When did I first hear the joke that, instead of fighting wars, the individual world leaders ought to put on boxing gloves and fight it out one-on-one? I believe I heard it back in the 1960s and a few times since then, but I couldn't trace it to any particular comedian or commentator. It seems to be a longstanding folk joke.
It was basically the idea behind the MTV show "Celebrity Deathmatch." From 1999, here — at TikTok — are Bill Clinton and Ken Starr fighting it out in the ring.
And here's a serious look at that immense construction on the White House lawn. Maybe you don't think this is funny or cool at all. Maybe you are truly and righteously steamed:
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Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Two Tribes video from 1985.
It's funny because it upsets so many of the right people. It will pass, and then the right people can go back to hating Trump for all their other reasons.
Katczinsky: I'll tell you how it should all be done. Whenever there's a big war comin' on, you should rope off a big field...
Cigar-smoking soldier: And sell tickets.
Katczinsky: Yeah. And on the big day, you should take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals, put 'em in the center dressed in their underpants, and let 'em fight it out with clubs. The best country wins.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Bessent v Mamdani. Bessent would kick his ass.
What "aren't" they steamed at?? Progressive fatigue.
It’s sad people can’t enjoy a bit of a romp now and then. Why not punctuate our lives with entertaining stuff like a UFC fight on WH grounds? It is not hurtful (except maybe for the fighters ;)). Think of how excited and envious the German tourists would be!
It is not as in your face as giving civilian Presidential awards to George Soros, Hillary! and big Democrat thieves I mean donors but it does give off that vibe. I still reel at those east room shindigs the Clinton’s had with the Thomasons and their hangers on. It felt like real life beverly hillbillies had broken into the white house and nobody made them leave. I guess this is like that. It annoys the right people so I like it..
Another movie that references a personal fight is in Patton.
Oh I think this is a lovely idea.
It is time to bring back the American Warrior culture.
I tried and I tried but but eventually I had to give in and start thinking about the Roman Empire.
Someone should tell Marco about the space race.
Maybe Rosie can wrestle herself at the WH.
They probably can’t keep the fighting at the WH permanently, but maybe at the Kennedy Center.
Obama! Trump! Political combat. Fight!
Marco Rubio is an awesome diplomat. He's the best Secretary of State I've seen in my lifetime. Not even close.
The comic stylings of Marco Rubio
Rubio is very low-key. He's repeating a Trump joke, and the press corps laughs at it. I feel like Rubio is very well respected.
"I regret voting for you."
"First of all, your regret for voting for me confirms I'm doing a good job."
Boom. Rubio smacks down any critics. But he doesn't get the hatred or vitriol that Trump gets (or Vance for that matter). He comes across like the consummate pro.
Honestly, in the back of my mind, when I heard of the UFC event on the White House lawn, I thought, "That's a little silly." It reminded me of Trump's day as a professional wrestler. But when Rubio explains it? Now I'm totally on board.
This seems like the Executive Branch poking at the idiocy coming from the DC courts. If the White House can construct this, then what is the justification claiming they cannot construct the Ballroom?
Did you hear yet that it's "towering"? They're letting us know in every media source. It doesn't look that towering from different perspectives.
Also, so what? Who cares? We spend so much tax money every day doing things that exclude vast swaths of Americans. Investigate those. Like State Dinner lists. Like Michelle Obama's pricey entourages for European vacations, or what it cost for Biden to hang out on beaches not working for more days than any other President. This is just more blather from the usual sources.
It's better than the Kennedys taking turns screwing the same woman in the White House pool, right?
Yeah, I’d like to see Eric Schmidt pound Chuck Schumer to pieces.
The Beverly Hillbillies wouldn't be seen with the Clintons. Hillbillies are among the finest, hardest-working people I have known. And not naive.
Rubio is rockin' at State.
It is bizarre at best. But it's fully Trumpish, so in that respect, it kinda fits our times. I love Trump as Prez, but you know...he's got his stuff and sometimes the New Jersey/New York in him cannot be kept down for long.
Anyway...I see this as a massive invite for a nefarious attack. I hope I'm wrong.
Nothing is over...
Until netanyahu says it is!
that's good humor...
