldn't have any of that without
Speaker 1: this big period in time in the late fifties, early sixties,
Speaker 1: and the specifically one hero saved comic books. And it's
Speaker 1: not Superman, not Batman, not wonder Woman, none of the
Speaker 1: ones you would think of. And you guess who it
Speaker 1: was saved comic books. I don't know if you will
Speaker 1: because you don't really like comic books. Was it? The Hulk?
Speaker 1: Little not a bad guess? The Flash Slash? Different Flash?
Speaker 1: But this is the Flash with the article in front.
Speaker 1: That's Flash. Gordon Cousins, Yeah, sure, yeah, what's the same
Speaker 1: you were? I like that? Yeah, the Merciless says, so
Speaker 1: so sure, Yeah, I have no idea. Okay, anyway, So
Speaker 1: the Flash it's like this hero for the Atomic Age.
Speaker 1: So everybody's like all super cool, Flash Slash the fastest, runs,
Speaker 1: real fast, red outfit. Okay, but like like the Flash,
Speaker 1: like I am become death destroyer of world. Not that one. No, no,
Speaker 1: not the no, not the Oppenheimer everything like No, So
Speaker 1: the Flash is popular. Let's just pretend, you know, runs
Speaker 1: real fast a flash like I can see that flash
Speaker 1: go by there you Okay, So now you're with me.
Speaker 1: I got it, I got it. Flash is so popular
Speaker 1: because because he's a young hero, he's a teenager. So
Speaker 1: then we get Spider Man, your guy, and then the
Speaker 1: Fantastic Four and Mute to Spider Man in the top,
Speaker 1: the Temptations X Men. So yeah, now there's one other
Speaker 1: force that really helped cement the superhero era into what
Speaker 1: we know of it today. Do you know can you
Speaker 1: guess who that was? Who was a real person? You
Speaker 1: know this person personally? I often mentioned them, I know
Speaker 1: him personally or no. Dick Nixon, Oh yeah, yeah, Dick Nixon, Man,
Speaker 1: Dick Nixon the years nineteen seventy. Nixon's like, hearing about
Speaker 1: all this kerfuffle about comic books, he just keeps kicking
Speaker 1: along and so the comic Codes. He's like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I think we need to get a message out to
Speaker 1: the kids. They still read comic books, right, Well, he
Speaker 1: calls up Marvel. He calls up Stanley's like, I want
Speaker 1: you to put out a comic book. And he's like, okay,
Speaker 1: Dick Nixon, what do you want me to put out
Speaker 1: the comic book? Drugs? Nixon wants a drug storyline in
Speaker 1: a Marvel comic book. He's like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: I can do that. So he goes to the comic Codes.
Speaker 1: He's like, look, President Nixon's on my case. He wants
Speaker 1: a storyline about drugs. And they're like, you can't do that.
Speaker 1: Don't fall for it. It's a trap. He's trying to.
Speaker 1: It's Nixon, He's tricky. Don't do it. Danley's like, I
Speaker 1: trust him. He called me on my home phone. It's fine.
Speaker 1: Nixon's like, stand any update on the drug comic book.
Speaker 1: I really want to read it. And so Stanley's like,
Speaker 1: goes back to comic Code. We gotta do this, Like
Speaker 1: you can't do it. So he's like, I'm doing it.
Speaker 1: So Stanley decides to do it anyway, takes the comic
Speaker 1: book Code off the front of comic book puts out
Speaker 1: his drug storyline in a Spider Man comic book, very
Speaker 1: famous one, and it's all about like drugs, and Nixon's
Speaker 1: just store like great story. It's like the Flash injecting
Speaker 1: doobies and no Spider Man, no injecting doobies, no snorting
Speaker 1: rails of the pot. So wait, does Spider Man get
Speaker 1: a pill? Heaven? He's all sparkle nealy. It's like, I'll
Speaker 1: piste off. Spider Man needs to go go choose if
Speaker 1: you want any crome fought around there. Spider Man's hopped
Speaker 1: up on goofballs and he hasn't a gym. Spider Man
Speaker 1: in a mood to fight Criner unless he gets a
Speaker 1: little bit for Spider Man sub scratching. So uh, the
Speaker 1: other one. DC gets jealous. They like, we want Dick
Speaker 1: Nixon to like us too, so that they do a
Speaker 1: drug plotline the next year. It's about Green Harrow's buddy
Speaker 1: Speedy and he gets a heroin Habit slows it down.
