The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
Edited compilation of speeches made by Ronald Reagan during his Presidency. All contain some type of joke or funny story, showing his sense of humor.
The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
June 22, 1983. Ronald Reagn Remarks at the National Conference of the National Federation of Independent Business. "Communism works only in heaven, where they don't need it, and in hell, where they've already got it." [Laughter]
The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
May 7, 1987. Ronald Reagan Remarks to Members of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists. "If someone were to ask what's the difference between the United States and the Soviet Union, I guess one answer would be that in the United States editorial cartoonists can publish pictures lampooning Ronald Reagan, while in the Soviet Union cartoonists must publish pictures lampooning Ronald Reagan." [Laughter]
The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
July 8, 1985. Ronald Reagan Remarks at the Annual Convention of the American Bar Association. "The Soviet Union also charged that the United States was only looking for a -- and, again, I use their word -- ``pretext'' for a military -- and, again, I use their word -- ``invasion.'' Well now, ladies and gentlemen of the American Bar, there is a non-Soviet word for that kind of talk. [Laughter] It's an extremely useful, time-tested original American word, one with deep roots in our rich agricultural and farming tradition." [Laughter]
The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
June 8, 1982. Ronald Reagan Address to Members of the British Parliament. "The strength of the Solidarity movement in Poland demonstrates the truth told in an underground joke in the Soviet Union. It is that the Soviet Union would remain a one-party nation even if an opposition party were permitted, because everyone would join the opposition party." [Laughter]
The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
March 10, 1986. Ronald Reagan Remarks at a Dinner for the Republican Congressional Leadership. "There's a story, incidentally, about a May Day parade in Moscow. First came the tanks and then the armored personnel carriers and the artillery and the missiles and then the marching troops with fixed bayonets, and finally at the end a black sedan with red flags flying and filled with men in gray suits. And a visitor from our part of the world who was there for the occasion asked a local citizen, 'What is that?' And the fellow said, 'That's our most lethal weapon. They're Socialist economists.'" [Laughter]
The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
October 6, 1986. Ronald Reagan Remarks at a White House Briefing on Soviet-United States Relations for the President's Commission on Executive Exchange. He tells a funny anecdote about a Soviet solider shooting a civilian out and about after state curfew. "You know, I've taken to collecting stories that I can tell that show the cynicism of some of the people in the totalitarian state for their government. Stories that I can confirm are actually told by those people to each other. So, I'm going to share the last one with you, and then it's back to work. Evening, or darkness, in the Soviet Union. A citizen walking along the street. A soldier yells, 'Halt!' He starts to run, the soldier shoots him. Another citizen says, 'Why did you do that?' And the soldier says, 'Curfew.' 'But,' he said, 'it isn't curfew time yet.' He said, 'I know. He's a friend of mine. I know where he lives. He couldn't have made it.'" [Laughter] "You know something? In the summit meetings, I tell some of those stories to the other side." [Laughter]
The Great Communicator Vol 4: The Man
March 10, 1986. Remarks at a Dinner for the Republican Congressional Leadership. Ronald Reagan telling a funny anecdote about a preacher sermonizing to the sleepy; Sen. BOB DOLE sits to his left. "... having been on the mashed-potato circuit in an earlier life, I know the danger of before-dinner speeches. Of course, there are pitfalls for every speaker. You know, there was a young minister, and one day he was asking for a little sympathy from an older, more experienced minister, when he said that some of those hot summer Sundays he would look out while he was preaching his sermon and the congregation would seem to be dozing off. And the older preacher said, ``Well, I know, I've had that experience, but,'' he said, ``I found an answer to it.'' He said, ``When that begins to happen in the middle of your sermon, you just interrupt and say, `I want you all to know that last night I held in my arms a woman who was another man's wife.' And,'' he said, ``that'll wake them up.'' [Laughter] ``And then,'' he says, ``you say to them, `And that woman was my dear mother.''' [Laughter] Well, time went by, and sure enough there was a Sunday and the young preacher was going at it. But they were beginning to doze off, and the kids were writing notes to each other, and some of the women were knitting, but mainly they were dozing off. And he remembered what he'd been told, so he said, ``I want you all to know that last night I held in my arms a woman who was another man's wife.'' And suddenly he was facing all those staring eyes, and everyone was awake. And he tried to continue, and he said, ``And that woman -- I forget who she was.'' [Laughter]