Liberty Reborn

Here is an interesting piece in the International Herald Tribune attempting to explain why comedians are having a hard time making fun of Barack Obama in their acts and on their shows:

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.
But there has been little humor about Obama: about his age, his speaking ability, his intelligence, his family, his physique. And within a late-night landscape dominated by white hosts, white writers, and overwhelmingly white audiences, there has been almost none about his race.

“We’re doing jokes about people in his orbit, not really about him,” said Mike Sweeney, the head writer for O’Brien on “Late Night.” The jokes will come, representatives of the late-night shows said, when Obama does or says something that defines him — in comedy terms.

“We’re carrion birds,” said Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show” on the Comedy Central channel. “We’re sitting up there saying ‘Does he seem weak? Is he dehydrated yet? Let’s attack.’ ”
But so far, no true punch lines have landed.

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. 

Hold on a second here. I am just putting on my hip waders because it is getting deep here. No “comedic take” on Obama? Nothing to “turn to for an easy laugh”?

Now this is spin of the highest order!

Ok, let’s see if we can get their creative juices flowing with some topics:
- A birth certificate sworn to be authentic yet contains no elements of a legitimate birth certificate.
- A couple decades in a radical church listening to anti-American and racist rhetoric.
- A book with several references about how Barack Obama sees white people and being white as a problem.
- The fact that he stumbles and stammers in search of a coherent thought any time he does not have a prepared speech in front of him.
- His association with the corrupt Tony Rezko.
- His association with an avowed and unrepentant terrorist.
- The fact that his name appeared on a FARC computer and that he was talked about in correspondence in a positive light and as potentially good for the terrorist organization if elected to be president.
- His flip flops on Iran being a not serious and then a serious threat.
- His umpteen positions on Iraq.

Any of this striking a chord yet with you so-called “comedians”?

Let’s be honest. You guys are scared. You are scared that if you poke fun at the guy who is sensitive about his ears that when (God forbid) he becomes president you might have a visit from some guys in black suits asking serious questions about where you loyalties lay.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 21st, 2008 at 1:02 am and is filed under J.J. Jackson's Daily Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.