"Hey, let's take a break from fighting commies and muslim evil-doers to make up a joke about a Secret Society."
"Oh yes, lets do it!
That way if any right-wing zealots ever subpoena our perfectly innocent messages it will drive them bonkers!""What a hoot!"
"Wouldn't the media, like ABC, have fun making the right-wingers look like crazy paranoids with this one!"
That reminded me - since Nixon also came up here - there was a skit on SNL, 2nd season, where Nixon (Dan Akroyd) tried to explain the incriminating tapes were actually just a joke:
Snippet from SNL transcript:
Richard Nixon: That’s right, uh.. uh, yeah, yeah.. [ chuckles ] You see.. my administration.. had the greatest sense of humor that this country has ever seen. You see.. most of the time, we were.. making “party” tapes. Me, and Haldeman, and Ehrlichman, and Dean could joke for weeks on end. We actually.. played to the microphone..
[ slow dissolve to a flashback scene of Nixon’s March 21st meeting with John Dean in the Oval Office ]
Richard Nixon V/O: ..We’d do anything to crack each other up! And I remember, that day, Dean was on a roll, so I just followed his lead, and.. “played along” with the “joke”..
John Dean: [ standing over Nixon’s desk; a microphone is unseen underneath a small lamp on the desk ] ..Plus.. there’s a real problem.. in raising money.
[ Dean holds up handwritten sign: “Let’s Pretend There’s A Cover Up”; Nixon laughs, removes lampshade to reveal hidden microphone ]
John Dean: Uh.. Mitchell.. Mitchell has been working on raising some money.. feeling he’s got, you know.. he’s one of the ones with the most.. to lose
President Richard Nixon: [ covers microphone with hand, tries not to laugh ] Martha!
