The Realist
Editor | OCLC 1105249849 | |
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The Realist was a
History
First published in the spring of 1958 in New York City in the offices of Mad,[3] The Realist appeared on a fairly regular schedule during the 1960s and then on an irregular schedule after the early 1970s. In 1984, it was revived as a much smaller newsletter. Articles and cartoons from the magazine were collected in a book, The Best of the Realist (Running Press, 1984). The final issue of The Realist was #146 (Spring 2001).
The Realist provided a format for extreme satire in its articles, cartoons and Krassner's editorials, but it also carried more traditionally serious material in articles and interviews. The magazine also published political commentary from Norman Mailer, Ken Kesey and Joseph Heller.[3]
Hoaxes and advertising
Masquerade Party
The first hoax directed toward mainstream culture involved the 1960 edition of the NBC show Masquerade Party.[4][5][6] Typically, television network executives would react swiftly and fearfully to viewer complaints, no matter how small or unjustified the viewer response. Testing this premise, angry letters containing no specific complaints at all were sent in response to a particular episode of the innocuous game show.
Bumper sticker
Among the more successful productions issued by Krassner was a red, white, and blue automobile bumper sticker, decorated with stars, which proclaimed "Fuck Communism". In advertising this item, Krassner advised that if anyone displaying the sticker received criticism, the critic should be told, "Go back to Russia, you Commie lover."
Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster
His Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, illustrated by
There is a section of the image, on the left-hand side, that shows Snow White being sexually assaulted by five of the seven dwarfs, whilst the other two engage in anal sex nearby. This scene has been printed (often modified to be more explicit) on t-shirts and worn by punks with the title Snow White and the Sir Punks, which have caused some offence.[8]
Other cartoonists featured in The Realist included Howard Shoemaker, Dick Guindon, Mort Gerberg, Bhob Stewart, Jonathan Richards and Lou Myers.
"The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book"
Krassner's most successful prank was The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book, a
In 1967, the Canadian campus newspaper The McGill Daily published an excerpt from Krassner's story. The Montreal police confiscated the issue and Rocke Robertson, principal of McGill University, charged student John Fekete, the supplement editor responsible for the publication, before the Senate Discipline Committee.[13]
Conspiracy theories
The Realist was the first
When the magazine ran into financial difficulties in the 1970s, it was the conspiracy theory element that attracted ex-Beatle John Lennon[3] to donate; saying, "If anything ever happens to me...it won't be an accident."[3]
Cultural influence
In 2003, Italian satirist Daniele Luttazzi, whose production company is called "Krassner Entertainment", wrote the short story Stanotte e per sempre (Eng.: Tonight and forever) about the assassination of Italian politician Aldo Moro. In the climax scene, Giulio Andreotti penetrates the bullet wounds in Aldo Moro's corpse.[14][15]
Lewis Black included an excerpt, precisely the final part, from Krassner's story in his 2005 book Nothing's Sacred.
Notable contributors
Notable contributors include:
- Paul Krassner
- Mae Brussell[16]
- Mort Sahl
- Lenny Bruce
- Terry Southern
- Ken Kesey
- Richard Pryor
- Joseph Heller
- Woody Allen
- Jules Feiffer
- Dick Guindon
- Herb Gardner
- Garrett Hardin
- Norman Mailer
- Vivian McPeak
- Robert Anton Wilson
- Robert Crumb
- Garry Trudeau
- Harry Shearer
- Jean Shepherd
- Jerry Rubin
- Abbie Hoffman
- Nicholas Kazan
- Bruce Jay Friedman
- Wally Wood
- Mort Gerberg
- Bhob Stewart
- Lou Myers
- Phil Ochs
- Albert Ellis
- Neil Postman
- Madalyn Murray O'Hair
- Tad Richards
- Edward Sorel
References
- ^ Headline of the first issue: "social-political-religious criticism and satire", ep.tc
- ^ Thefreelibrary.com
- ^ ISBN 1-59609-156-8
- ^ Michael DooleyJuly (2000) Here Lies Paul Krassner Archived 2011-05-14 at the Wayback Machine, at AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, vol. 18, no. 2, 2000
- ^ Paul Krassner (1960) "A Stereophonic Hoax", The Realist n.16 March 1960, pp. 5–6
- ^ Paul Krassner (1960). "Case History of a TV Hoax", The Realist n. 18 June 1960, pp. 1, 3–4
- ^ Paul Krassner Home Page Archived 2006-08-29 at the Wayback Machine retrieved 6/29/2017.
- ^ "::THE LOOK – adventures in rock and pop fashion:: » Snow White & the Disneyland Memorial Orgy". Archived from the original on 2017-08-07. Retrieved 2017-08-07.
- ^ a b "The Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book". The Realist. No. 74. May 1967. p. cover page and 18.
- ISBN 978-1889307084. Archived from the originalon 2006-10-21.
- ^ Feldman, Elliot. "Paul Krassner and The Realist". Archived from the original on 2009-04-09. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
- Adbusters Quarterly: Journal of the Mental Environment. Vol. 3, no. 3. Interviewed by Simril, Cat. Winter 1995.
- ^ Smith, Eric (September 26, 1996). "A reunion of radicals". Milestones. The McGill Daily.
- ^ Deaglio, Enrico (2010) Patria 1978-2008: Un racconto grottesco della vicenda si intitola "Stanotte e per sempre" ed e' a opera di Daniele Luttazzi che lo ha scritto per la rivista Pulp e presentato al Teatro Modena di Genova il 24 novembre 2003. La trama del racconto è un incubo di Andreotti, che sogna di penetrare sessualmente i fori di proiettile che hanno ucciso Moro, omaggio a Paul Krassner. (p.883)
- ^ Luttazzi, Daniele Stanotte e per sempre
- ^ "MAE BRUSSEll's CONSPIRACY NEWSLETTER - First Issue (The Realist, Issue No. 95, Dec 1972)".
Further reading
- The Best of the Realist: The 60's Most Outrageously Irreverent Magazine. Running Press (1984).
- Collected art and articles from the magazine.
- The Realist, no. 47, pp. 17-18, 23.
- The full contents of every issue of The Realist was made digitally available via The Realist Archive Project, completed November 2010.
- "To Liberate Communication."
- An academic analysis of the magazine's first run.
- The Realist Cartoons. Fantagraphics Books(2016).
- Significant comic strips and illustrations from the magazine.