It’s a Joke, Son! was the first film to feature the blustering fictional Senator Claghorn, a hot headed southern politician created by Kenny Delmar for use on his Fred Allen Show radio program. Claghorn was an enormously popular radio character, and his exaggerated Southern zealotry (he refuses to drive through the Lincoln Tunnel and only drinks out of little Dixie Cups!) translates beautifully to the big screen. Delmar boisterously plays the Senator, while the lovely Una Merkel is his wife and soap opera queen June Lockhart is his daughter. Mostly a backdrop for sidesplitting jokes, the story centers on the bumbling Senator Claghorn getting mixed up in absurd political games during an election cycle. Biting political satire intermingled with uproarious gags and pranks, It’s a Joke, Son! is a treat from start to finish.
