Dewey Defeats Truman - References in Popular Culture

References in Popular Culture

Canadian rock band Rush featured the newspaper on the cover of their 1980 album Permanent Waves; the paper can be seen at the bottom of the picture. Because of pressure from the Chicago Tribune, cover art director Hugh Syme changed the text to "Dewei Defeats Truman".

The season 2 episode of The Simpsons, "Lisa's Substitute", references the headline during a class election, with Martin Prince presenting the headline "Simpson defeats Prince", a photograph of which then appears below the accurate headline, "Prince defeats Simpson." Also, in the season 14 episode of The Simpsons, "Large Marge", while watching the History channel Lisa and Homer have a bet on who won the 1948 election to determine what they will do during the day. Homer chooses Dewey, and Lisa picks Truman. The show states "The headlines proclaim 'Dewey Defeats Truman', but the headlines are dead wrong."

Season 8 of Family Guy references the event in a paper displaying the headline "Stewie Defeats Truman".

The Onion's parody front page collection book Our Dumb Century features an edited picture of Truman holding an issue of The Onion reading "Other Guy Defeats What's-His-Face".

The webcomic Achewood features the paper in the last frame of the strip for October 11, 2004.

The alternate history short story "The More Things Change..." by Glen E. Cox, contained in the anthology Alternate Presidents, tells the story of the 1948 election in reverse with the underdog Dewey defeating the overwhelming early favourite, the incumbent Harry S. Truman. Given that it was regarded as a foregone conclusion that Dewey would lose the election, the front page headline of the Chicago Tribune on November 3, 1948 erroneously reads "Truman Defeats Dewey". The front cover of the anthology depicts a grinning Dewey proudly holding up the relevant edition of the Chicago Tribune in the same manner as Truman did in real life.

In Settling Accounts: In at the Death, the final novel of Harry Turtledove's alternate history Southern Victory Series which depicts the Confederate States of America gaining its independence in September 1862, the Democratic Party candidate Dewey defeats the incumbent Socialist Party President Charles W. LaFollette in the 1944 election. Considering that LaFollette had presided over the recent defeat of the Confederacy in the Second Great War (an analogue of World War II), it was widely believed that Dewey would lose the election to LaFollette. To that end, the front page headline of November 8, 1944 edition of the Chicago Tribune inaccurately read "LaFollette Defeats Dewey". Dewey's running mate Harry S. Truman, the incoming Vice President, was photographed holding up a copy of the paper by the media.

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