Comedians having a hard time getting traction with Obama

[steven johnson]

During the Obama-McCain campaign, Obama was the butt of only 58 jokes on five major late-night comedy shows in September versus 283 for Sarah Palin and 245 for John McCain. Even George Bush edged Obama out with 141 jokes.

Jon Stewart’s "Daily Show" and "Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!" have gotten some satirical traction, major comedians with traditional audiences have had a hard time putting Obama jokes together. Comedians struggle to poke fun at Obama

We may have to outsource our humor to Mumbai, Singapore, Bangalore or Mexico if American R&D is not adequate.

By Greg Braxton
May 4, 2009

On his HBO show, "Real Time With Bill Maher," the comedian routinely makes vicious fun of celebrities, politicians, presidents and even God. But he's learned that, for much of his audience, Barack Obama is off limits.

As late-night talk show hosts and other television comics who trade in political humor know, cracking wise about the new president, who marked his 100th day in office last week, is apparently not very funny for most of the people, most of the time. Not surprisingly, to guard against a frosty or uncertain reception, TV's leading political humorists have largely backed away from their ritual comic hazing of the president, a colorful tradition in the medium, especially in its late-night time slots, since at least the Nixon administration.

The heckling response to Maher's gibe is hardly an anomaly. As late-night talk show hosts and other television comics who trade in political humor know, cracking wise about the new president, who marked his 100th day in office last week, is apparently not very funny for most of the people, most of the time. Not surprisingly, to guard against a frosty or uncertain reception, TV's leading political humorists have largely backed away from their ritual comic hazing of the president, a colorful tradition in the medium, especially in its late-night time slots, since at least the Nixon administration.

"If you're a comedian and you die and go to heaven, Bill Clinton is your president," said Robert J. Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. "If you're a comedian and you die and go to hell, Barack Obama is your president."



Funny thing about Obama ...

[rucky]

1. It's the damn liberal commedia!

[Arkana]

2. After eight years of the biggest comedy goldmine political comedians have ever had,

I can imagine how some folks might be going through withdrawal with Obama.

[Grateful for Hope]

13. So true!

LOL!

[Arugula Latte]

22. But remember how they backed off Bush/Cheney for a long time after 9-11?

It seemed like a looooooong time that those thugs got a pass.

[Ken Burch]

3. Maybe the stimulus funds can be used to create a Federal Comic Project

Or a Civilian Comedian Corps.

[monmouth]

4. Obama is the first one to crack wise on himself. His self-deprecating

humor is enjoyable and sort of takes the wind out of anyone else's remarks.

[Cha]

7. I know, huh. Obama has

it down to a science:)

[yellowdogintexas]

14. first one in a LONG time. JFK was pretty good at it too.

and very good at taking responsibility for decisions that HE made.

[lunatica]

5. Gee, now you have to actually work at your comedy routines

Your free ride of just regurgitating whatever nonsense fell out of Bush and Palin's mouth without having to add a creative thing was a nice free ride.

[Cha]

6. The best comedy is when there's

a truth involved so if the comedy writers want to get busy and think up some funny lines on the Prez saving of our country..they could probably do it.

The comedians didn't have to make up shit about bush, nixon, rove, cheney..it's all there in its tragic-comedy.

I know Jon Stewart helped me and so many others through some dark times.

[HopeOverFear]

8. Hilarious Freeper comment:

"Someone is joking, right?? Waiting for the president to make a gaffe?? I can't begin to list them...how about a spin the hand at the teleprompter to speed it up since he had already said what was on the screen. And that is only the most recent! It isn't due to lack of joke material - how about a lack of guts! As to getting down the president's dialect, how about this - when speaking without the benefit of TOTUS...*speak 3 words, look down at notes, raise head and speak 2 words, look down at notes, repeat from * for duration of speech. Or...in the case of teleprompter use, *speak 3 words, turn head, read next 3 words from teleprompter, turn head, repeat from * And do NOT forget to intersperse several errs, uhhhs and ummms throughout! Now that is the greatest orator we've had in a long time, right! Without notes or TOTUS, he sounds like a 5th grader - he can NOT think on his feet!"



*smh* lol

[iamthebandfanman]

12. my reply to that guy

heres some quick thinkin on mah feet

its like that old saying
fool me once, shame on you...
fool me twice... well, uh... uh... well you cant fool me again!

[grantcart]

23. right and its pretty damn clever of them to get those press conference

answers on teleprompters, lol.

[LittleBlue]

9. Hard to make fun of a thoughtful, articulate scholar

He gives them no material, unlike Boosh

[BlooInBloo]

10. Well duh. Of course it's harder when the President doesn't write your jokes for you.

[SoCalDem]

11. Perhaps it's because even "comedians" are grasping the seriousness

of the predicament we are faced with..and irreverent mocking humor that we have all become accustomed to, is specifically used to diminish the person it's aimed at.

Obama had a very serious job ahead of him, and he;s giving a serious effort at it. There's nothing he's done that "deserves" mocking..

A guy's drunk and staggering around.. that "may" be funny..especially when he claims to not be drunk..

A guy has cerebral palsy and is staggering around..noy funny..

Perhaps there's just too much riding on this presidency, for even the comedians....and perhaps they "know" there are already too many angry, dangerous people waiting in the weeds..just looking for a reason..

[tomreedtoon]

25. Oddly, Roosevelt had his dog Fala...

...and his wife Eleanor and her newspaper column, which talked about her day in chatty terms, was often the cause of humor during the 30's.

For Obama, most of the cartoons show him being athletic in many ways - playing basketball, jumping hurdles on a track, juggling chainsaws. So there is some humor available for him.

But the Republicans self-destructing...that's FUNNY!

[Connie_Corleone]

15. There's always Joe Biden to provide comic relief.

[Jennicut]

26. And that is what they have been doing. On SNL they use Obama as the straight man to Biden.

SNL's Obama is horrible though.

[LiberalFighter]

16. Why couldn't they make fun of Obama having the upper hand over Republicans?

[Overseas]

17. The idiotic GOP leaders provide a lot of material.

Of course sometimes just merely reporting the facts of their activities is enough to provoke laughter, so it doesn't require much creative embellishment.

[Orsino]

18. Good. Put comedians to work...

...and make 'em work for it. They made Bush sweat for years; let's return the favor.

[Vinca]

19. They don't need Obama. They've got the treasure trove that is

the "Grand No Party." Bachmann is good for a joke virtually every day and she's just the tip of the iceberg.

[lame54]

20. Larry Wilmore - The Daily Show's Senior Black Correspondent Explains:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=225907&title=grading-obama

[Karenina]

29. I'd missed that! Thanx SO MUCH for posting it!!! BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::

[Blue_Tires]

21. there was a story in about the staff of The Onion some months ago

and they were discussing how they would adapt to life after Bush, who provided so much comic inspiration it was like trying to eat a ton of chocolate...

[sofa king]

24. The bears have to go back to the forest.

Now that George isn't there to feed them a dozen times a day, every day.

[DFW]

27. A hard time? Try Starvation City!!

Ah, the good old days of this: www.thefreedomtoast.com or this: www.political-idol.com

Thank goodness for the disloyal opposition, or Stewart and Colbert would have to switch to MSNBC.

[slampoet]

28. Maybe if the major Comedy shows would stop hiring only Privilaged Ivy league writers .......

...they'd have someone who could find the humor in Obama.

If they hired me I would have SEVEN areas that i could lampoon Obama in and None of them concern race OR politics.


HERE WRITERS YOU PATHETIC FOOLS How about a Freebee?



OBAMA LIVES with his mother in law.



Jeeze was that so hard ?