I don’t want to make light of MLK Day. It’s an important day, and it’s really important to me, but try as I might, I didn’t feel qualified to write a post about the man who has come to represent so much to so many. I understand that race relations, like most hot-button issues, are on a pendulum and are bound to swing backward once in a while. But this year, it feels like we’ve been spending more time swinging back than forward, and I worry that we are letting the great man down.

However, I didn’t want to let the day go by without acknowledging him, so here’s a joke he told on The Tonight Show in 1968. It’s very him.