[Ads-l] Quote Origin: The People Have Spoken - The Bastards

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Was the statement in the subject line a concession speech delivered by
an unhappy politician?

Dick Tuck was a campaign strategist, prankster, and fabulist. Tuck
claimed that he used the line in 1966 when he lost the Democratic
primary race for a California State Senate seat.

Researchers have not yet found any contemporary 1966 evidence. Barry
Popik has a web page about the quotation which lists a September 24,
1972 citation. Fred Shapiro lists the same citation in "The New Yale
Book of Quotations".

I was able to push back this date a few years:

[ref] 1969 July 30, Daily News, What’s On: New Problem for Viewers:
Tuning in Moon in Color by Val Adams, Quote Page 66, Column 5, New
York, New York. (Newspapers_com) link [/ref]

https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-tuck/201804639/

[Begin excerpt]
"The people have spoken--the bastards."

This line, spoken by a guest on the Dick Cavett Show over ABC on
Monday evening, illustrates how television may be liberalizing its
language. The interesting part is that the Cavett show was taped in
advance, so ABC could have blipped the word "bastards," had it
considered the term indelicate for its audience.

The line was spoken in jest by Dick Tuck, a professional jokester who
creates stunts for various organizations. He told Cavett that the line
had constituted his concession speech after he had run for a minor
political office and been defeated.
[End excerpt]

Here is a link the Quote Investigator article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/07/21/people-spoken/

Feedback welcome,
Garson O'Toole

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org