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Memes are frequently circulated online containing a quip ostensibly uttered by Robin Williams to the effect that politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers: This quote is, in fact, a reasonably faithful paraphrase of the following bit from Robin Williams' 2009 television comedy special, Weapons of Self Destruction: Williams, who died in 2014, also made a similar joke as the character Tom Dobbs in the 2006 movie Man of the Year. In that film, Dobbs says: If you're representing special interest groups, maybe we should be like NASCAR with the little patches on the back: 'Enron: We take your money and run!' This line can be heard around the 50 second mark of the Man of the Year trailer: This 2006 movie, however, was not the first time someone suggested that politicians should have to display their corporate sponsorships. In 2004, for instance, columnist Paul Halvey wrote in the Illinois newspaper The Life that when a company springs for a political campaign contributions, it should be able to put its logo on the politician. Five years earlier, in 1999, columnist Jim Hightower made a similar suggestion, writing: But this idea dates back at least a little further. The earliest example we could find comes from a column published in March 1995 in the Harford Courant entitled Politicians Should Wear Sponsor Logos by journalist Don Noel: 08 Mar 1995, Wed Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) Newspapers.com We're not sure who came up with the exact phrasing of the viral version of the joke. The idea that politicians should wear the logos of their corporate sponsors on their clothes, similar to NASCAR drivers, has been circulating since the 1990s. While it doesn't seem as if this quote originated with Williams, he did tell the joke in a 2009 TV special, and the concept served as a basis for a line his character said in the 2006 film Man of the Year.
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