Thread by @MichaelRCaputo

In 1992 I was a media guy on the Bush-Quayle re-election team. I called up my friend #PJ O’Rourke in NH.

ME: Hey PJ. I’ve got a funny scam I wanna play on Clinton-Gore. You in?

PJ: Hell yeah. Will there be smoked meats?

ME: Um nooo.

PJ: Ok. I’m still in. What’s the plan? 1/

I explained that my team was responsible for all satellite TV work on the Bush re-elect and our sat-time buyer had tipped us off to a big Clinton-Gore buy. We figured out there was a national college student rally planned for Clinton at dozens of campuses across the country.

2/

Bill Clinton would speak at one school, then Hillary at another, Al and Tipper at two other schools. Surrogates at watch parties speaking across the country. One long consecutive remote rally, all connected by satellite. Actually a pretty innovative campaign event for 1992.

3/

ME: So #PJ, we bought all the satellite time directly after their event is over. Literally our time begins the moment their campus satellite rally ends. Not a one second break between us. They end, we begin.

PJ: I like where you’re going here Caputo.

ME: So I was thinking…
4/

ME: What if I send a satellite truck over to your house, hook you up, and you do a mocking humor routine ripping on Clinton after they finish? I’ll make sure the students don’t turn off their TVs.

PJ: I can say whatever I want?

ME: Anything.

PJ: I can be profane?

ME: Yep.

5/

PJ: I can tell dick jokes?

ME: Anything. Well maybe not dick jokes.

PJ: I’m not doing this if I can’t tell dick jokes.

ME: Ok, then do the dick jokes.

I’ll never know how I got @WillFeltus to agree to fund this but we had two days to prepare. Our team went to work.

6/

We grabbed video from the 1992 Democratic National Convention in NYC, the scenes after Bill Clinton’s iconic acceptance speech ended. You remember the song: Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” played as Hillary & Chelsea came onstage, then Al and Tipper Gore.

7/

Blue balloons were dropping. As the scene unfolded, “Stay Tuned For More… Clinton/Gore…” scrolled across the bottom of the screen over and over again. And as Hillary and Tipper embraced on the stage, we paused it and reversed it, then paused it and let it play forward. #PJ

8/

Then we paused & reversed & repeated continuously as the “Stay Tuned” script scrolled below. We sped up the video as “Don’t Stop” played & Hillary & Tipper did an odd in-out embrace. It began to look obscene so we faded in a blue slate to match the balloons drop on stage.

9/

On it, a transition message #PJ O’Rourke had wanted from Monty Python👇

The video opened with PJ seated at his desk in his bookshelf-wrapped den, face in his hands. He lifted up his head, and started his routine: “I hope you don’t believe any of that Clinton-Gore crap…”

10/

His routine devolved from there. It went down perfectly. Students attending Clinton College Rally sites said the trick worked: our “Stay Tuned” message kept eyes on the screen at rally points everywhere. The weird Hillary-Tipper embrace got everyone to quiet down and watch.

11/

And then #PJ O’Rourke entertained as he always did, mercilessly mocking the Clinton-Gore team. But it was brilliantly issue-oriented, no dick jokes. Reports came back of rally organizers struggling with TV remotes to end PJs routine and failing. Laughter coast to coast.

12/

I know that satellite feed video is stored in the Bush 41 archives. I would pay a million dollars to watch it right now. I’d pay more to see #PJ O’Rourke again, skewering politicians and making everyone laugh just one last time. I’ve never met a funnier man dressed as well.

13/

I remember squiring PJ & his lovely wife Tina around 1990s Russia with the craziness you might expect from a genius like him in a place like that. RIP to the greatest political humorist of all time. Condolences to Tina & their kids. The world humor account is bankrupt today.

END