Dick Gregory at a 2013 rally for Trayvon Martin. Photo by Flickr user Elvert Barnes.
The president-elect was far from the first celebrity to run for office. In 1968, comedian Dick Gregory unsuccessfully ran for president of the United States as a write-in candidate. Like many of his fellow comics, Gregory has compared Trump to Hitler, but unlike most, he isn’t thinking about the resistance. He’ll be addressing his thoughts on the recent election this Thursday to a sold out crowd at the DC Improv. Don’t expect a lot of jokes about how we’re going to make it through the next four years. Do expect your assumptions to be challenged.
Gregory, who began his career in comedy during an Army stint in the ’50s, sees America in decline, on the verge of the same tragic end that befell the Romans. When asked what we as a nation ought to do next, he falls back on the sense of humor that’s made him a household name. “If me and you was on a 747 and the wing fell off, do we know what to do? This is what it’s about.”
At 84 years old, Gregory has seen and lived through a lot. But he’s not thinking about his legacy, nor does he think his age alone is reason enough to listen. “An elder ain’t nothing just ’cause he’s old,” Gregory says. “What about when the pimps and the hustlers get old? We’re supposed to recognize them as elders, too?”
Yet Dick Gregory must be recognized as an elder who broke barriers. He was the first black comedian invited to talk on the couch after performing on Tonight Starring Jack Parr, a concession Gregory demanded. He’s spent a lifetime leveraging his gift for making people laugh into social activism and philanthropy. He was active in the Civil Rights Movement and went on hunger strikes to protest issues from the Vietnam War to the hostage crisis in Iran.
You’ve got problems with the status quo? Gregory is quick to point out that all of us are complicit with it.
“Every time I get on a plane, the taxes on my round trip ticket go to buy bombs and guns all over the world and kill people,” Gregory says. “So when the bombs fall on me and my children and my grandchildren, all I can do is look up and say, ‘What took you so long?'”
It may be all to easy to scapegoat Trump for the ills of the world, but for Gregory, we all played a part in the world that gave rise to him.
There are degrees of evil, Gregory notes. “It’s like a nice lynching. What, are you going to hang me from a low tree? If I’m holding a woman down and she’s getting raped, I’m not the rapist, but I’m helping.”
The uncomfortable metaphor opens up a potential contradiction. A longtime advocate for ending violence against women, the comedian has also defended his contemporary Bill Cosby against a litany of rape allegations.
Gregory’s rationale for such questionable skepticism is rooted in an obsession with conspiracy theories that typifies his current place in the mainstream. Dating back to the mid-’60s, when Gregory was outspoken about the Kennedy assassination, he’s always refused to accept the conventional wisdom. He’s always asking questions, even if some of them seem spurious at best.
Gregory’s mind flows like rapids, with thoughts and asides beating ceaselessly along the rocks. A conversation with him might begin with the current political climate before turning to farmers cross-breeding carrots with lightning bugs, car technology, and questioning the very existence of ISIS. While reminiscing, Gregory may casually discuss a conversation he once had with Bob Marley, schooling the legendary musician on the origin of the Buffalo Soldier (the subject of a Wailers song released in 1983): that black men were sent West to hunt buffalo in order to starve Native Americans.
Among the morsels of wisdom that makes you question the nature of your own reality, some of Gregory’s ideas may strain credulity. On Abraham Lincoln, Gregory explains that the phrase “tall, dark, and handsome” is code for a negro passing as white, citing Clark Gable and Rudolph Valentino as sterling examples.
Between all the colorful theories and doomsaying about the future of our country, why does Gregory still get on stage to tell jokes? Because jokes, more than ever, are vital.
“When the universe was put together, your ability to laugh was your hospital. No medicine, no pills,” Gregory says, before giving his own interpretation of the old saw that tragedy plus time equals comedy. “If three days ago, you slammed your hand in a car door, no one was laughing. But now you can sit around and laugh at how stupid you were to do that. In 1963, Kennedy was shot, but today, you could write a play on Broadway about how stupid he was to go to Dallas.”
Note: this article originally stated that Jack Paar was the original host of The Tonight Show. Steve Allen was in fact the show’s first host.
Dick Gregory will be at the DC Improv, 1140 Connecticut Avenue NW, Thursday January 5th at 6:00pm. The show is sold out. Tickets are still available for Gregory’s appearance at the Howard Theater on February 11, with Paul Mooney.
