Dick Tuck? Mo Udall? Dick Cavett?
Question for Quote Investigator: A disappointed political candidate delivered a provocative concession speech which combined bitterness with humor:
The people have spoken—the bastards.
This line has been attributed to Dick Tuck who was a campaign strategist, prankster, and fabulist. This statement has also been credited to Arizona politician Mo Udall. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in July 1969 in the “Daily News” of New York City which claimed that the statement was spoken during a television broadcast by Dick Tuck. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
“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 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.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1966 Dick Tuck was a candidate in the Democratic primary for a California State Senate seat. There were more than a dozen contenders. The “San Francisco Chronicle” published an article in February about Tuck’s campaign by the columnist Arthur Hoppe who was Tuck’s friend:2
“I will absolutely refuse to accept more than a single dollar from any one contributor.”
Great, I said. It would be a triumph for democracy to have a candidate of the little man who was beholden to no fat cats.
“Right!” said Mr. Tuck, with a certain nobility. But then that irrepressible grin broke through. “Besides,” he said, “for $1.50 I might sell out.”
But make no mistake. Jokes aside. Mr Tuck is seriously running. His friends seriously think he can win. And I for one seriously hope he does.
In July 1969 the “Daily News” asserted that Tuck employed the line during a television broadcast of the “Dick Cavett Show”. Tuck asserted that he originally spoke the quip during a concession speech.3
In September 1972 the “Independent Press-Telegram” of Long Beach, California published a piece about Tuck which discussed Tuck’s ill-fated attempt to win a Democratic primary in 1966:4
Tuck placed second in the crowded field of candidates. As the result was becoming known, a television newsman asked his reaction. “The people have spoken, the bastards,” he said.
In November 1972 “The Village Voice” of New York City published a piece about Tuck and mentioned the quip:5
Tuck once ran for public office on his own—in 1966, when a state senate seat opened up in Los Angeles. His campaign was typically irreverent. His billboards proclaimed: “The job needs Tuck and Tuck needs the job.” He made his campaign issue the Los Angeles River, a normally bone-dry stream confined to concrete culverts. “Either fill it up or paint it blue,” he insisted. Tuck lost—and conceded defeat with typical Tuck tact: “The people have spoken—the bastards!”
In September 1973 the “Los Angeles Times” of California published an interview with Dick Tuck. The interviewer asked Tuck about his election loss in 1966. Tuck presented a slightly different version of the quip which used the word “spoke” instead of “spoken”:6
I think I summed it up pretty well on election night, when they asked me for my concession statement. And I said, “Well, the people have spoke, the bastards.”
In February 1974 “Playboy” magazine published an article by Dick Tuck which included a discussion of the 1966 election:7
Losing the election had a broadening effect, however: I understood how Nixon had felt the night of his final press conference in 1962. I thought of him as I faced the cameras to deliver my concession speech: “The people have spoken—the bastards!”
In 1988 Mo Udall (Morris K. Udall) published the book “Too Funny to Be President”. The epigraph of the third chapter was the following:8
… the people have spoken—the bastards.
—State Senate candidate Dick Tuck
In 2012 Robert Byrne published the compilation “The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said” which contained the following entry:9
The people have spoken, the bastards.
—Morris Udall (1922-1998) on losing an election
In conclusion, QI believes that this line should be credited to Dick Tuck. QI has not yet found any contemporary evidence that Tuck employed the line in 1966, but he did use it by July 1969. Also, Tuck did claim that he used the quip in 1966. Unfortunately, Tuck was a fabulist, and his testimony was not reliable. Hence, Tuck may have concocted the line a bit later.
Image Notes: Picture of stickers stating “I Voted” from Element5 Digital at Unsplash. The image has been cropped.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Charles Sheehan whose mention of this quotation led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Also, thanks to previous researchers Barry Popik and Fred R. Shapiro who both referenced the September 24, 1972 citation.
- 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 ↩︎
- 1966 February 17, San Francisco Chronicle, Our Man Hoppe: The Most Serious Candidate of All by Arthur Hoppe, Quote Page 49, Column 5, San Francisco, California. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 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 ↩︎
- 1972 September 24, Independent Press-Telegram, Democratic jester has Nixon in his sights again by Ed Zuckerman (View from Our National Bureau), Quote Page B3, Column 5, Long Beach, California. (Newspapers_com) link ↩︎
- 1972 November 23, The Village Voice, Volume 17, Number 47, Prankster Dick Tuck: Ex-supreme humorist of American politics by Paul Hoffman, Start Page 17, Quote Page 30, Column 3, The Village Voice Inc., New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1973 September 30, Los Angeles Times, It’s Tuck vs. Nixon—One Side of a 23-Year Tale of Political Dirty Tricks by David Felton, Start Page F1, Quote Page F6, Los Angeles, California. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1974 February, Playboy, Volume 21, Number 2, Watergate Wasn’t All My Fault by Dick Tuck, Start Page 89, Quote Page 100, Column 3, Playboy Inc., Chicago, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1988 Copyright, Too Funny to Be President by Morris K. Udall with Bob Neuman and Randy Udall, Chapter 3: Kiss My Donkey: Election Night ’76, Quote Page 28, Henry Holt and Company, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2012, The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said, Compiled by Robert Byrne, Quote Number 2205, Touchstone: A Division of Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified on paper) ↩︎