This post continues our series “Funny Business” that features successful and less-than-successful attempts at humor by economists. Reading one of these historical skits demands the reader to concede that the defense, “It seemed funny at the time,” might actually be valid for fifty year old jokes. At the December 1968 Graduate Economics Association party the M.I.T. economics faculty offered its version of the wildly popular, frenetic comedy series “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” (like “Sit-in”, get it? As I just said, “it seemed funny at the time”).
For young and non-U.S. historians of economics, remote learning of the original Laugh-In content is easy:
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In information at IMDb.
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In highlights on YouTube.
The tag-line “Sock it to me” was a creation of the 1960s and made a meme by Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Paul Samuelson closing the skit with that line is almost up there with 1968 Presidential candidate Richard Nixon’s saying it in his cameo appearance on Laugh-In.
The skit transcript below includes some square-bracketed comments to help the reader. Of course, nothing says “joke” more than a good footnote.
______________________
Reminder/Invitation
December 11, 1968
Graduate Students, Faculty Members
and Secretaries
DON’T FORGET!!
A week from today is the GEA Christmas Party—Tuesday, December 17th. The festivities will begin at 8:00 pm in the Campus Room of Ashdown House. Admission is only $1.00 and the entertainment is free.
______________________
GEA CHRISTMAS SKIT 1968
[Faculty]
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Music |
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| [Franklin M.] Fisher: | It’s the Faculty Laugh-In. |
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Music |
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(Enter [E. Cary] Brown, [Paul A.] Samuelson and [Robert L.] Bishop, |
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| Samuelson: | For the first question on your advanced theory oral: Who was the greatest economist of all time? |
| Bishop | (After much thought) Pigou… |
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Music |
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| [Morris] Adelman: | It is written: when offer curve bend backwards, then is time to send [Walt] Rostow to Texas. [For background to Rostow Affair, see Appendix below] |
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Music—through |
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| [Matthew D.] Edel (carries sign) | “Economics is a dismal science” |
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([Peter] Temin and [Duncan] Foley enter as Rowan and Martin) |
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| Foley: | It certainly was a swell idea to put on a faculty laugh-in. |
| Temin: | It’s so much easier than thinking up a connected skit. |
| Foley: | Well, what cute laugh-in type feature do we have coming up next? |
| Temin: | I see by my script here that we’re going to have a “Laugh-in looks at…” next. |
| Foley: | Yes, it says: Faculty laugh-in looks at the new [Nixon] administration. |
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Music |
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| [Jerome] Rothenberg: | Washington: James Reston has expressed outrage at news reports that the University of Maryland has no plans to hire Spiro T. Agnew. [Motivation for James Reston mention here see, Appendix “Rostow Affair” below] |
| Temin: | Meanwhile at the Council of Economic Advisers, Republicans begin to grapple with the unaccustomed complexities of the Federal budget. |
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(enter Bishop and Foley) |
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| Bishop: | They always said Art Okun could do it with a pencil on the back of an envelope. [See Appendix below] |
| Foley: | I still think we’d better wait for the computer printout. |
| Bishop: | No, look, its easy. Let’s see, how does it go? Is it Y = C + the deficit, or does the deficit = Y + C? |
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Music |
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| Temin: | At the same time we hear the swan song of liberals seeking sanctuary on college campuses. |
| Fisher: | Song “Hey Dick [Nixon]” [presumably to the tune of “Hey Jude”, lyrics to parody not in the file] |
| Rothenberg: | Washington: the M.I.T. economics department has again startled Washington circles by announcing that it will not hire Henry Kissinger in 1972. [cf. Appendix below on “Rostow Affair”] |
| Foley: | Why don’t we just use their budget? |
| Bishop: | And give up on the job? It can’t be that hard. |
| Foley: | We don’t even have the computer printout yet. |
| Bishop: | Doesn’t investment come in here someplace? |
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Music |
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| Rothenberg: | Washington: It has just been learned that the M.I.T. economics department, responding to the furor over the Rostow affair has abolished its economic history requirement. [see Appendix below] |
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Music |
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(Man seated, knock on door: goes to answer, returns) |
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| Adelman: | Dear, Mr. Brower is here to fix the point (calling). [Punny reference to Brower’s fixed-point theorem that is a building block for the proof of the existence of a general equilibrium.] |
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Music—through |
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| Edel (carries sign) | “Pigou Power” |
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(Enter Bishop, Brown, Samuelson) |
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| Brown: | Describe an Edgeworth-Bowley Box. |
| Bishop: | (gesturing) It’s about so wide… |
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Music |
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(Enter Foley and Temin) |
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| Foley: | What movie did you see last night? |
| Temin: | “Thoroughly Modern Miltie” [clearly “Milton Friedman”, the film’s title was “Thoroughly Modern Miltie”] |
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Music—through |
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| Fisher (carries sign) | “Nest principal minors” [Linear algebra joke, written like a creepy, even pedophilic, command here, “nested principal minors” or “nest of principal minors” would be proper.] |
| Rothenberg: | The negative definite is equivalent to the lie direct. [Shakespeare As You Like It, V:iv in Appendix below] |
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Music |
