Honest question - Was there ever a joke about why Walter Mondale

[zbdent]

was nicknamed Fritz?

I just read a brief chapter in the book "Dave Barry's Greatest Hits".

It was about jokes, and he was suggesting tracing the speed that a joke gets passed around. He was going to start a joke, but he did not print it in the article. He said that you would recognize it by the key wording having to do with how Walter Mondale got his nickname "Fritz".

Now, taking anything from Dave Barry with a grain of salt (1 tsp. vanilla, two cups flour, 1/4 cup butter or margerine, mix), I got to wondering. Did anybody actually ever hear a joke like that? I'm sure that this was sometime as early as 1983.

I asked a co-worker who frequently likes to defend W's actions (and thus is likely to know any Dem bashing jokes), but he had never heard any such joke.

Like I said, this is from Dave Barry, who, on national television, said that he represented the faction of voters who wore boxes on their heads. But I was curious. Not yellow.

[Jerseycoa]

1. Don't know

I thought the nickname was just based on his middle name, Frederick, but I suppose it could be a joke, something like "on the fritz."

[Philostopher]

3. I think that's the general presumption

That "Fritz" was the nickname for "Frederick." I think it gained eternal endurance when the Carter campaign used the slogan "Grits and Fritz" -- I remember signs and buttons with that slogan on them.

Here's a link to an article from back just after Wellstone died, when Mondale was called up to run in Minnesota:

http://www.mankato-freepress.com/archives/2002/021029/elmore.html

This would indicate he'd always been called "Fritz" because it was a common shortening of Frederick. Dave Barry notwithstanding, I think this is probably the fairest call.

[dfitzsim]

2. "Fritz" used to be a common nickname for "Frederick"

Dave was just pokin' fun and using innuendo. In 1983, "Fritz the Cat" was still well known for being the first movie-length, X-rated cartoon. The word "Fritz", at that time, had some sexual overtones.

[doc03]

4. ?

Has anyone ever seen Walter Mondale and Madelyn Allbright together?