THE MORON DOWNER JR. SHOW

THE MORTON DOWNEY JR. SHOW
1987-1989 SYNDICATED

THE MORON DOWNER JR. SHOW
MAD #286, April 1989
w: Larry Siegel
a: Jack Davis

We used to watch The Morton Downey Jr. Show all the time in high school and college. The chain-smoking conservative with his big mouth, many teeth, and catch phrases like “Zip It!” and “pablum puking liberal” in front of a bloodthirsty audience was like nothing we'd ever seen. This political equivalent of pro-wrestling was the first example (on the East Coast) of what became known as 'trash TV', that spawned a few imitations. When it was canceled, it was replaced in most outlets by Rush Limbaugh, a mellower version of Downey that wasn't an act, and evolved into the types of opinion shows in outlets like FOX News.

Between the Klansman and cannibal is presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.

Morton Downey Jr. had his fifteen minutes of fame, then lost credibility when he beat Jusie Smollett by several decades, claiming skinheads beat him up and shaved a swastika into his forehead, but everyone knew he did it himself because the swastika was backwards.


Chris Elliot had a character for a while that was a parody of Morton Downey Jr.

Long before his talk show, Morton Downey Jr. tried to follow in the footsteps of his father, a famous pop singer, in the 30s and 40s.