Did Stan Freberg Predict Political Correctness in 1957?
Okay, first I'll address your question as to who in the heck Stan Freberg was. Suffice to say, he was a brilliant comic with a decidedly odd sense of humor. Mostly, Freberg was a satirist and his specialty was satirizing popular music of the day. His take on rock and roll which was in its infancy at the time are classic.
In 1957, Eisenhower was president and things were just sort of cooking along. Nobody was doing anything really radical until about 1956 when rock and roll went from the backstreets to Main Street America. At that time, Freberg was hosting his won radio show and fighting the censors at just about every turn.
The funny thing is, that Freberg's comedy was considered quite edgy for the times and he addressed the censors in his routine where he is trying to sing "Old Man River", but the network censor (Played by the great voice talent, Daws Butler) keeps interrupting him. The term "Political Correctness" was not even around back in 1957, but Freberg must have seen it coming because he nailed it even back in the late 50s.
Here we have "political correctness" circa 1957 as Stan Freberg attempts to sing "Old Man River" and get it past the network censors.