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| Foley: | The computer printout is here! |
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(enter tons of printout) |
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| Bishop: | I think I’ve got it! |
| Foley: | What? |
| Bishop: | One of Okun’s envelopes. How old do you think this is anyway? |
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Music |
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| Samuelson: |
A Poem Some people cover lots more ground [Likely another reference to the Rostow Affair, see Appendix Below] |
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Music |
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(Adelman seated, door knock) |
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| Adelman: | Dear, Mr. [Evsey] Domar is here to compare the systems. [One of Evsey Domar signature courses was “Comparative Economic Systems”] |
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Music |
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| Foley: | What movie did you see last night? |
| Temin: | Ride the high Pontry [“Ride the High Country”, 1962 Western film by Sam Peckinpah] |
| Foley: | What Pontry again? [A punny reference to Pontryagin’s maximum principle in optimal control theory.] |
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Music |
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(Enter Bishop, Samuelson, Brown) |
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| Brown: | What was Marshall’s greatest contribution? |
| Bishop: | In 1903, Marshall gave £1500 to King’s College. |
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Music |
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(Enter Fisher and Temin with box) |
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“2 squares least stage” |
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Music |
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| Adelman: | Mark Hopkins said the ideal education is a professor and a student sitting on a log, with the professor talking to the student. I sometimes think I would get the same results sitting on the student and talking to the log. |
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Music |
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| Bishop: | Sock it to me |
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Music |
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(Enter Temin and Foley) |
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| Temin: | Here we are out here again imitating Rowan and Martin. |
| Foley: | Shouldn’t you be standing on the other side? What now? |
| Temin: | Now we’re giving the “Flying Fickle Finger of Fat Award” just like on TV. |
| Foley: | And who gets the “Flying Fickle Finger of Fat Award”? |
| Temin: | Fate. The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award goes to… |
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(Music cue—fanfare) |
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| Temin: | Kenneth Boulding for receiving a vote of confidence from…himself. [Boulding gave his Presidential address to the American Economic Association a few weeks later on “Economics as a Moral Science”. For likely background to the joke see the Appendix below.] |
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Music |
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| Fisher: | A Bordered hessian is a German mercenary surrounded by continentals. |
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Music |
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| Samuelson: |
(carries sign) “I am an external economist.” |
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Music |
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| Foley: | What movie did you see last night? |
| Temin: | “Closely watched brains” [“Closely watched trains”, 1966 Czech film directed by Jiří Menzel] |
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Music |
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| Foley: | (Poring over computer printout). I think the whole idea of the budget is a stupid, dumb, stupid idea. Why do we even need a budget? |
| Bishop: | Look, we’ve got to have something to send down to the Congress tomorrow. |
| Foley: | I’m going to hold my breath until the stupid deficit comes out right. |
| Bishop: | Just try to remember whether capital gains are part of income or not. |
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Music cue |
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(Enter Fisher, Temin, Edel) |
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Music |
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| Brown: | The students are revolting. |
| Bishop: | Yes, I’ve though so for a long time. |
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Enter Everybody |
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| Rothenberg: | SDS Sam [SDS=Students for a Democratic Society… (wild guess) impression of Bogart saying “Play it Again Sam”?] |
| Foley: | Well, here we are out here again, and it’s time to say… |
| Temin: | Long joke. |
| Foley: | Say goodnite, Peter. |
| Temin: | Goodnite, Peter. |
| Samuelson: | Sock it to me. |
Source: M.I.T. Archives. Folder “GEA 1967-68”.
_________________________
Appendix
Rostow Affair
Source: Howard Wesley Johnson, Holding the Center: Memoirs of a Life in Higher Education. From Chapter 8, pp. 189-90.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Art Okun’s Reputation as an economic forecaster “on the back of an envelope”
Source: Joseph A. Pechman contribution for In Memoriam: Arthur M. Okun. November 28, 128–March 23, 1980 (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1980), p. 14.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
From Shakespeare’s As You Like It
Act V, Scene 4.
JAQUES
Can you nominate in order now the degrees of the lie?
TOUCHSTONE
O sir, we quarrel in print, by the book; as you have
books for good manners: I will name you the degrees.
The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the
Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the
fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth, the
Countercheque Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with
Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. All
these you may avoid but the Lie Direct; and you may
avoid that too, with an If. I knew when seven
justices could not take up a quarrel, but when the
parties were met themselves, one of them thought but
of an If, as, ‘If you said so, then I said so;’ and
they shook hands and swore brothers. Your If is the
only peacemaker; much virtue in If.
Source: From the Shakespeare homepage at M.I.T.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Kenneth Boulding’s Vote for AEA to Meet in Chicago in 1968
Source: Robert Scott, Kenneth Boulding: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).