Making fun of Obama
Tuesday July 15, 2008
The NYT reports that comedians are having trouble coming up with jokes about Barack Obama. Why? Well, for one, it's hard to get a handle on some personal characteristic they can mock. For another, a number of comedy writers actually...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Wow, a "lightworker".
Of course, this coming from some-one who knows many people who are deeply spiritual, but, you know, not one of those mis-guided, closed-minded, "coweringly religious" types.
Dreher for President? Maybe Schwenkler as your running-mate, on the Culinary Conservatism ticket?
It seems to me the Obama Messiah idea is ripe for comedic exploitation.
Hey, maybe John Stewart will riff on it tonight. Jewish comics do the best messiah comedy. "hey, Obama went to the store and buys a nice gifilte fish for dinner. He comes home, and there are 50 fish in the bag! Oy! What's up with that?"
The messiah idea has some merit. The calmness, his poise, his reasonable tone, his breezy manner. They all say welcome, let me comfort you. Let me explain to you why I now have come. But the persona has to be taken to an extreme to be funny. The character would need the robe-like garment, the open arms, the quiet manner, the soothing voice, the knowing look.
Actually, I was just thinking today how hard it was to come up with jokes about McCain---while I can think of many reasons for people (conservative or liberal) not wanting him to be president, I cannot think of much about him that's really "funny." Obama is far easier to me, but then, I get lots of practice---a relative of mine is Obama's biggest fan, so I always try to have lots of material ready. :-)
God bless.
What's easiest to mock are his followers, the Obamatons, who seem a little too eager to elect him.
At any rate, Obama will get a pass for a while, but you can't use the "all criticism of me is racist" line forever, and once it falls for the Obamessiah, it'll go down across the board.
I'm not sure it's a very healthy thing to have a president that we can't join together as Americans in ridiculing. They made fun of Dukakis for being short, Gore for being wooden, Bush Jr. for being dumb, McCain for being old/hot-tempered, we can make fun of Obama for being a bit smug, a little cocky, having big ears, etc. Let the pointing & laughing begin.
Comedians are getting a few jabs in. Leno made fun of Obama's emergency landing, saying that the plane was veering right, and Stewart got in a good jab - playing a George Bush bit on how he wished he could wave a magic wand to lower gas prices, saying "Aren't you glad we can elect a president who speaks intelligently about gas prices?", and cutting to Obama, wishing he could wave a magic wand and lower gas prices.
So the jokes are probably going to be about his not being the Messiah that everyone has billed him to be.
You've seen this?
http://www.larknews.com/march_2008/secondary.php?page=1
good stuff. I could easily seeing this being added to night after night.
How can you laugh when we are at the brink of electing the first metro-sexual president of the united states of america.
Because "metro-sexual president" is just inherently funny. Let's begin speculating about new cabinet positions he'll try to create. I can see Oprah as Secretary of All That, Girl.
Rod,
Actually, I'm personally boycotting the "lightworker" term, because it came from Moford, who as you so well show in your next post doesn't deserve for me to spread the fruit of his creative brain.
But, as for satirizing the whole "cool, reserved" thing I can see a lot of Jedi Obama riffs, with Barack looking like Samuel L. Jackson.
Bless,
Doug
His middle name is Hussein and there was a famous Hussein in the news for 15 years...there's no joke there? How about Osama bin Laden changing his name to Obama to improve his image? The reason they're not making these jokes is in the story...they want him to win.
That last reason is going to make it hard to criticize a President Obama.
Remember about 4 years back when you couldn't criticize GWB without having your patriotism questioned?
Somehow we'll muddle through.
I thought SNL did a pretty good job poking fun at both Obama worship and his rhetorical style, but he definately doesn't give them anywhere near as much to work with as Bill Clinton or GWB.
Oh, I think the Republicans will have no trouble making fun of him.
