Hey Hey
Cidu Bill on Dec 14th 2009
I guess you don’t have to be an AARP member to enjoy this comic, but I don’t think you’re likely to really get the fifth panel if you’re not. And could you ever have imagined yourself, in the mid-1960s, as a member of the AARP?
Filed in Bill Bickel, Darby Conley, Hey Geezers! Comics!, Pearls Before Swine, comic strips, comics, humor | 20 responses so far
Nicole Dec 14th 2009 at 08:48 am 1
No … but damn it … I am still not a member of AARP … not because I don’t qualify .. but because I don’t want to qualify .. Geezers unite … refuse to grow old gracefully .. rise up against your oppressors and throw away your walkers … Don’t depend on your depends ….
We shall overcome … we shall overcome … We shall overcome some day
Nicole Dec 14th 2009 at 08:48 am 2
Oh yeah … I liked the comic
Lindsay Dec 14th 2009 at 09:43 am 3
I know the reference, and I’m under 30.
Morris Keesan Dec 14th 2009 at 10:06 am 4
I didn’t even notice anything obscure about that fifth panel until Bill pointed it out here.
And in the mid-’60s, I don’t think I was even aware of the existence of AARP.
I’m not a member of AARP (although I qualify), because I don’t think they have anything to offer me. As far as I can tell, extending their qualifying age down to 50 is nothing but a ploy to get more membership dollars. They certainly don’t recognize me as part of their demographic: the applications (which they seem to have finally stopped sending me) have the choices “retired, working full-time, working part-time”. They seem totally unaware of the existence of unemployed people over 50, or of 50-year-olds with young children.
I’ll stop ranting now.
Its Justme Dec 14th 2009 at 11:25 am 5
One of the more poignant complaints about modern protests/demonstrations is that they are just recycled 60s ones. Whippersnappers! They have no imagination!
As far as imagining myself in AARP in the 60s - to quote Wild in the Streets - “Trust no one over 30!”
Longest August Dec 14th 2009 at 12:16 pm 6
I’m 19, and I get the reference, mainly because it came up in my high school history class.
Soup Dragon Dec 14th 2009 at 12:39 pm 7
All right, time to fess up. I didn’t get the reference, but I googled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson
Chuck Dec 14th 2009 at 01:37 pm 8
We do learn about these things in high school, Bill.
JamesK Dec 14th 2009 at 02:48 pm 9
I’m in my mid-20s, but I’m still very familiar with “Hey, hey, LBJ, How many kids did you kill today.”
And I didn’t even take the special “A history of 1969″ class in highschool.
Do not under-estimate how much the 60s still get taught. (It’s the only way to understand politics sometimes. Just research what was going on during the late 60s, realize everyone involved still thinks that’s going on, and it all becomes crystal clear.)
CIDU Bill Dec 14th 2009 at 03:21 pm 10
JamesK, 1969 might have been a bit late for that chant.
You never know what high-schoolers are going to know or not know. Last month I was judging a forensics (debate) meet, an activity that obviously attracts the most politically savvy kids. One team tried to make a point using as an example the fact that the Viet Nam war was never actually won or lost, the hostilities ending only after a truce left the country divided. The other team argued against the point, while accepting the fact that Viet Nam was still divided.
Made me want to scream. Seriously. When the match was over, I stopped all four of them before they left the room and told them they were all driving me crazy. KOREA was divided. Viet Nam we lost. This came as a surprise to all of them, but I guess they figured I was ancient enough to know.
CIDU Bill Dec 14th 2009 at 03:23 pm 11
Its Justme, I think the true test of geezerdom is whether you remember Wild in the Streets.
Scott Dec 14th 2009 at 03:49 pm 12
Speaking of overturning cars and how far things have gone downhill …
We took the son of a friend of ours, visiting from Venezuela, to Berkeley. We ran into a street protest, just like the old days.
They burned a car in the middle of the street, and smashed the window of a store. But it turned out that the people running the
demonstration had bought the car to burn, and the store window was smashed by accident. The organizers apologized profusely,
and paid for a replacement.
Berkeley has become a ’60s theme park.
Keera Dec 14th 2009 at 04:41 pm 13
Ah, blessed family turmoil. I was so traumatized I hardly remember shit from the 60’s, especially grown-up stuff (well, except for the high school students demonstrating for girls’ right to wear slacks to school). So I needed that Wikipedia link, too. I don’t need Alzheimer’s. Already have it.
Wendy Dec 14th 2009 at 10:11 pm 14
Well, I sure didn’t get it, but then when I was in high school in the late 80s, we never learned anything after WW2. We ran out of time and none of that stuff was on the final, so we skipped it all.
Nicole Dec 14th 2009 at 10:12 pm 15
Bill you don’t think Wild in the Streets what Hal Holbrook’s big breakout role ? Not to mention Ed Begley and Shelly Winters ? I certainly do remember Wild in the Streets … I’ll go you one better .. I had the soundtrack on vinyl
Oh and as a few months ago Netflix had it as an instant view .. I relived my wayward youth one night watching it … I remembered most of the words to the songs
CIDU Bill Dec 14th 2009 at 10:27 pm 16
Nicole, you get the win for having had the recording; but I claim runner-up for having read the novel before the movie came out.
Nicole Dec 14th 2009 at 10:32 pm 17
I had no idea there was a novel … I am thinking a tie
Mark in Boston Dec 14th 2009 at 10:47 pm 18
AARP is not an acronym anymore (or so they claim) and if it is, the “R” doesn’t stand for that “R” word any more and it never did.
flapjacket Dec 15th 2009 at 06:15 pm 19
A true geek-zer read “The Strawberry Statement” before seeing the movie.
Tullia Dec 19th 2009 at 07:54 am 20
I know I’m posting late to this party, but …
… the “hey, hey, NAME-HERE-ay, how many NOUNs did you VERB to-day?” bit has been stitched into grad student/hippie/leftish protests as part of their vocabulary. Yes, the “hey, hey, ho, ho, NOUN NOUN NOUN-NOUN has got to go!” is much more common, but the VERBing NOUNs today one is used as spice.
I saw it fifteen years ago, and I saw it last year, and I saw it all the years in between. If you get crowds of activists ranging from Mennonites to the radical transgendered physical scientists of colour, well, you need something catchy to keep them all marching in the same direction, so why toss out a perfectly good, easily modified classic?