What Did Evan Mecham Ask the Pope?
Nilsen, Aileen Pace
What Did Evan Mecham Ask The Pope? The jokes that impeached a governor. by Alleen Pace Nilsen What was it that finally drove Evan Mecham from the Arizona governor's office? His...
...Or when he scolded a reporter by telling him never to ask "for a true statement again...
...Don't get mad...
...Aileen Pace Nilsen is a professor of English at Arizona State University...
...Speaking last summer, Morris Udall borrowed a line from Will Rogers and said he couldn't tell any jokes because Mecham had appointed them all...
...Because he heard some of the eggs were going to be colored...
...So he can change feet...
...God—Leave Oral and take Evan...
...What do Evan Mecham's political appointees have in common...
...Thanks for the laughs...
...R-E-C-A-L-L...
...What do Mecham and an untrained puppy have in common...
...Shortly afterwards, a caller to a radio station suggested a state tax to fund the purchase of flat globes for schools...
...His hand-in-the-till approach to campaign finances...
...Why does Evan Mecham have to open his mouth...
...At times, it seemed that Mecham and the jokes had merged...
...How do you spell relief...
...He was saying things so outrageous that the only logical explanation could be that he was mocking himself...
...Get Evan...
...They both cringe at the sight of a newspaper...
...There would be skid marks in front of the skunk...
...Parole officers...
...Or when he denied being a bigot by arguing that he hires blacks "because they are the best people who applied for the cotton-picking job...
...In the end, his most*during enemy may have been the countless Mecham jokes that swept the state, fueled the recall drive, and helped bring down the governor...
...His bigoted comments...
...Mecham's gone, but the jokes remain...
...How's the little woman...
...Did you hear what Mecham asked the Pope...
...What would be the difference if Mecham and a skunk were run over on the highway...
...After Mecham began defending his use of the word pickaninny to describe black children, Arizonans turned it back on him: Pickaninny: What we did for Governor...
...Udall, of course was wrong: Mecham left a few behind...
...Mecham's education adviser, supporting a bill that would have required the teaching of creationism, told the legislature that if a student "wants to say the world is flat, the teacher doesn't have the right to try to prove otherwise...
...Arizona bumper stickers: I'll take a urine test if Mecham will take an IQ test...
...As when he told a Jewish audience that America was a great Christian nation...
...A sampling: Why did Evan Mecham cancel Easter...
Vol. 20 • May 1988 • No. 4
