The Other TP Panic

Some look at toilet paper panic buying and say they’ve never seen anything like it—but let's not forget the great TP shortage of 1973.
 
Who started it? Johnny Carson, of course!

In a game of mass media telephone, one Congressman’s warning of a “potential” supply issue translated to the late-night icon warning his 20 million viewers of “an acute shortage of toilet paper in the good old United States… it is serious,” Mental Floss reports.

And the TP buying spree began—lasting into 1974. 

That wasn’t the only time Johnny wielded his influence over the John. One entrepreneur fought hard to fulfill his dream of naming his porta-potty “Here’s Johnny.”
 
Even after Carson died, the request was refused, Lowering the Bar reports.