Much has been written about Abraham Lincoln in the 160 years since his death. Most of us know that he was a tall man with a beard who often wore a large black hat. It’s also common knowledge that he was instrumental in getting slavery abolished and was subsequently assassinated for it. One thing that gets overshadowed by all that other stuff, however, is Lincoln’s appreciation for comedy.
Historian Richard Carwardine, who wrote the 2017 book Lincoln’s Sense of Humor, described the former president as a “compulsive teller of stories and jokes,” and “the first president to make laughter a tool of office.” There’s no shortage of examples to back up the assertion, either. Lincoln particularly enjoyed telling a story about military officer Ethan Allen returning to England after the Revolutionary War and finding a picture of George Washington in an outhouse. According to Lincoln, when Allen was asked about the picture, he said that it was an appropriate place for it to be hanging because “nothing will make an Englishman s–t so quick as the sight of General Washington.”
Lincoln’s jokes were known to touch on current events as well. During the Civil War, Union general John Pope telegraphed Washington to report that he’d captured 4,500 enemy troops and would soon have the Confederate rebels in his power. In response to Pope’s claims, Lincoln recalled a tale of an old woman who was prescribed medicine for constipation. When her doctor asked her how many bowel movements she’d been having as a result, she told him 142, with 140 of them being “wind.” In conclusion, Lincoln said, “I am afraid Pope’s captures are 140 of them wind.”
In the days before film and television, though, Lincoln had to get his comedy fix from a different source. One such outlet was the theater, which we already know was the site of his assassination. On that fateful night in 1865, Lincoln and his wife were attending a performance of Our American Cousin, a comedic farce about an American country bumpkin who travels to England in order to claim his inheritance from his aristocratic relatives. John Wilkes Booth had heard Lincoln would be at the play and planned to shoot him when the biggest laugh line was delivered.
The last thing Lincoln heard before the crowd’s laughter was cut short by the gunshot was comedian Harry Hawk, who played the rural American character, chastising a woman for calling his manners into question. “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh?” he says. “Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!”
Lincoln died the next morning after spending nine hours in a coma.
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