Friday, January 30, 2009
News Barack Obama walks into a bar...
Posted by Debbie Michaud @DebsMichaud on Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 4:45 PM
From the New Haven Advocate:
On the eve of his inauguration, painting walls at a Habitat for Humanity dwelling, Obama joshed that this was good practice as he was moving into a new house the next day.But that MLK Day event also emphasized the critics' worst fears: Sure, he can make fun of himself, but how easy is it for anyone else to mock a guy who's out helping the homeless the day before one of the most jam-packed weeks of his life? Where's the opening for humor there?
A president who takes too many vacations, or mangles speeches, or starts international conflicts when he's barely traveled out of the country — that's a guy ripe for the plucking. But Obama's "no drama" persona translates to "no huma" as well.
The cartoon-Teflon concern is hardly a new one: jokesters have had two years (and Illinois newsies even longer) to come up with Barack characteristics they can exaggerate and crack wise about. All they've located so far is his ears.
What are John Stewart and Stephen Colbert to do now?
Comments (5)
Showing 1-5 of 5
I like what Chris Rock said about making jokes about Barack Obama: "He's just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There's no Will Smith jokes," the funny man says. "There's no Brad Pitt jokes. You know, what are you going to say? 'You used to have sex with Jennifer Aniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You're such a loser.' What do you say? 'Ooh, your movies are big. You make $20 million.' There's nothing to say about Brad Pitt." "(With Obama) it's like, 'Ooh, you're young and virile and you've got a beautiful wife and kids. You're the first African-American president.' You know, what do you say?" Rock adds.
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It's just hard to be funny and not violate the PC rules and be instantly called a bigot or racist.
If it's THAT hard and you fall back on bigotry and racism, then you aren't quality to begin with.
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