"Why is This Man Laughing?"

United Press International, distributor

Frank Cancellare, photographer

1910–1985

"Why is This Man Laughing?", 1960

Portfolio/Series title: published in Esquire

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: gelatin silver print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 24.1 x 19.4 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 9 1/2 x 7 5/8 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 16 1/4 x 32 1/4 x 0 3/4 in
Weight (Weight): 5 lbs

Credit line: Gift of Esquire, Inc.

Accession number: 1980.0504

Not on display

Add to portfolio

If you wish to reproduce this image, please submit an image request

Images

Label texts

In their first annual Dubious Achievement Awards in 1962, Esquire published what would become something of a preinternet meme: a photo of Richard Milhous Nixon grinning maniacally, with the caption “Why is This Man Laughing?” Nixon had just been nominated by the Republican Party as their candidate for President in the 1960 election, which he would ultimately lose to John F. Kennedy.
From these dubious beginnings to the aftermath of Nixon’s resignation, Esquire routinely mocked the politician in its pages. During the height of the Watergate investigation and its aftermath, Esquire published press photos from the 1940s of Congressman Nixon, who was then a California Representative on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Nixon had doggedly investigated Alger Hiss, a government official accused of being a Soviet spy, as part of an HUAC investigation. Young Nixon launched his political career with a highly publicized and relentless campaign against communists. This never-ending battle for “truth, justice, and the American Way” was a stark contrast to Nixon’s eventual resignation of the presidency in disgrace.