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Joe Isuzu

Joe Isuzu was a fictional spokesman who starred in a series of 1980s television advertisements for Isuzu cars and trucks. Created by the ad agency Della Femina, Travisano & Partners, and directed by Hollywood director Graham Baker, the segments aired on American television in 1986–1990, reaching their zenith in 1987 after the character was featured during Super Bowl XXI. Played by actor David Leisure, Joe Isuzu was a pathological liar who made outrageous and overinflated claims about Isuzu's cars, with one commercial even casting him as the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Joe Isuzu's satire of the advertising and automotive sales business met with some resistance within those industries, many of whom felt the character reflected poorly on them.

Origin
Comedian Jon Lovitz appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on March 28, 1985 as part of The Groundlings improv troupe doing his character Tommy Flanagan (flah-NAY-gan) who was a pathological liar. He was then hired by Saturday Night Live later that year. The Joe Isuzu commercials started appearing the next year in 1986, leading one to believe it was "borrowed" by the ad company from Lovitz' character. ==Legacy==
Legacy
The character became a fixture in American popular culture. In 1988, Michael Dukakis, in a debate with George H. W. Bush during that year's United States presidential election, said, "If Bush keeps it up, he's going to be the Joe Isuzu of American politics." Leisure reprised his role as Joe Isuzu in a 1992 A&W Cream Soda commercial. True to form, Joe makes outrageous claims about the soda. In 2012, Daily Finance (a subsidiary of AOL) named David Leisure #15 of Top 25 Celebrity Spokespeople of All Time for having portrayed Joe Isuzu in Isuzu advertisements. The same year, Leisure reprised the role in a series of mock endorsements of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. ==References==
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