The Time LBJ Talked About his B**ghole and Belched in a Guy’s Ear
It’s become a kind of tradition that on Presidents Day I play all or a portion of a famous presidential moment: the time Lyndon Baines Johnson called up the president of Haggar to personally request some slacks be made to his very unique…uh, “specifications”.
Every year I play this and every year I hear from people claiming, “FAKE!!”. Their disbelief is usually something along the lines of, “Yeah, right! Like a U.S. president would call up a guy and talk about his nuts and his b-hole and then just let out a big belch during the call”. But, I swear to you, it’s all true. Here’s a link to a reputable source that confirms the story. Here’s another. And, another!
Here’s that recording along with some animation:
I’ve heard this recording about 40 times but I still have a few unanswered questions.
I know that calls from the White House were recorded but couldn’t LBJ have made a call from a personal phone or even a payphone since he was going to be describing his grundle?
Why didn’t he just give the instructions to an aide and have them call the Haggar pants company?
Did Joe Haggar think for even a minute that he was being pranked? If it was me as soon as I heard the giant belch I would’ve said, “OK, BRANDON, I know it’s you, a***ole!”.
Did Johnson really think the president of a company that makes pants needed him to explain that “the crotch” means “where your nuts hang”?
Had LBJ never heard of “tailors” before? Did he NOT know there were people who specialized in making custom-fitted pants?
Why was the president carrying around a pocket knife? Or money, for that matter?