Posted on 08/22/2014 9:40:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
The amount of mockery presidents endure usually corresponds with their polling. It applies to Republicans (Nixon, Bush, Bush), but sometimes also to Democrats (Carter).
In 2012, the Center for Media and Public Affairs found network late-night shows told twice as many jokes about Mitt Romney as they told about President Obama. Was it because Obama was more popular than Romney? Or did it make Obama more popular than his opponent?
Obama isn't running for office again, so there's no need for satirists to go easy on him at the risk of endangering his electability. The last NBC poll put Obama's approval rating at 40 percent approval, 54 percent disapproval. His numbers are Carter-esque. Increasingly, he is seen as a national embarrassment, and yet the utter lack of zinging satire for Barack Obama remains.
The Hollywood Reporter recently posted interview excerpts from an updated version of "Live From New York," a book chronicling the history of NBC's "Saturday Night Live." In these snippets, one can see that protecting the left is paramount in that industry.
In Obama's first term, "SNL" was under attack from the left for using a white comedian (Fred Armisen) to mock Obama (very gently). When the show began a new season in the fall of 2012, they turned to a black comedian, Jay Pharoah. But he's also afraid to zing Obama.
In an interview, Pharoah described an event at movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's house where he did an Obama impression in front of the president. "I was [Obama] at this event, and [Obama] stood right there watching me do it. He was laughing; it was so petrifying. As long as there's no beef between me and the president, that's good. When that happens, you're Kanye West."
Back in 2009, Obama famously called West a "jackass" in an open-mic remark.
The last memorable Pharoah skit came back on Dec. 14, 2013. His fake Obama tried to explain himself out of the controversies surrounding the funeral of former South African president Nelson Mandela, including the spectacle of a completely unqualified man attempting sign language interpretation next to the president. Most the skit was dedicated to a phony interpreter lamely making signs behind Obama's back.
Jim Downey, a longtime writer and producer of "SNL," explained to the authors that there was no appetite for attacking Obama.
"I'm sure there are a lot of people in comedy who completely share every f---ing detail, jot and tittle of the Obama administration agenda, and all I can say is: To the extent that you're sincere and that's really the way you feel, then you're a very lucky person," he explained. "Because, guess what? You're going to have a very easy career in comedy because audiences will always applaud. They may not laugh, but they'll always give you [a] huge ovation. That's Bill Maher, you know?"
For having this distaste for moving submissively with the liberal crowd, Downey was mocked by former cast member Horatio Sanz as "basically the Karl Rove of 'SNL.' He's always writing the right-wing sketches, and honestly I think a lot of times they're out of tune with the audience."
Can anyone remember a deluge of "right-wing sketches" on television in the last six years, on any broadcast channel? And at this low ebb of Obama's popularity, is mocking the president really "out of tune" with the country?
Half the country is conservative and yet, there are no conservative TV channels. There probably will never be because anyone trying to start one is going to be stomped, will get no big advertisers and find that getting picked up by cable-satellite systems nearly impossible.
Which is why Rush says, “I AM Equal Time.”
One would think that Dennis Miller, who is 10 times funnier than either Jon Stewart or Bill Maher, could have his own show. The fact that he doesn’t speaks volumes about TV media and it’s biases.
Tie one end of a rubber band to a limo’s rear axle and the other end to Obama’s tongue — then ask him how great he is.
Problem is, there's nothing funny about the Royal Idiot!
Why it is no surprise the mainstream media is in Obama’s pocket:
please see above.....
SNL is still on?
I thought it died a well-deserved death long ago.
I haven’t watched SNL in ages. Neither do I watch the network it is on
He didn’t say “right-wing” skits were out of touch with the country. He said they were out of touch with SNL’s audience. That says more about the audience than the writer.
And I find it interesting that there’s no comment about “left-wing” skits. But maybe that’s because the deluded elitists who write for junk like SNL see themselves as centrists, not the left-wing loons they are.
Half the country is conservative and yet, there are no conservative TV channels.
There IS a new channel that calls itself a Conservative News channel- OAN, One America News, #210 on my Uverse. It’s boring, but when I watched, there were no commercials.
I bet that arrogant pos thought it was funny
Thanks, just found OANN on 208 Uverse here in the Chicago suburbs
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