Speaker 1: I didn't see that coming. You're like Speedy, I know,
Speaker 1: loved it. Great comic book and sonictions all excited. So
Speaker 1: by two thousand one, all of this like Nixon's gone,
Speaker 1: so we don't anymore. The Comic Book Code is on
Speaker 1: its last legs because Marvel pulls out and says, look,
Speaker 1: we don't need this Comic book Code nonsense anymore. That's
Speaker 1: some mid century like fossil stuff. And we're going full
Speaker 1: frontal DCS like we're going to stick with you, and
Speaker 1: Archie Comics is we're still with you. So Archie Comics
Speaker 1: they stay for another ten years, about two thousand and eleven,
Speaker 1: they're like, okay, sorry, we had to go. And so
Speaker 1: then everybody leaves, Comic Code becomes defunct and Goofus and
Speaker 1: Gallant are standing there all but exactly Ghost was just
Speaker 1: so I don't want to leave you wondering. But Senator
Speaker 1: st is Key fob, Yeah happen to him. You're like,
Speaker 1: what happened? Did he ever make anything of himself? I
Speaker 1: don't remember that name? Well, Elizabeth, he did run for
Speaker 1: president because I told you comic books were an easy headline.
Speaker 1: He wanted all that press. Well, it was because he
Speaker 1: was looking at he was I in the big office
Speaker 1: in Washington. So in fifty six he goes as VP,
Speaker 1: gets on the ticket with Adelai Stevenson, another name. A
Speaker 1: lot of people probably don't know. He lost Big T
Speaker 1: and to so Dick and Ike beat the pants off
Speaker 1: of Senator Estes, Key Fable and Adela Stevenson Round his
Speaker 1: sorrows and his molasses. Now the big winner and all
Speaker 1: of this is publisher William Gaines and his speed habit.
Speaker 1: Remember him. So during his speed fueled fight on Capitol
Speaker 1: Hill he decided, you know what, this is not the
Speaker 1: business for me, and he left comic books pretty much
Speaker 1: like the next year and he said, to hell with
Speaker 1: the comic books code. I can see the future. I
Speaker 1: don't want a part of it right now. Can you
Speaker 1: guess what he got into? Porn? Good kiss? Practically, not exactly.
Speaker 1: He did found a new era in publishing. He became
Speaker 1: the publisher for Mad magazine. In his new magazine, he
Speaker 1: openly mocked all of the powers that be Washington everywhere.
Speaker 1: And it was a wildly popular magazine for decades and
Speaker 1: a big part of the underground culture that would come
Speaker 1: to flourish in the sixties and the sevenies. So he
Speaker 1: got his wish. He was still hyping the kids, and
Speaker 1: then by then it was the teenagers, and so he
Speaker 1: was getting them to like not go to war and
Speaker 1: all the things. So he really was able to continue
Speaker 1: his fight. So William Gaines kept at it. Wow, So
Speaker 1: we probably wouldn't have Mad Magazine if it weren't for
Speaker 1: and so that's key father. You're welcome withsable thanks to
Speaker 1: So what's our ridiculous takeaway from today? Comic books and drugs? Dude?
Speaker 1: I don't know. My ridiculous takeaway is that I get
Speaker 1: so frustrated with illogical arguments like this that I just
Speaker 1: shut down. And then also, and I know absolutely nothing
Speaker 1: about comic books, I know, So I like telling you
Speaker 1: this one. I was like waiting for you to be like, wait,
Speaker 1: is the thing? And this is because you like the thing? Right,
Speaker 1: I don't know, does he even want? You? Like the Hulk? No?
