Entry from December 05, 2010

“World Ends: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit” (NY Times headline joke)

A conservative joke shows how a liberal newspaper—such as the New York (NY) Times or Washington (DC) Post or Austin (TX) American-Statesman—would headline the ultimate disaster: “World Ends: Woman and Minorities Hardest Hit.” In one version, “poor and minorities” are hardest hit; in another version, it’s a Washington Post headline describing a nuclear attack on New York City.



Comedian Mort Sahl told the joke in 1988 and might have originated it. Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has used the joke since at least 1990.





6 November 1988, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, “Mort Sahl: Truth Funnier Than Fiction” by Rick Richmond, Pg. 2C:

Sahl took out after the liberals by defining the way in which a liberal newspaper might report a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union: “World Ends: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit.”



New York (NY) Times

The Rush Hours

Lewis Grossberger, who was a columnist for 7 Days, is the author of “Read My Clips: Media Person Cuts Up,” to be published by Random House in the Spring.

Published: December 16, 1990

(...)

“You’re gonna have fun tonight,” Limbaugh tells them. “And at the same time you’re gonna learn some things.” Pacing constantly, he does some jokes that poke fun at the Japanese and the liberal media (Judgment Day comes and The Washington Post banners: “World Ends Tomorrow: Women, Minorities Hardest Hit").



Google Books

What Jesus would say to:

Rush Limbaugh, Madonna, Bill Clinton, Michael Jordan, Bart Simpson, Donald Trump, Murphy Brown, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, Mother Teresa, David Letterman, & You

By Lee Strobel

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan

1994

Pg. 46:

As the clown prince of conservatism, Limbaugh relentlessly lampoons the political left and chides the liberal media. He once said that if the planet were approaching its last day, the Washington Post’s headline would read: “World Ends Tomorrow — Women, Minorities Hardest Hit!”



Google Books

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

By John Allen Paulos

New York, NY: BasicBooks

1995

Pg. 59:

...reports a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia with the headline WORLD ENDS: WOMEN AND MINORITIES HARDEST HIT.



Google Books

Cooperative Learning:

Critical thinking and collaboration across the curriculum

By Dennis M. Adams andMary Hamm

Springfield, IL: C.C. Thomas

1996

Pg. 85:

An example of one line in a news headline/subheading “story” by middle school students: “WORLD ENDS: WOMEN AND MINORITIES HARDEST HIT.”



15 May 1998, Austin (TX) American-Statesman, Letters, pg. A14:

I expect your next headline to read, “Asteroid hits United States: Women and minorities hardest hit.”



Google Books

Letters to a Young Conservative

By Dinesh D’Souza

New York, NY: Basic Books

2005

Pg. 120:

Another “meta story” is Women and Minorities Hardest Hit. You’ve probably seen the headline: “The Bush Economic Program: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit.” Columnist Joseph Sobran notes that, if nuclear war erupts, the headline in the New York Times will read, “Nuclear War Breaks Out: Women and Minorities hardest Hit.”



Goliath

May 2005, First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life:

One is reminded of the imagined Washington Post headline: “New York Destroyed by Nuclear Attack: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit.”



New York (NY) Sun

The Murdoch Sulzberger Gap

Editorial of The New York Sun | May 15, 2008

We’d heard that Rupert Murdoch was planning to reshape the Wall Street Journal so that it would compete more directly with the New York Times, but we didn’t think he meant it that way. That was the reaction of more than a few Wall Street Journal readers yesterday when confronted with the Journal’s front-page headline, “China Earthquake Exposes A Widening Wealth Gap.” It was reminiscent of the old joke about the New York Times headline when the world comes to an end: Planet Destroyed; Poor, Minorities Hit Hardest.



Washington (DC) Times

Too few Watts

4:30 a.m., Saturday, June 21, 2008

There’s a conservative joke poking fun at liberal media that predicts coverage of an impending apocalypse would have the headline “World to End — Poor and Minorities Hardest Hit.” Despite his tenure as a Republican congressman, it seems J.C. Watts never heard that joke. Then again, maybe he did and just didn’t understand why it’s funny.



U.S. News & World Report

Mar 12, 2009

Men More Likely To Lose Their Jobs Than Women

By Michael Barone

An old conservative joke: A headline in New York Times reads, “New York destroyed by nuclear bomb.” Subhead: “Women, Minorities Hardest Hit.” But in this recession men are more likely than women to become unemployed.