Mort Sahl Pioneered Stand Up Comedy, Improv & Political Commentary

Mort Sahl, an American original born in Canada, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 94.

It is a shame that Sahl isn't a household name in the way he was during the 1950's and 1960's. Because without him it is very unlikely we would have seen Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers and Whoopi Goldberg. With only a newspaper in hand, Sahl almost single-handedly pioneered stand up comedy, improv and political commentary. Sahl didn't tell jokes, but rather engaged in spontaneous conversation about our state of affairs. 

His star faded when he concentrated his energies on JFK's assassination. I don't know if turned off his audience so much as it turned off club promoters and TV executives. Sahl didn't disappear entirely, but he never recaptured his earlier stardom as his humor didn't resonate despite his role as a comedy pioneer. Yet his perceptiveness didn't disappear even if most among us couldn't entirely appreciate what he was saying. Consider what he said about Donald Trump back in 2005:

The movies have dissolved the Black man as a political force. The Black man has become a guy who just wants to get his necklaces and his tennis shoes and run a record company, so he can be as good as Donald Trump. You know what Preston Sturges would have done with Trump? He would have been Rudy Vallee, and he would have been a joke. But look where it is now. A guy who’s in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Atlantic City is telling people what it is to be a failure. And there’s nobody on the air to satirize it.

So most people would be lost when it comes to Preston Sturges and Rudy Vallee. But in 16 years, Trump has lost an election and is telling people what is to be a failure. There are plenty of people on the air to satirize it but the horse left the barn. It would be funny if it wasn't so dangerous. 

We must also remember that Sahl didn't play favorites. It is easy to satirize Trump (and for good reason). But in most comedic circles satirizing AOC, Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi or Kamala Harris is verboten. Ideology should not get in the way of skewering the fallibility and foils of public figures. Sahl could skewer both JFK and Nixon in equal measure and with equanimity as demonstrated in this appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in October 1960. R.I.P.