The Curious Case of Vaughn Meader

What happens when an entertainer relies too much on an known public figure for material, and something horrible happens to said public figure?

One might well learn a lesson from Vaughn Meader, a comedian and singer who rose to fame in the early 1960s with his impersonation of John F. Kennedy, and creating a best-selling album. But on November 22, 1963, it all came to an end, with his career going into obscurity. It was said he was a bad reminder of the late President, even more so because he looked and sounded like him.

What other lessons can we learn from Vaughn Meader, and what other entertainers have suffered his fate?

 

Is he better than Carlin playin president Kennedy?

 

The perils of shtick.

 

Or is it the peril of elevating topicalism above all else?

 

I think this shows the perils of putting all of your eggs in one basket. His entire career was built on imitating one person. When that person met a tragic end, we not only connected this guy to Kennedy, but to tragedy. Not wise.

He should have diversified. You don't see Dana Carvey or other impressionists only doing one person.

 

True, but the very nature of his success doomed him. People felt guilty about laughing.

 

Sometimes, humor can help with healing, even (or maybe especially) transgressive humor. What do you think he could have done, after the death, to make his humor work? Or was there simply nothing?

 

Lenny Bruce used to do a bit about Jacqueline Kennedy at the assassination:

"Bruce did a comedy routine, shortly after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, over a photograph of a terrified Jackie Kennedy climbing out of the car in which her husband had been shot. Time magazine's caption claimed that the First Lady was trying to save her husband. She's "hauling ass," scorned Bruce, arguing that she was running away as any human would. Bruce's routines attacked organized religion and the Catholic Church in particular. In the wake of Kennedy's assassination, this was more than the Irish-Catholic Manhattan District Attorney Frank Hogan and the decency brigade could take."

He did four months at Ryker's Island.

 

Yes, the other peril of being topical.

 

In that case, Meader was luck(ier).