The RAP

It was a bad week for Bob Hope. In the latest Hooperating, he lost his position as the nation's favorite radio comic when Fellow Funnyman Fred Allen tied him for first place. As if that weren't bitter enough, the representatives of 20,000 college students named Hope the worst comedian on the air. On the basis of good taste, the students decided, his show was "barely acceptable."

The survey, called the Radio Acceptance Poll (RAP), grew out of a Toledo meeting last May of the National Federation of Catholic College Students. Almost 100 of the federation's 180 Catholic schools agreed to listen in every week and report reactions to 16 big comedy shows. Some 30 Protestant and 17 Catholic clubs will participate.

Each week, voluntary campus listeners rate the comics as "Highly Acceptable," "Acceptable," "Barely Acceptable," or "Offensive." In last week's first tabulation, nobody was labeled offensive, 14 of the 16 shows squeaked by, and only one--Jimmy Durante--was "Highly Acceptable." Hope was alone in the "Barely Acceptable" class. The pollsters announced that they will keep on listening, will award a prize RAP at the season's end to the comedian with the worst record.

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