This thing has ceased to be a joke: The Veterans of Future Wars and the Meanings of Political Satire in the 1930s

Rasmussen chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of the Veterans of Future Wars (VFW) in 1936 as a testament to the power and pitfalls of satire as a form of political protest. In Jan 1936 Congress voted to pay a "bonus" owed to World War I veterans one decade ahead of schedule. Students at Princeton University responded by founding the VFW, a satirical protest against the bonus and militarism. In only a few months, the organization enrolled fifty thousand members on American college campuses, gained nationwide publicity, and disbanded. The founders of the VFW mocked veterans' opportunism, but most of its members considered the group a protest against war, and disagreement over the VFW's political stance undid the wildly popular satire.