GALL OF THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976)
dir: Alan J. Pakula

MAD #187, Dec. 1976
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker

About the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and the journalists who expose it.

I could not find any information about the police in Washington, DC being specifically more corrupt than the police department in any other city, so I'm not sure if the joke about them is supposed to be about anything.

The break-in, considered of minor significance, has been assigned to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (Robert Redford). When sources are nervous around him, he sees more to the story which he pitches to his editor (Jack Warden).

Woodward is paired up with Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) to further investigate Watergate and CREEP (Committee to Re-Elect the President, here called CRAP.)

“Would you buy a used car from this man?” was a slogan people already used about Nixon long before any of this.

They work hard trying to expose the truth about the break-on and money laundering, but everybody that works for the president refuses to talk to them or is covering up. “Deep Throat” (Hal Holbrook) is one their inside sources, though.

They finally get somewhere when a White House bookkeeper reluctantly agrees to talk to them.

Julie was Nixon's daughter. When he was Vice-President he and then-President Eisenhower arranged her marriage to his son David. It was a big deal then.

Informant Donald Segretti (Robert Walden) is not a practical joker in the movie. This is a joke on him being Chairman of Dirty Tricks.

Even though Nixon wins re-election, his staff is indicted and he is forced to resign, thanks to this reporting.

Deep Throat revealed many of the sources anonymously, and was never outed in the movie or in real life until recently, but here he's revealed to be Vice President Gerald Ford, who would have had a lot to gain turning White House employees in. He was President when this issue came out.

Sick #112, October 1976
a: John Reiner

The make fun of all the other characters' names except for Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

”Deep Throat” came from the name of the first breakthrough porn movie. The other nicknames he's mistaken for are also porn titles.

Now they've given up on porn titles and are just using titles in general.

It comes full circle. Artist John Reiner was later an assistant to Mort Drucker (and became replacement artist on The Lockhorns after Bill Hoest's death.)

ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MESS
Parody #1, April 1977
a: Vance Rodewalt

(Wayne Hays and Wilbur Mills were two congressmen also involved in scandals when this was released). I think the part cut off is “Oh, brother, have you got a lot to learn!”

Rona Barrett was a gossip columnist.

The potential witness in the middle row is Telly Savalas as Kojak.

Harold Stassen was a one-time governor of Minnesota who tried to run for various offices including President.

Martha Mitchell was known for talking a lot (mostly about Watergate) and comedians made jokes about it.

Elizabeth Ray worked for congressman Wayne Hays, who was mentioned earlier in the parody. She was publicly his secretary but was actually his mistress and after bringing him down had a brief career as Washington sex symbol.

Vance Rodewalt used his talent as a caricaturist who didn't look like Mort Drucker to be the longtime editorial cartoonist for the Calgary Sun, commenting on events us crackers wouldn't get.