Humoring Obama
Alright, gang, we’ve elected this new president that we’re all very excited about. We’re entering a glorious new era of politics, but one very ominous question hangs over our heads:
How are we going to make fun of him?
It doesn’t matter whether or not you like the guy: mocking the president is a time-honored American tradition.
Bush was an easy target. Before we entrenched ourselves in the catharsis of ripping apart his bizarre policies by simply holding up a mirror, we were taking easy pot-shots at his personality and appearance. He was bumbling, rhetorically awkward, and had that vacant look that invited giggles. Don’t get me wrong… there was a lot of funny to be had in the last 8 years, but we’ve got a great challenge facing us in the months ahead. By the time the majority of the country got on board with disliking Bush, political comedy had become mostly flabby and lazy. I can’t really watch the Daily Show anymore… for every funny videoclip dissecting the hypocrisy of politics, there fifty instances of John Stewart mugging to ten minutes of roaring applause. Jokes were as easy as pointing and going, “Hey, look at him!”
Now we’ve got this guy who seems to lack the simple quirks we’ve built our jokes upon these last 8 years. He doesn’t have any obvious vices, he’s in great shape, he’s a masterful orator, ran a flawless campaign, and he’s intelligent while still embracing a willingness to listen. Race, one of his unique qualities, is a nervous and uncomfortable axis to center the humor upon.
I’m sure he’ll have the usual missteps in office that we can tease… but how do we start making fun of this guy now?
Comments
Well, it has been almost 150 years since slavery was abolished, and 50 since segregation. Now that he has broken the racial divide in the presidency, the highest office in the land, is it still too soon?
The first time someone on SNL sags their pants while impersonating Obama is going to have me throwing things at the television.
I’m thinking that especially now that he’s completely unrestrained by the campaign trail, that Biden is going to be picking up a good deal of the slack when it comes to being a humor target.
As for Obama I think his over-earnestness is going to be a good starting point. Before Clinton had about a million other things you could ridicule, the first target was his whole “feel your pain” style empathy. Obama has that same thing and probably more so than Clinton. That seems like as good a starting point as any, although I’m sure it will start coming to us pretty quickly.
If you watch SNL and expect to laugh, John, that’s your problem.
It’s not that race can’t be funny, it’s just too general an approach for my tastes. It’s like Texas: making fun of Bush the Texan wasn’t funny to me because we’re making fun of Texas… it was the dichotomy between his wealthy New England, prep-school, Yale educated roots and his attempt to portray himself as a rough n’ tumble Southern everyman. I’m not saying the jokes aren’t there, they’re just tougher to crack. Plus, people tend to get skittish about offending somebody.
That’s true, Biden has the potential of being an awesomely hilarious target.
Kevin’s right about. I think the best glimpse we’ve gotten of a path to comedy is that roast-style monologue Obama gave a few weeks back, where he joked about how he may just be too damn awesome. There might be plenty to mine from an Obama that remains hopeful and optimistic to an absurd degree.
John said:The first time someone on SNL sags their pants while impersonating Obama is going to have me throwing things at the television.
That would be disappointing indeed.
It’s possible that someone will just create an Obama character that has little to do with reality, but is funny for some random reasons. For example, Dana Carvey’s George Bush Sr. was an absurdly bad impersonation and didn’t have a whole lot to do with the real life Bush, but it was still kinda funny anyway.
Banned Bill said:For example, Dana Carvey’s George Bush Sr. was an absurdly bad impersonation and didn’t have a whole lot to do with the real life Bush, but it was still kinda funny anyway.
Really? Is this a widely held opinion? Because I thought that his impression was always pretty uncanny. I mean at times the affectations were exaggerrated as impersonations almost need to be. But I think on the whole it was awesome. He really did have that choppy style of speaking, he really did use his hands, and he really did drop a lot of the letters/syllables/etc. that Carvey did when doing the impression.
That being said, you could be right about a potential Obama impression. I’m thinking more of the Chevy Chase/Gerald Ford variety.
They’d have to hire someone special on SNL to do an Obama impersonation, because the guy they have doing it now sucks. I think it’s Fred Armisen.
Or have multiple people doing an Obama impression, skewering his/our desire to be everything to all people.
Kevin said:Banned Bill said:For example, Dana Carvey’s George Bush Sr. was an absurdly bad impersonation and didn’t have a whole lot to do with the real life Bush, but it was still kinda funny anyway.
Really? Is this a widely held opinion? Because I thought that his impression was always pretty uncanny. I mean at times the affectations were exaggerrated as impersonations almost need to be. But I think on the whole it was awesome. He really did have that choppy style of speaking, he really did use his hands, and he really did drop a lot of the letters/syllables/etc. that Carvey did when doing the impression.
That being said, you could be right about a potential Obama impression. I’m thinking more of the Chevy Chase/Gerald Ford variety.
I had the same reaction. Dana Carvey’s impression was great. It was a caricature, sure, but it was still based in reality.
I’ve never seen Chevy Chase’s Ford impression.
I probably wasn’t a great judge of the quality of the impersonation, having been 9 when the first Bush was elected. But either way, what do we remember about Carvey’s depiction? Catch phrases like “Not gonna do it” (which devolved into NA GA DA) and “Wouldn’t be prudent” and so forth. How many people actually remember Bush saying those things? I guess my point is just that a comedian can cling onto something completely pointless or innocuous and make it funny if they are committed to being ridiculous in their performance.
I guess because I’m old enough to remember that he did that stuff and said things that way, it seems more realistic to me.
Chevy Chase looked and sounded nothing like Ford and his imperssion pretty much consisted of him falling down a lot.
> Banned Bill said:
> comedian can cling onto something completely pointless or innocuous and make it funny if they are committed to being ridiculous in their performance.
CHICKENS DON’T CLAP!
HAVE YOU EVER EVEN SEEN A CHICKEN?
I tried to find a good version of Chevy Chase as Ford, but could only find this one; http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/260494
I might have to buy the SNL first season on DVD…
I just glanced over the cast of SNL. What the fuck is the kid from Good Burger doing on there? I thought we fired him into the sun for his sins against funny.