The Horribles Parade: A Brief History Of U.S. Satire

BEVERLY FARMS, MASSACHUSETTS – The floats in the Beverly Farms' Horribles Parade walk the line between clever and offensive, and rarely err on the side of safety. The tradition dates back to the 1800s, and Beverly Farms and other local parades carry that torch with glee.

In 2016, a float simultaneously poked fun at the death of Harambe, Black Lives Matter, and the proposed transgender bathroom laws. A person in a gorilla costume dragged a man dressed like a child along on a skateboard in front of the float, ridiculing the killing of a gorilla that had grabbed a 3-year-old boy after he fell into the gorilla's enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. Signs on the float read "#Gorilla Lives Matter," and – making fun of the proposed laws regarding transgender bathrooms – "Whatever, Just Wash Your Hands."

Roughly a week after the parade, Beverly Ward 2 City Councilor Estelle Rand posted a statement to Facebook in response.

"My opinion is that some of these floats went well beyond what I can accept as political satire," wrote Rand. "I believe that this tradition can go forward without passively promoting messages of homophobia, racism, and a general lack of respect for those who are suffering in our world."

The floats in the Beverly Farms Horribles Parade mock national politics, like when a float depicted what Dick Cheney's Hunting School might look like, but also aim closer to home, like when a float that skewered the Gloucester pregnancy pact shocked onlookers. Keep up on North Shore news by subscribing to your local Patch and liking us on Facebook.

The goal is "big and stupid."

The tradition of the Horribles Parade dates back to roughly 1850, according to local researcher Nancy Coffey. The Ancient and Honorable Artillery in Massachusetts is generally considered the oldest chartered military organization in the U.S. In Lowell, the working class spoofed it by dressed in raggedy clothes, riding nags for horses, and having the men dressed as women. They called it the Antique and Horribles Parade.

Hence, the Horribles Parade was born in Massachusetts. This year's will be on Tuesday, the Fourth of July.

"The upper classes probably hated it, but everyone else thought it was a heck of a lot of fun," said Coffey.

The first mention of an official Horribles Parade in Beverly Farms was in 1888, around the same time Beverly Farms tried to secede from Beverly, said Coffey. She said the parades were more sporadic around that time, and didn't take off as an annual event until after World War II. Wartime meant Fourth of July celebrations were more somber, patriotic, and less likely to be parodied.

The tradition is the same in many ways, according to Coffey. The float makers and parade marchers would get up around 5 a.m. and make as much noise as possible on the day of the parade, and today noise still plays a role (though the parade now starts at 8). The parade still attacks local government as well as Beverly Farms characters (back in the day, a float mocked the elopement of a well-known Beverly Farms couple. In 2006, it poked fun of local Kerry Healey's gubernatorial run: "Billionaire$ for Healey").

The parade has also been the subject of headlines since its inception.

Satire is protected under the First Amendment. In the decades before "Saturday Night Live," the sort of mockery of the Antique and Horribles and other street theater stood as a form of protest: The tradition was born out of rebellion.

"The Farms parade – as disgusting as it can be sometimes – is really in keeping with the tradition," said Coffey.

Different versions of the parade persist, but the event in Beverly Farms periodically draws attention for its float subjects. In Marblehead, photos show that while its Horribles Parade floats sometimes deal with politics, it's morphed into a kid-focused event, and is much cleaner than the Beverly Farms parade. The Danvers parade has followed a similar path. The Salem Willows Horribles Parade is edgier, and had floats last year that featured a person dressed as Hillary Clinton in chains and a prison jumpsuit, and a papier-mâché piece of feces on a Trump-related float.

However, one thing has changed over the years, Coffey has heard. The spirit of the parade seemed to be more "in good fun."

"People always knew when there was going to be a float about them," she said.

Images via Nancy Coffey, research