Escalation originated from his anger of the "Battle Hymn" during the Vietnam War (a song he performed many times with Firehouse Five Plus Two) and a story from The Realist that suggested that Johnson was preoccupied with the size of his genitals.

[3][2] In a 2000 interview shortly before his death, Kimball said that he thought that Escalation had not received the mainstream attention it deserved.

Then a giant statue of the head of Lyndon B. Johnson is slowly wheeled into view, while the melody of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" plays.

Actor Paul Frees imitates Johnson's voice reading the lyrics,[2] later joined by a choir, with each instance of the word "truth" being bleeped out with a cuckoo sound.

When fully erect, the nose begins to shake and then violently explodes as images of the Playboy Bunny, bare breasts, hot dogs, copious amounts of meat, Billy Graham, John Wayne, Doris Day, Coca-Cola, beer, Aunt Jemima, Lassie, Superman, Little Orphan Annie, S&H Green Stamps, cars, and cigarettes flash on the screen in rapid succession amidst images and sounds of explosions, followed by a similarly rapid succession of military decoration, ending on the Purple Heart (the medal for those wounded or killed in combat) as a single clock chime is heard.