The late-night talk-show hosts have apparently decided that Barack Obama cannot be made fun of in their monologues. The reasons are numerous (or so they say), including that the audience members don't like it and that a bunch of white (guilty liberal) people are uncomfortable making fun of him since he's black. I guess the Obamessiah is beyond criticism.
Then there is this:
Why? The reason cited by most of those involved in the shows is that a fundamental factor is so far missing in Obama: There is no comedic "take" on him, nothing easy to turn to for an easy laugh, like allegations of Bill Clinton's womanizing, or President George W. Bush's goofy bumbling or Al Gore's robotic persona.
"The thing is, he's not buffoonish in any way," said Mike Barry, who started writing political jokes for Johnny Carson's monologues in the waning days of the Johnson administration and has lambasted every presidential candidate since, most recently for Letterman. "He's not a comical figure," Barry said...
Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the ABC late-night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live," said of Obama, "There's a weird reverse racism going on. You can't joke about him because he's half-white. It's silly. I think it's more a problem because he's so polished, he doesn't seem to have any flaws."
What?
Oh dear, people have lost their minds about this guy. Here's some easy stuff that's non-political: he's inexperienced, and there is also the way his followers swoon over his every utterance. That's not too controversial, I would think, even to Obama supporters. I could come up with lots more that many people wouldn't agree with, but then I've never agreed with the cartoonish depiction of our current president, not that it ever stopped these guys from continuing that.
The worst part is this:
But Barry said, "I think some of us were maybe too quick to caricature Al Gore and John Kerry and there's maybe some reluctance to do the same thing to him."
Wow. I mean, wow. I can't believe he actually came out and said it. He gets honesty points, at least, for admitting that he doesn't want to doom his favored candidate. After all, he didn't mention how much these writers screwed over Bob Dole in 1996, did he?
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3 comments:
They're scared. I mean, look how many "jokes" have already been frowned upon about Obama:
The "can we still call it the White House" joke.
The "oreo" joke.
The New Yorker satire.
I wouldn't want to touch it either!
I agree, but these aren't really jokes (except the first one, and that is just kind of dumb and old):
2. McLaughlin was trying to make a serious point with his use of the word "oreo".
3. The New Yorker thing was supposed to make fun of conservatives. That in itself is stupid, since no conservatives outside of a fringe are saying he is a Muslim. The only thing funny about it is the hysterical reaction by so many on the left.
The easy thing to hit him on is that he and Michelle are out-of-touch elitists. That's not an inherently bad thing to be, but it won't win him many votes. The issue is these guys want him to be president so badly that they won't go after him for anything short of getting busted for drunk driving.
I guess another point I'd like to make is that Obama is a pansy. I've made the point before, but this is The New Yorker, for goodness sake. If he doesn't think they are rooting for him and he must criticize them for their dumb cover illustration, he has some extremely thin skin. That's definitely not a good quality in a president.
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