Nixon finds a path to White House door in 1968

Just as “television” derailed Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign in 1960, an iconic TV appearance eight years later propelled his re-run for the White House in 1968. 

Nixon, who was the sitting Republican vice president back in 1960, was bidding to succeed Dwight D. Eisenhower in the White House, and he had taken an early lead in the polls. That edge evaporated on Sept. 26, 1960, during the first televised presidential debate in U.S. history. 

It became immediately clear to viewers that Nixon was not “television-ready” to match up with Democrat John F. Kennedy that night. Ryan Lintelman of Smithsonian magazine reflected on the situation and wrote: 

“Nixon famously flubbed his television personality test in 1960. Compared to the young, telegenic Kennedy, Nixon, who was recovering from illness, looked pallid and sweaty.” 

By 1968, Nixon had brushed up his image. However, there was no presidential debate that year, because neither Nixon nor Democrat candidate Hubert Humphrey (vice president at the time) was eager to share the stage with third party candidate George Wallace, who was considered a maverick. 

Eager to project a better image on the small screen, Nixon agreed to a cameo appearance on a new TV comedy show, “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.” The “Nixon episode” ran on Sept. 16, 1968, and many historians consider it to be “the most influential moment in the show’s incredibly successful five-year run,” Lintelman said. 

Nixon was asked to deliver the “Laugh-In” signature catchphrase: “Sock it to me.” It took six takes to record that four-word line, and Nixon turns it into a question: “Sock it to meee?” (as if Nixon himself couldn’t believe he was saying it).

 

The Nixon campaign also wisely aired a political commercial during the episode. Laugh-In “was the number-one rated program that season,” Lintelman said. 

Fellow presidential candidates Humphrey and Wallace were also offered the opportunity to appear on the show, but both declined. 

Freelance writer Joel Murray reported that George Schlatter, the show’s creator, once remarked: “Humphrey later said that not doing it may have cost him the election,” and “(Nixon) said the rest of his life that appearing on ‘Laugh-In’ is what got him elected.” 

“Now, you can’t have an election without the candidates going on every show in sight,” Schlatter added. “But at that point it was revolutionary.” Historical and hysterical.

Judy Carne of Northampton, England, was the Laugh-In cast regular who had popularized the phrase “sock it to me.”

 

“As a running gag on the show, Carne gamely bore the brunt of such pranks as having buckets of water thrown at her or being dropped through a trap door, all set in motion whenever she said ‘sock it to me!’” wrote Ben Zimmer of The Wall Street Journal. 

“Nixon wasn’t doused by water, dropped through a trap door, bombarded with marshmallows or subjected to any additional indignities – much as some in the audience might have enjoyed it,” Zimmer said. 

After Richard Nixon moved into the White House, he was frequently called on the telephone by “Laugh-In” character Ernestine Tomlin, the nosy switchboard operator (played by Lily Tomlin). She referred to him as Milhous, which was his middle name.

 

Her monologue inquired about his astronomical telephone bill, with 175 extensions at the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and the number of long-distance calls being made to foreign capitals. 

Ernestine asked: “Don’t you have any friends in this country?”