Hmm...the blog didn't like my last attempt at a link, one more try:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/10231/saturday-night-live-democratic-debate
I just heard on c-span McCain quote Obama bloviating against the Surge during the primaries and then Obama gushing about his confidence in the Surge after he beat Hilary. If McCain could make me laugh about anything much less Obama, then these comedians are the real joke.
Oh, calm down. If Obama loses the election the public abuse by all begins November 9. If he wins it's at most another six months until the full scale pillorying begins.
The only Presidential sin greater than not being able to deliver on policy promises is inability to entertain. And Obama is following in Carter's footsteps in a lot of ways.
Scott R. nails one outta the ball park:
Remember about 4 years back when you couldn't criticize GWB without having your patriotism questioned?
Somehow we'll muddle through.
I'm still LOL
Cowboy- uh, NO, as a matter of fact, I don't remember when GWB was spared any crititicism.
I think late-night comedians backed off for a few months after the WTC was attacked, but after that? He's been mocked nonstop, just as he was before.
It will be interesting to see what happens if Obama becomes President. Satirizing, mocking, and criticizing the foibles of a President Obama will probably present a unique challenge for comedians, but it will especially present a challenge to to politically correct liberals of the sort who usually speak up for freedom of speech.
Will Obama have the courage to stand up to those who engage in gotcha racial politics, such as the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons. Based on his campaign rhetoric, yes. Based on his years as a member of Trinity Church, no.
Astorian, the Letterman show does the best Bush satire: "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches."
He shows two video clips of past U.S. Presidents saying something inspiring, followed by a clip of George W. Bush saying something lame, mangling the language, or otherwise engaging in a Bushism. It's pretty bad when a POTUS can be satirized just by showing a clip of him talking.
The metrosexual is one tack to take.
I do like the the Obamessiah idea. You could have a lot of fun with that. Puffy clouds floating around the set, angelic lighting. He's in a robe, like someone here said, and he's some kind of a guru/enlightened one. He's also preternaturally poised and perfect. His followers hang on his every word and print and sell T-shirts with his sayings faster than he can say them. These are tossed to screaming fans audible off-stage.
Heh, he's a hard target, to be sure. Give him time. He's in his media honeymoon. If he gets elected, it won't last. He'll do something silly sooner or later, and they'll get him. It'll be his come-uppance. And of course his adoring fans will only adore him more, ironically.
As far as racism, well, that's easy enough. Give one these retiring night show host's slot to a black comedian. He'll have to tone things down a little bit for network TV, but some of their commentary is seriously hilarious. If a black man can get the Democratic nomination, a Black man can get his own network or prime time Comedy Central slot. They have nothing stopping them from eviscerating him. It's fair to make fun of your own.
They did a piece in NYT about the lapel pin issue. One designer suggested that Obama walk around with lapels torn off, just to avoid the whole issue of the flag pin. Another designer said the whole issue reminded him of Office Space, and says Obama should show up to his next media appearance wearing fifty different patriotic lapel pins. That would be funny on nightly comedy, too.
From AoSHQ:
Barack Obama took his wife and children to see a talent show agent. The agent asked Senator Obama what the family act was.
Senator Obama explained that his family represented the opportunity for change, the ability of people to improve their lives through hardwork, that children can reach their potential even at the cost of ten to fifteen thousand dollars per year in music lessons and summer camps, that families can struggle to eat healthy foods, such as fresh fruit and leafy greens, and, that all this can happen despite being limited to speaking in one language.
The agent sat back, decided he would never smoke again, order healthier foods that contained zero transfats, begin saving a percentage of his income, donate to charity, and invest in that RosettaStone package he'd seen advertised on television, and asked Senator Obama what the name of his act was.
"The Aristocrats"
[hee-hee]
This is a Huge diaster that this unknowledged president is doing.If this keeps up nthis country is going strait down the crap hole and i'm not kidding.
If anyone has any questions please e-mail me at kb14000@aol.com
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