| Editor | Paul Krassner |
|---|---|
| Categories | Satirical Magazine,Yippies |
| Frequency | Monthly |
| Publisher | Realist Association |
| First issue | Spring 1958 |
| Final issue Number | Spring 2001 146 |
| Country | USA |
| Based in | New York City, New York |
| Language | English |
| OCLC | 1105249849 |
The Realist was amagazine of "social-political-religious criticism and satire",[1] intended as a hybrid of a grown-ups version ofMad andLyle Stuart's anti-censorship monthlyThe Independent. Edited and published byPaul Krassner, and often regarded as a milestone in the Americanunderground orcountercultural press of the mid-20th century, it was a nationally-distributed newsstand publication as early as 1958. Publication was discontinued in 2001.[2]
First published in the spring of 1958 inNew York City in the offices ofMad,[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 ofThe 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 fromNorman Mailer,Ken Kesey andJoseph Heller.[3]
The first hoax directed toward mainstream culture involved the 1960 edition of the NBC showMasquerade 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.
Among the more successful productions issued by Krassner was a red, white, and blue automobilebumper 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."
HisDisneyland Memorial Orgy poster, illustrated byWally Wood and published in the May 1967 issue, was a highlight of the magazine, so successful that Krassner printed it as aposter that was widelypirated. The poster has been upgraded by Krassner into a new, digitally-colored version.[7]
A section of the image on the left 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 titleSnow White and the Sir Punks, which have caused some offence.[8]
Other cartoonists featured inThe Realist included Howard Shoemaker,Dick Guindon,Mort Gerberg,Bhob Stewart,Jonathan Richards andLou Myers.
Krassner's most successful prank wasThe Parts That Were Left Out of the Kennedy Book, agrotesque article following the censorship ofWilliam Manchester's book on theKennedy assassination,The Death of a President.[9] At theclimax of the short story,Lyndon B. Johnson is onAir Force One sexually penetrating the bullet-hole wound in the throat ofJFK's corpse.[9] Krassner acknowledgedMarvin Garson, editor of theSan Francisco Express Times and husband ofBarbara Garson (author of the notorious anti-Johnson playMacBird!), for coming up with that surreal image.[10] According to Elliot Feldman, "Some members of the mainstream press and other Washington political wonks, includingDaniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, actually believed this incident to be true."[11] In a 1995 interview for the magazineAdbusters, Krassner commented: "People across the country believed – if only for a moment – that an act of presidential necrophilia had taken place. It worked becauseJackie Kennedy had created so much curiosity by censoring the book she authorized –William Manchester'sThe Death of a President – because what I wrote was a metaphorical truth about LBJ's personality presented in a literary context, and because the imagery was so shocking, it broke through the notion that the war in Vietnam was being conducted by sane men."[12]
In 1967, the Canadian campus newspaperThe McGill Daily published an excerpt from Krassner's story. The Montreal police confiscated the issue and Rocke Robertson, principal ofMcGill University, charged student John Fekete, the supplement editor responsible for the publication, before the Senate Discipline Committee.[13]
The Realist was the firstsatirical magazine to publishconspiracy theories.[3] It was the first magazine to carryMae Brussell's work on conspiracies,[3] which covered the kidnapping ofPatty Hearst, theWatergate scandal, theassassination of JFK and other conspiracy theories.
When the magazine ran into financial difficulties in the 1970s, it was the conspiracy theory element that attracted ex-BeatleJohn Lennon[3] to donate; saying, "If anything ever happens to me...it won't be an accident."[3]
In 2003, Italian satiristDaniele Luttazzi, whose production company is called "Krassner Entertainment", wrote the short storyStanotte e per sempre (Eng.:Tonight and forever) about the assassination of Italian politicianAldo Moro. In the climax scene,Giulio Andreotti penetrates the bullet wounds inAldo Moro's corpse.[14][15]
Lewis Black included an excerpt, precisely the final part, from Krassner's story in his 2005 bookNothing's Sacred.
Notable contributors include: