Voting Station

Paul Krassner

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Commentator

The Resume

    (April 9, 1932-July 21, 2019)
    Born in Brooklyn, New York
    Journalist, stand-up comedian, and counter-culture activist
    Founded and edited the satirical magazine ‘The Realist’ (1958-74)
    Contributor to Mad, Playboy, The Nation, and High Times
    Member of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters
    Founding member, with Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, of the Yippies (1967)
    Recorded the albums ‘We Have Ways of Making You Laugh’ (1996), ‘Sex, Drug, and the Antichrist: Paul Krassner at MIT’ (1999), and ‘Irony Lives’ (2002)
    Appeared in the film ‘The Aristocrats’ (2005)

Why he might be annoying:

    He dropped out of college three credits shy of graduating.
    He mailed an issue of ‘The Realist’ containing a ‘Fuck Communism’ poster to J. Edgar Hoover in hopes of getting busted for sending obscene material through the mail, generating publicity for the magazine. He was disappointed when nothing happened. (Maybe J. Edgar agreed with the sentiment?)
    In his most notorious satire, he presented what purported to be a censored chapter from William Manchester’s ‘Death of a President’ in which Lyndon Johnson performs necrophilia on the corpse of John F. Kennedy.
    He dropped acid before testifying at the trial of the Chicago Seven.
    He was a radio disk jockey using the pseudonym ‘Rumpelforeskin.’
    When Larry Flynt briefly became ‘born again’ and decided to step down as publisher of ‘Hustler,’ he asked Krassner to take over; Krassner lasted six months before being given the boot (1978).

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was a protégé of Lenny Bruce and edited Bruce’s autobiography, ‘How to Talk Dirty and Influence People.’
    George Carlin said, ‘The Realist was the inspiration that kept pushing me to the next level. There was no way I could continue reading it and remain the same.’
    He and Wavy Gravy co-hosted the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibition ‘I Want to Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Era.’ (1998)
    He was honored by the ACLU for his commitment to freedom of expression.
    He titled his memoirs ‘Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut,’ inspired by an agent’s description of him in his FBI file.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 7 Votes: 85.71% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 12 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 59 Votes: 61.02% Annoying