You censoring scolds think you're protecting jews making honest comedy off limits... keep laughing, jew lovers. You're not being honest not helping anyone, but enjoy your giggles, grrls...
You people need to get your rocks off...
Two people tried to stop the fight and an Obama judge smacked them down.
Ouch.
“Maybe you don't think this is funny or cool at all. Maybe you are truly and righteously steamed”
Maybe you should get bent.
Iliad Book III: "Godlike Paris replied: ‘.... Well, if you want me to fight this duel, let the Trojans and Achaeans take their seats, and I will meet Menelaus, beloved of Ares, before both armies, and fight for Helen and her riches. Whichever wins and shows himself the better man let him take both wealth and woman to his house. And the rest of you can sign a treaty under oath to live on Troy’s rich soil, while our enemies sail for Argos, the horse-pasture, and Achaea, the land of lovely women.’"
ABC is a conflict of interest.
Disney has no more right to those public airwaves than I do.
Fuck these giant corporations that think they are better than us and their democrat party tools.
Cue the star trek alexander courage theme
As RideSpaceMountain wrote here once in another context, the foaming at the mouth about everything Trump is what the sad fat little goth girls who cut themselves known as liberals think his team did. Trump is like a walking-talking trigger warning forcing these character abominations to relive all the time they got stuffed in a locker in 9th grade. I love it. They hate it. Stay mad.
If I could have said it better myself, I would have.
- Krumhorn
In the mixed up world of Mr. Nazi-Tattoo supporters:
When Melania planned a perfect, elegant Inaugural dinner and ball, that was wrong. When Trump plans a cage match on the White House lawn, that is wrong. When the US celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, that will be wrong.
Bread and Circuses! Give the plebs what they want!
There's my Roman Empire though for today.
All those people visiting here for the World Cup are being treated to a spectacle that rivals it, and they're seeing it take place on the White House lawn. Shock and awe.
I don't agree with it and would have preferred something more fitting, but this is Trump signalling to the world that it's up for a cage match. The message of ferocity and resolve cannot be mistaken for its symbolism, and that is the purpose of the spectacle.
We should draw straws for who gets to tell Rubio that Trump is leaving it up so that Little Marco can take on JD Vance in a cage match for the 2028 nomination.
Althouse said...
When did I first hear the joke that, instead of fighting wars, the individual world leaders ought to put on boxing gloves and fight it out one-on-one? I believe I heard it back in the 1960s and a few times since then, but I couldn't trace it to any particular comedian or commentator.
As also noted by AI, for the longest time I have had a hard time finding the PSA commercial below. As I recall it was bare knuckle, not gloves in the ad.
You are likely thinking of a famous 1970 anti-war public service announcement created by the advertising agency Cunningham & Walsh for the United Nations Association.
The PSA featured two elderly, suited leaders climbing to the top of a hill and pathetically slugging it out in a fistfight. The spot was famously designed to dramatize the silliness of war, ending with the caption: "Wouldn't it be great if all wars were fought this way?" The ad—which was referred to at the time by The New York Times as "fisticuffs in behalf of peace"—was circulated to television stations across the country to spearhead the United Nations Association membership drive.
The exact footage of the commercial has proven notoriously elusive to find in modern digital archives. If you want to dive deeper into the shared memories and history of the spot, you can explore the ongoing discussions in communities like The Brats Film Facebook Group or read about the original 1970 campaign in The New York Times.
off
I hazily recall a Monty Python sketch that pitted MPs bouncing around a boxing ring, boxing... Or was it philosophers? Or English novelists?
No that ken anchovy who wanted to jump the english channel
I remember when Pablo Casals did a cello recital at the Kennedy white House. I don't think there's a mass market for cello recitals, but it certainly worked to improve the White House brand. A UFC event on the White House lawn has more popular appeal than a cello recital, but it doesn't improve the brand.. Maybe Taylor and Kelce can get married with Trump officiating right before the match. That would help us all feel positively about America and the White House.
The cover of the current New Yorker shows Marco and JD in a cage match on the White House lawn, with Trump watching. Left Bank of the Charles must have noticed it.
I hope I'm not hallucinating, but I remember WJM''s Ted Baxter advocating just this in one of his on-air editorials (Something like: "We'll take our biggest guy and Russia will take its biggest guy...")
