Watch: Before measles vaccine propaganda, media freely joked about benign childhood disease

A compilation of video clips from various popular television shows that aired back in the 1950s and 1960s is blowing major holes in the ongoing measles propaganda campaign, proving once again that measles infection is nothing more than a benign childhood condition like chicken pox that generally runs its natural course in just a few days and never returns.

An eight-minute video posted to YouTube provides several examples of the whimsy with which measles was treated back in the days before vaccine propaganda was prolific. Television shows like The Donna Reed Show, The Flintstones, and The Brady Bunch all aired episodes that dealt with the measles, and not one of them took the condition any more seriously than a common cold.

Episode 28 of the first season of The Donna Reed Show, for instance, entitled “April Fool” and aired in 1959, contains a bit centered around fictitious teen singing sensation Buzz Barry catching measles. Buzz’s manager laments having to cancel the boy’s show at the local civic center, only to be reassured by the doctor that “it’s only measles!”

And that’s precisely the point — Buzz’s manager responds to the doctor that he wishes it was gangrene or some other condition that’s actually serious rather than just measles.

“Doc, if he only had gangrene or typhoid fever, believe me, we could wring their hearts out,” he says. “But measles ain’t got no class — it’s kid’s stuff! They’ll laugh at us!” he adds as he’s met with resounding laughter from the audience.

You can watch the measles segment from this episode at the following link from 0:08 to 1:41:
YouTube.com.

Before vaccines, measles was considered to be no big deal and a normal rite of passage for children

Several years later on an episode of The Flintstones, entitled “In The Dough” and aired in 1961, cartoon characters Wilma and Betty are finalists in a television bake-off. But on the night before the event, they both come down with measles, which becomes one of the main jokes of the episode.

The two girls are seen sobbing over the fact that they won’t be able to board the airplane to attend the event, and their husbands Fred and Barney are upset, too — not because of the measles, but because of the financial losses incurred from planning the failed trip.

“Aw, don’t worry Fred; measles don’t hurt,” is Barney’s reply to Fred as he laments the “awful” situation.

“They sure do,” responds Fred. “The worst kind of pain: in the pocketbook!” to which the laugh track is played in response.

You can watch that clip from 1:42 to 3:33:
YouTube.com.

And then there’s The Brady Bunch, which aired an episode entitled “Is There a Doctor in the House?” back in 1969 that was all about the family’s children and maid catching measles.

Covered from 3:33 and onward in the video, the clip shows each of the children contracting measles one by one, followed by the family’s father Mike and maid Alice. Rather than panic about the situation, because measles is no big deal, mother Carol creates a chalkboard with a list of diseases alongside each member of the household, showing when each of them contracted each illness.

“It looks like the Bradys are finished with the measles!” declares Carol as she checks off the last members of the family who still hadn’t contracted measles prior to the family’s “outbreak,” which was treated lightly and with much laughter.

You can watch this clip from The Brady Bunch at 3:33:
YouTube.com.

Sources:

https://youtube.com

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