making jokes about Sen. Obama:
What’s so funny about Barack Obama? Apparently not very
much, at least not yet.
On Monday, The New Yorker magazine tried dipping its toe
into broad satire involving Senator Obama with a cover image
depicting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee
and his wife, Michelle, as fist-bumping, flag-burning, bin
Laden-loving terrorists in the Oval Office. The response from
both Democrats and Republicans was explosive.
Comedy has been no easier for the phalanx of late-night television
hosts who depend on skewering political leaders for a healthy
quotient of their nightly monologues. Jay Leno, David Letterman,
Conan O’Brien and others have delivered a nightly stream of jokes
about the Republican running for president — each one a variant
on the same theme: John McCain is old.
Mr. Carter explains why so little jokes about Obama:
Why? The reason cited by most of those involved in the shows
is that a fundamental factor is so far missing in Mr. 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 Bush’s goofy bumbling or Al Gore’s robotic persona.
I'll help these poor comedy writers come up with stuff. How about his perceived
arrogance. Jon Stewart joked about the his presumptuous presidential seal but
had to tell the audience "You know, you’re allowed to laugh at him." But how about
his Web site already selling leather-bound videos to speeches he made just a few
months ago! Surely, there are a few jokes they can come out of that.
Or how about the his gaffe about having been to 57 states:
If John McCain would have made this gaffe it would been all over the entertainment
media as proof that he's "losing his bearings," as Obama likes to put it.
Then there's also Obama's hyperbole about "healing" and "the ocean risings." I'm
sure soaring rhetoric is good enough to eek out one good laugh out of. I mean the
great and snarky comedienne Hillary Clinton did.
I have a joke that some comedy writers can steal and the progressive bloggers
will love:
President Bush is extremely unpopular these days. However, one of the
presidential candidates has been aligning himself with the president's policies
and this might be a bad political move for him. Oh, I'm not talking about
John McCain. I'm talking about Sen. Obama's 'move to the center.'
I'm really shocked that the late night comics are having trouble coming up with
jokes about Sen. Obama but have no difficulty saying that Sen. McCain seems
"mentally challenged." This is all so surprising.