I'm shocked that the media is missing the biggest problem with the event: it's not on CBS, the organization we give access to a portion of the broadcast spectrum for no cost. You have to get Paramount+ to watch it. So it's a celebration if you can afford it (Paramount+ is 8 or 9 bucks a month) and you're not one of the tens of millions of Americans that are over the air TV only.
The majority of the report was highlighting possible, suggested, reported problems and negatives, and almost completely misses what matters about this, it's significance to Americans. It's Debbie Downer with a "news" show.
Just think about how different the coverage would be if the President was a Democrat, any Democrat.
Tell me nearest watch party
Trump should build yuuge dome size of Truman Show and Elon need to Starlink stream
Is Trump:: vorkosigan fan of backyard fighting match/training work out
Stanley Kubrick filmed an alternate ending to "Dr. Strangelove" that resembles Marco Rubio's suggestion. Instead of an apocalyptic nuclear war, Kubrick had all the major characters get into a pie fight. A few publicity stills of the scene have survived. https://www.slashfilm.com/667233/the-dr-strangelove-alternate-ending-few-people-have-ever-seen/
“It is bizarre at best. But it's fully Trumpish, so in that respect, it kinda fits our times. I love Trump as Prez, but you know...he's got his stuff and sometimes the New Jersey/New York in him cannot be kept down for long.”
Which is how he won two or three presidential elections. As an affinity move for young men and the working class, it’s almost impossible to beat. Leaving Bernie and Elizabeth Warren spluttering impotently in the backs of their limousines.
War's not a fair fight to decide who wins. It's a completely unfair fight - orgranized crime - to take or break other people's stuff. I suppose some of the laws of warfare agreed upon between nation-states in an age of limited strategic objectives (I want Lower Slobovia intact so I can attach it to Upper Slobovia, which I already rule) might be thought of as forcing evolution of war into some kind of fair fight.
But then all the like-minded nation-states made peace with each other, and war became an existential struggle between ideologically diametrically opposed entities. And of course if it's a fight against a non-state, it's by definition not a war at all. CC, JSM
Why is being a man of the people worse than being a man excluding the people? Who really cares?
So are we going to have a bunch of trans freaks showing their tits? Or was that another administration?
Hey, have trans MMA fights in the WH octagon! After a few iterations it would prove Trump's point. The MSM would have headlines like "TRUMP'S TRANS FIGHTERS BEAT WOMEN TO PULP." And Trump would just say tolja so. CC, JSM
Speaking of trans, I just noticed that Bud Light is a sponsor of the WH fight. Their logo is prominently displayed on the octagon uprights. Guess they figured out where their bread is buttered. CC, JSM
I just noticed that Bud Light is a sponsor of the WH fight.
Bud Light signed a long-term deal with the UFC. And they (the UFC) received some criticism for it, but not enough to impact the bottom line.
I'd say my personal boycott of Bud Light continues, but I never drank that cat piss in the first place.
Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987, set c. 1942) quotes W.C. Fields, "You know what WC Fields said? To settle a war, the leaders involved should meet in a stadium and fight it out with socks filled with horse manure." No idea if it's an authentic Fields quote.
We're gonna need a bigger tank to hold all the Democrat tears.
Just a reminder. One of my few claims to fame was that I was the UFC’s first patent attorney. I was brought in when they were an IP client of our firm. But then the group representing them left the firm, formed an Entertainment Practice, and took the UFC with them. Leaving the firm and me their patent work.
Just a reminder. One of my few claims to fame was that I was the UFC’s first patent attorney. I was brought in when they were an IP client of our firm. But then the group representing them left the firm, formed an Entertainment Practice, and took the UFC with them. Leaving the firm and me their patent work.
Whoops. Used to be able to delete old comments. Apparently, I can’t do it anymore. Sorry about the duplicate.
I’m with Tina Trent re The Beverly Hillbillies. The Clampetts were kind, decent, and generous. They loved one another and gave everyone they met the benefit of the doubt, thinking the best of them even when they were scheming and filled with hatred and envy. Because of their love and the honor with which they behaved, they always triumphed over those (their “betters”) who would have banished or taken advantage of them. A beautiful show.
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