"Poon tang" in the Philippines? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


> Note that a somewhat
> similar situation still prevailed in 1955, when the last issue of Mad
Comics
> (which thereafter converted to magazine form to avoid the censorship
of the
> Comics Code) included a reference to a man supposedly from "Poontang,
O."
> That surely would have been impossible if the word's meaning were
widely
> known, especially with the high level of scrutiny of comic books at
the time.
>

Mad's publisher, William M. Gaines, was a big opponent of the ongoing
comics censorship in the mid-1950s.  He testified against censorship in
comics before the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in June
1954.  The Comics Code Authority was established in late 1954 to censor
comics, and no issue of Mad Comics was ever approved by them.  Many
distributors and wholesalers wouldn't carry comics that didn't carry the
CCA seal, and the May 1955 issue of Mad (#23) was the last comic-format
issue.  I cannot imagine that Gaines, the writer, and the author of the
story in question didn't know exactly what they were doing when that
story was put together, probably as a direct poke at the CCA.
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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