By Paul Krassner, via Toni Dalton:

Tuli Kupferberg is better off dead.

My friend and countercultural icon had been suffering from a couple of strokes, hospitals, breathing tubes, feeding tubes, anemia, infections, blindness, catheter, hearing aids, wheelchairs, psychosis, memory loss, diapers, constipation, anti-depressants, sleeping pills, fatigue and a chronically bed-ridden life that seemed to be no life worth living.

Tuli was a dedicated truthseeker, and I”™d like to honor that quality with a couple of truths.

There was a rumor that Phiip Roth had lifted the onanistically obsessed idea for Portnoy”™s Complaint from a song by the Fugs–a band on the cusp of rock and punk, named after Norman Mailer”™s euphemism for fuck in The Naked and the Dead–but this notion was disavowed by Fugs leader Ed Sanders, who assured me, “Philip Roth did not plagiarize a Fugs song. He came to a Fugs show in 1966, and I think he was inspired by Tuli, in top hat and cane, singing “˜Jack-Off Blues.”™  Many times in reunion concerts, introducing Tuli singing that song, I have suggested that Roth got some of the impetus for Portnoy”™s Complaint from that time he was inspired by the Tuli tune.” (more…)

Who’s to Say What’s Obscene? Politics, Culture and Comedy in America Today
by Paul Krassner
BookTV.org
Monday, October 12, 2009

About the Program
[This is an hour long reading in which] Mr. Krassner assesses the ongoing conflict between the governmental power that be and cultural opponents. The comic, journalist and author looks at how obscenity is defined, by whom and why. He also examines why drugs laws are what they are and why so many are incarcerated for what he believes are victimless crimes.

About the Author
Paul Krassner
Mr. Krassner is founder of the Realist magazine, a journalist, author, stand-up comedien and close friend of Lenny Bruce. He was also editor of Bruce’s autobiography and his articles have appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, Playboy, Mother Jones, and National Lampoon.

Watch the video here.
Buy the author’s book here.

thanks Toni

Submitted by Paul Krassner as posted on YouTube by City Lights Books

A mock interview between Paul Krassner and Larry King by Andy Thomas:

Also, Paul Krassner discusses his new book, Who’s to Say What’s Obscene?: Politics, Culture, and Comedy in America Today, with Andy Thomas.

by Paul Krassner

My irreverent friend, Khan Manka, Chairman & CEO of Manka Brothers Studios, had broken his ankle and was afraid he wouldn’t be able to attend the 26th annual gathering of the nation’s most powerful executives and their trophy wives in Sun Valley, Idaho. I really wanted to spy on this summer camp for billionaires, so I suggested that Manka get a wheelchair, then I could serve as his official wheelchair pusher, and he immediately went for the idea.

This by-now traditional five-day extravaganza for 300 guests has been hosted by Wall Street investment banker Herbert Allen, President and CEO of Allen & Company. There were moguls all over the campground, overflowing with the country’s most influential leaders in business, entertainment and media. I could feel myself developing a severe case of imposter syndrome. (more…)

Coffee, Donuts and Weed
by Paul Krassner

The irony of the Silly Season in America is that those who contribute to it seem to lack a sense of humor. Here are a couple of cases in point.

The folks at Dunkin’ Donuts figured they had made a smart move when they hired Rachael Ray–the host of “30 Minute Meals” on the Food Network plus her own syndicated daytime talk show–to hold a cup of iced coffee in their TV commercials and online ads. Simple enough idea, huh?

But a conservative website, Little Green Footballs, compared the fringed black-and-white scarf Ray was wearing to those typically worn by Muslim extremists.

Next came right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin, asserted that the scarf did in fact resemble a keffiyeh, which, Malkin wrote, “has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad. Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant (and not-so-ignorant) fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.”

Suddenly Dunkin’ Donuts was bombarded with so many calls from reporters seeking a comment that they chickened out and decided to pull the ad, explaining that “the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee.” Laughter had been replaced by fear. (more…)

Submitted by Paul Krassner, written by Michael Dare for Dareland,
March 26, 2008

The true story of the biggest April Fool’s Day Prank of All Time

Lies To Get You Out of the House

None of this is my fault. At least not all my fault. There are plenty of others to blame. For instance, there’s the Bhagwan . . .

I start out 1985 at the Bodhi Tree, a multispiritual bookstore on Melrose with incense and herbal tea. I am looking for nothing in particular, which is when you stumble upon the most surprising things. I am skimming from section to section, belief system to belief system, from Asimov to Zoroaster, when there in front of me is an entire wall of books by someone I’ve never heard of. His name is Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and he is not famous yet. He has not yet moved to Oregon, started an ashram, collected Rolls-Royces and gotten thrown out of the country. But he will be equally responsible for the Biggest April Fool’s Day Prank of all time. If I had not opened a random book by Rajneesh, turned to the first page and read the first paragraph, none of this would have happened. Here is what that first page said:

Beyond the boundary of this room is the unbound, open sky. You have never seen it. I can talk with you about the sky, about the freshness, about the sea, about all that is beyond this room, but you have not seen it. You do not know about it. You just laugh; you think I am making it up. You say, “It is all fantastic. You are a dreamer.” I cannot convince you to go outside because everything that I can talk about is meaningless to you. Then I say, “The house is on fire!” This is meaningful to you; this is something that you can understand. Now I do not have to give you any explanations. I just run; you follow me. The house is not on fire, but the moment you are outside you don’t have to ask me why I lied. The meaning is there; the sky is there. Now you thank me. Any lie will do. The lie was just a device; it was just a device to bring you outside. It did not cause the outside to be there. Every religion is based on a lie device.

I immediately dig the guy. Here he is, right off the bat, admitting that he’s lying to me. I buy the book and never finish it, but I do end up carrying a phrase around in my head for days, like a hit song with a killer hook. “Lies to get you out of the house.” I write it down at the top of a piece of paper, sure that something will come.

It does. (more…)

The following is excerpted from Paul Krassner’s book, Sex, Drugs and the Twinkie Murders: -JS

In the midst of Disneyland’s 50th anniversary celebration, DisneyLies.com claimed to be serving 50 to 100 gigabites a day of such online imagery as a couple of newlyweds caught on Tom Sawyer Island after dark, major nudity on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and a virtual orgy on Pirates of the Caribbean. There was also a steamy incident with a couple of cast members in the secret room at the top of the Matterhorn, too. Ah, but what about all those cartoon characters themselves? (more…)