Will Rogers Still Makes Us Smile
/By Don Varyu
June 2026
or the first 30 years of the 20th century, Will Rogers was America’s favorite humorist. Mark Twain could certainly contend for that title, but Twain leaned a little more highbrow. Rogers was the quintessential homespun, “aw shucks” kind of guy that made him easy to relate to. He was part Caucasian and part Cherokee…and Oklahoma through and through.
Rogers appeared at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, at the youthful age of 22. But by that time, he had already tried to make a career as a cowboy (gaucho) in Argentina (lost all his money); as a member of a traveling Wild West troupe in South Africa; and in a separate circus gig in Australia.
After St. Louis, he became a star in vaudeville, newspaper and magazine writing, radio, and silent movies—followed by the “talkies.” He was everywhere--multimedia long before the term was ever invented.
At any rate, his great skill was to take a simple truth—an aphorism—and make it funny. But “funny” is subjective, so I’ll let you make up your own mind:
“A fool and his money are soon elected.”
“The short memories of the American voters are what keeps our politicians in office.”
“We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.”
“The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking spaces.”
“Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else.”
“Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people that they don't like.”
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
“Never miss a good chance to shut up.”
ogers was also not above considering the end of life. He once wrote,
When I die, my epitaph--or whatever you call those signs on gravestones--is going to read: ‘I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn’t like.’ I am so proud of that, I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved.[7
Fortunately or unfortunately, the end came much quicker than he expected. In 1935, he was taking off on a floatplane from an Alaskan lagoon when the engine failed. He and the pilot both died instantly in the crash. Will Rogers was only 55.
But he left a tsunami of smiles in his wake.
