Posted on 05/05/2009 9:25:20 AM PDT by ClassicLiberal
What's so unfunny?
That's what some comics - citing the scarcity of satire directed at President Obama and his administration - want to know.
Claiming that his peers are "panicky" about "being called a racist," stand-up legend Jackie Mason said too many once-fearless satirists are settling for "hero worship" of the new U.S. president.
The Great Presidential Comedy Drought of 2009 can't be chalked off to a lack of satirical fodder, said comic Jeffrey Jena, founder of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy blog. ("Looking at politics and life from the right side," proclaims its motto.)
"Letterman used to do a 'Bushism of the Week.' " Why hasn't he started one with Obama?" Mr. Jena said. "There's plenty of those moments, the 'Ohs, and 'Umms' or 'I don't speak Austrian.' "
"Late Show" host David Letterman was scathing in his mockery of President George W. Bush. But on his show recently, he scolded those who would mock the new president's reliance on the teleprompter for "political nitpicking," saying Mr. Obama is "at least out there trying" to cope with "impossible" political challenges.
"What really can you say wrong" about the determined new president, Mr. Letterman asked rhetorically while introducing a short film called "Teleprompter vs. No Teleprompter." The segment contrasted a clip of a fluent passage of rhetoric from a formal Obama address to Congress with one of a tongue-tied Mr. Bush trying to extemporize in a televised informal question-and-answer format.
Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show," another erstwhile scourge of presidential foibles during the Bush years, has morphed into a political loyalist, rising to the defense of Mr. Obama with angry rants against critics of the president such as CNBC's Jim Cramer and Internet news aggregator (and Washington Times columnist) Andrew Breitbart.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The fact that they will not make jokes of Zero indicates that they are not comedians, but partisan political hacks.
Remember when this loser sat teary eyed with Dan Rather in the wake of 9-11 and asked when we would be able to laugh again?
Talk about impossible political challenges. What a hack. Partisan hack tearing down his perceived enemies with lies and distortitions under the guise of satire. If Goebbels had claimed "it was all a joke", would the outcome have been any different?
They don’t want to get wacked.
In fact, there is nothing funny about this President. Not the teleprompters, not the broken promises, not the silly "gifts" to foreign leaders.
Everyday that Obama sits in the Oval Office, our once great Republic is diminished.
I find no humor in it myself.
To the media, they find it laughable that anyone would not bow down before the Obamessiah. “Teabaggers” (har!har!)
I noticed that Jay Leno has a segment called “What’s Bush Doing Today?” or something like that. They have that tired impersonator they always use just doing bumbling things. Just can’t get past BDS.
It’s bias, all bias.
Speaking of comedy, a right-leaning comedy film, An American Carol, got released and I thought it was hilarious. A friend of mine who reviews movies (and appears every couple months on WBZ radio in Boston) said on the air that it was one of the 10 WORST films of last year. I told him he was being biased politically toward it. (The friend, btw, is black
and his ancestors, like 0bama, hailed from Kenya)
There was a mild poke at 0bama—VERY mild—which got excised from the film. During the scene were Gary Coleman and David Alan Grier played slaves who worked for “Massa
Malone” (slavery would still be around if it weren’t for the Civil War—some wars NEED to be fought), Coleman
says to the Michael Moore-inspired film director, “Don’t
you worry, Massa Malone—we got those bacon stains out
of your car.” At that point, Coleman is supposed to
throw a sponge offscreen and he says, “Yo, Barack...
catch!”
The last line was taken out...boy how offensive eh...
(Actually film director David Zucker didn’t want to
“go there”...)
The comics pretended to mock Clinton, but the only bits they did were about him being a hound dog, which was really a compliment. There was nothing about his selling America to the Chinese or the Travel Office or his brother going to prison for drug dealing or the fact he was white trash from Hot Springs...not "The Man From Hope". There were volumes of potential material, but all we got for years was, "He's Too Sexy!"
Comedians were part of media culture that got Obama elected why would they ridicule him knowing it would destroy him? They won't.
“The fact that they will not make jokes of Zero indicates that they are not comedians, but partisan political hacks”
No, that’s not it. Obama is providing PLENTY of fodder, and you can find it all over the Internet.
What’s really happening is that Comedians are AFRAID to make public jokes about Obama, fearing it will END thier carreers in a sea of liberal hate.
I actually know a couple of real, working comedians that do the clubs circuit. One was told by a club-owner in Chicago that Obama jokes (And he has a couple of GOOD ONES wre strictly verbotten, and if he did even ONE, he would be thrown out, and blacklisted from the circuit.
People are AFRAID to make Bush-type jokes about Obama.
FASCISM-It’s what they voted for.
Do you know if there will be an “unedited version” which actually SHOWS that scene? I would play that over and over again...;-)
I have the DVD and I there are scenes from the cutting room floor but that wasn’t among them. However Zucker (and the film’s star, Kevin Farley, IIRC) had mentioned it in interviews. Maybe it was written but not filmed..?
From USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2008-10-02-zucker-american-carol_N.htm?csp=34
>>His George W. Bush side comes out more in the movie, and his feelings about the president remain positive. “I just think despite all the mistakes, we haven’t had another terrorist attack,” he says. “This is a tough job being president. If Obama is elected, it’ll be tough for him, and I will absolutely be backing him.”
Still, his vote is going to John McCain.
>>Neither candidate turns up in An American Carol; Zucker wanted the comedy to be more about political ideology than current events.
>>But for a while, there was an Obama jab: __He was another car-washing slave.__ “It was pointing out the one characteristic of Barack Obama that I think is meaningless,” Zucker says. “The fact that he’s black, I don’t care. (And) I don’t think Obama is a war-is-not-the-answer guy. It would be unfair to show him that way.”
The sequence with Gary Coleman remained, Zucker adds, because “Michael Moore is a war-is-not-the-answer guy.”
Great observations.
The comedians only talked about McDonalds when they panned Clinton. There was no “Lil Bush” type show.
I saw a recent story saying that Bush and Clinton had similar levels of negative press scrutiny. Terrible history revision. The press loved Clinton and fanatically defended him.
If you said Bush got 100% negative news coverage, no one could dispute it. O’Reilly attacked Bush and Cheney more than Clinton or Obama and that’s not even considered “news coverage”.
humor is a tremendous weapon.
WE NEED TO RIDICULE OBAMA MUCH MORE.
his pratfalls
his verbal failure
his utter lack of any concept of law or business
his need for a teleprompter
his fawning WH press corps worship
his photoshopping his own pictures
Humur can show what a pathetic little man he is.
Air Farce One...
President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho was a visionary, you Mr. Obama are no such visionary.
(/h)
can we really trust a president who was never a professional wrestler?
Back when I was young I asked my dad if we would ever have a black president.
He said: "Sure son, when pigs fly".
Now, Obama is president and what happened?
Swine flu!!
They're not making fun of people in power, they making fun of conservatives.
Their hatred is for us - traditional Americans - middle class citizens, Republicans, family people, church goers.
Now that we know they hate us - it's time to quit watching.
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