Speaker 1: I don't really. You know what I like is the
Speaker 1: What's the Hammer Guy? Yeah? I like the funny the
Speaker 1: funny hammer Guy movies, Funny the ones that I haven't
Speaker 1: you only seen one of them? Yeah? So the funny
Speaker 1: Hammer Guy movie. Yeah, the funny Hammergui movie. I pluralized
Speaker 1: that I should not have And I think I've seen
Speaker 1: the Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man. Yeah, that's not one
Speaker 1: of those. The night in the metal suit guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel I like a good redemption story, so like
Speaker 1: Robert Downey Junior's redemption story. Not iron Man, but Robert
Speaker 1: even a personal story. I don't remember what happened in
Speaker 1: the movie. Gwyneth Paltrow is in it, and I just
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not, no, not not into the group
Speaker 1: nation No, but I do like funny hammers. Well, I'm
Speaker 1: so happy for you, the Senator as just keepab could
Speaker 1: be a small pot. You'll have a news for me,
Speaker 1: And I'm glad you asked, Elizabeth. They were concerned about
Speaker 1: comic books because they thought they were too dangerous for kids, right,
Speaker 1: and they're worried about like, oh, they imagined all these horns, right,
Speaker 1: So really they were afraid of their own imaginations and
Speaker 1: that the comic book publishers were focused on making more marketable,
Speaker 1: squeaky clean comic book heroes. Eventually, they ended up making
Speaker 1: the world that we now have because they said these
Speaker 1: are not good, Whereas if they let them just do
Speaker 1: what they would have done, the market would have most
Speaker 1: likely changed and we may not be in this comic
Speaker 1: book drent culture we live in. So they did the
Speaker 1: ultimate streisand effect. Where they were like complained about it
Speaker 1: so much it took over the culture. And no thanks
Speaker 1: Sena to Usk. Just key fall. When they're cutting funding
Speaker 1: so that we have like falling literacy rates, we don't
Speaker 1: have adequate education. We're not giving kids a sense of
Speaker 1: curiosity in their schoolwork. And the one thing that they're
Speaker 1: doing on their own time of reading, they're engaging with
Speaker 1: they're excited about, you know, having like expanse of curiosity,
Speaker 1: and they'll squash it. Yeah, let's let's not have them engagement.
Speaker 1: We have to the American mind. They're malleable. Now I'm
Speaker 1: getting all frustrating. If you have a moral panic right away,
Speaker 1: you have failed. And I know that people are like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean moral panic? Moral panics are essentially
Speaker 1: a good thing. We have to have morals. That's not
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. The panic is the problem because
Speaker 1: they're dealing with a made up problem. Because you don't
Speaker 1: need to send it subcommittee to solve these types of problems.
Speaker 1: That's just theater. I mean, that's just purely for senders.
Speaker 1: Is key fall. But to run for president, right, but
Speaker 1: if something is really a big bad monster is concerned,
Speaker 1: it is going to threaten America, or just let's just
Speaker 1: make it more personal. It's going to threaten you, right,
Speaker 1: No one needs to work hard to scare you, because
Speaker 1: if it is a real threat, like let's say it's fire,
Speaker 1: all you need to do is point out the fire
Speaker 1: and say fire, and the person knows like you have
Speaker 1: if you have respect for a person, we know what
Speaker 1: endangers us. Now, people like, oh, well, what about climate danger?
Speaker 1: People are arguing about that. I'm not talking about I'm
Speaker 1: talking about clear eminent dangers that where people are talking
Speaker 1: about this is going to happen, And they're arguing as
Speaker 1: if this is happening right now, They're not talking about
Speaker 1: down the road. I'm saying, these people are talking about
Speaker 1: panics the way they often do, and then we have
Speaker 1: to take action right now. And when they do that,
Speaker 1: what do we get more comic book movies because the
Speaker 1: moral panic wasn't the problem. Yeah, they're ruining independent filmmaking.
Speaker 1: I think we need to convince them that books are
Speaker 1: ruining America, and we can see if we can say publishing.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that can be done. I don't
Speaker 1: think they can. Publishing is ruining publishing. I know there's
Speaker 1: multiple problems here. I'm not a senator and I've never
Speaker 1: played one. Anyway, that's my story for Elizabeth. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing that. That was really lovely. That's
Speaker 1: all I have for you. Well, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: I am Elizabeth Zarin Burnett, I'm the Flash. You can
Speaker 1: find us online at Ridiculous Cron, on Twitter and on Instagram.
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Speaker 1: you can do it at ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com. Yes,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening, Catch you next time. Ridiculous Crime is
Speaker 1: hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zarin Burnett, produced and edited
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