Journalistic Humor

After leaving Saigon and completing my education – or perhaps better stated ‘when the party life ended’ for me – my first real job was as a journalist and newspaper editor. The work day started early at 6 am so we could meet an 11 am deadline to have every thing down to the Press Room for the typesetters to prepare everything to start the presses rolling by 12 noon printing the evening edition of the newspaper for distribution pick ups starting at 1 pm. This was back in the day before computers so everything was done manually. There were reams of paper flying out of teletype machines (the wire – we called it) with stories from UP and AP wire services, reporters running all over town getting stories then rushing back to the office to type them up on manual typewriters, editors reviewing and approving everything, deciding what stories to use in the paper and what not to use, what page and coverage stories would get, writing headlines, proofreading for grammar and spelling, as telephones rang off the hook – it was fast paced total chaos. Offices didn’t have cubicles back in those days. They were just large rooms with each person who worked there having a desk, chair and typewriter and telephones on the desk. Working in a newspaper office in those days you learned fast how to talk with 3 different people on the phone at the same time while holding 3 of those old hand sets in one hand and typing the stories with the other hand – it really was possible. Just imagine 40 or 50 people in a room all talking on the phone at the same time with typewrites clicking away and everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off in the daily race to – meet the deadline without missing a story.

Then at 11 am it all came to a sudden STOP – in the blink of an eye it became so quiet you could almost hear a pin drop – except for the clatter of the teletype machines (22 of them) clicking away spitting out ream after ream of paper with news from around the world as we all took turns going to lunch while leaving all the desks covered by someone – just in case late breaking new might come in at the last minute.

After lunch we’d sit around killing time until 2:30 pm. One of the ways we’d pass the time away was scanning news stories for funny and humorous screw ups – and, there was always ample supply because of the fast pace of throwing a newspaper together to meet the deadlines. Since then I’ve always enjoyed the humor to be found in newspapers so thought I’d share some with you today.