The comedian who ran for president five times

With his thin, triangular face and look of a worn-down town clerk, comedian Pat Paulsen first came to national prominence on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, which ran from 1967 to 1969. Paulsen's deadpan parodies of clueless or haughty authority
figures couldn't have found a better home. At 38, he was older than most of the cast, which played to his comedic advantage, as did his
penchant for suits and ties and unflappable deadpan delivery.
During the comedy hour's run, Paulsen (with the help of the Smothers Brothers) launched
the show's longest and most elaborate performance-art skit—he ran for president.
His persona remained the same, but he was now the official candidate of the STAG (Straight Talking American Government) party.
Paulsen's political statements were parodies of a typical campaign's slogans (he called himself “a common, ordinary simple savior of
America's destiny") and its empty promises ("Will I obliterate national debt? Sure, why not,” he told one crowd). Everywhere he went,
from New York City to Jacksonville, he'd tell the local media this was the greatest city in the country, and he wanted to move there.
Paulsen was seen raising funds at lemonade stands, kiss-for-a-quarter offers, and a star- studded dinner where Steve Allen was a guest
speaker. "I expect a lot of them won't even vote for me," Paulsen said of the attendees.
"The important thing is, I got their money."
Paulsen supposedly refused to put his actual name on state ballots, so we don't know how many votes he actually received. (The official
government breakdown for the 1968 election only lists the number of write-ins per state, not by candidate.) He ran every four years,
right up to 1996, before dying the following year at age 69 in Tijuana, where he'd been in search of alternative treatments for colon and
brain cancer.