Nobody for President Stars and Stripes

Blue text on a white stripe with blue with white stars and blue and white stripes

As early as 1940, political jokes began incorporating the ‘Nobody for President’ sentiment in the mainstream public discourse. However, with the tumultuous events of the 1960’s and the rise of the counter-culture the joke started to gain some credible ground. In 1964, humor columnist Arthur Hoppe, created the satirical campaign to elect ‘Nobody For President’ and in a series of columns pretended to be working for the campaign office. This satire piece found a strong audience in the counter-culture of the 1960’s and even into the 1970’s did the joke continue to be referenced. By the 1976 Presidential elections, political activists Wavy Gravy and Curtis Spangler revived the joke campaign and brought it to the forefront of anti-establishment politics. The satirical campaign lives on today, operating a website at http://www.nobodyforpresident.org/ to carry on Hoppe’s work into the modern era.