O'Reilly Reacts To President Obama's Funny Or Die Interview: "Abe Lincoln Would Not Have Done It"

[Brainstormy]

Poor Bill.

http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/03/11/oreilly-reacts-to-president-obamas-funny-or-die/198452

[frazzled]

1. On Lincoln's humor

From a New Yorker piece

Something that has always intrigued me about Abraham Lincoln is, not surprisingly, his sense of humor. As far as I can tell, he’s the first American President to have one.

That’s because the term “sense of humor” really wasn’t in common usage until the eighteen-sixties and seventies. In the eighteen-forties and fifties, it was called “the sense of the ridiculous,” and didn’t have the positive connotations that “sense of humor” has today. Back then, what was ridiculous was what invited ridicule. Funniness and cruelty went hand in hand. Of course, they still do a lot of arm-in-arm strolling in our day as well.

In the movie “Lincoln,” Tommy Lee Jones, as the sarcastically vilifying Thaddeus Stevens, exemplifies the funny-cruel connection. Many of his vilifications were too nasty for the Congressional Globe (predecessor of the Congressional Record), but this one was recorded: “There was a gentleman from the far West sitting next to me, but he went away and the seat seems just as clean as it was before.”

Lincoln’s humor was very different because, for one thing, it was actually “humor” as the word was defined in his time. We don’t make the distinction between “wit” and “humor” anymore, but in the nineteenth century people did. Wit was sarcastic and antipathetic while humor was congenial and empathetic. It’s the difference we note now when we distinguish between “laughing with” and “laughing at.” Lincoln was much more about “laughing with” than “laughing at.” And when “laughing at,” it was often himself he was mocking.

In the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, when Douglas accused Lincoln of being two-faced, Lincoln replied, referencing his homeliness, “Honestly, if I were two-faced, would I be showing you this one?” And, in a way, Lincoln’s face itself tells us much about his sense of humor.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/cartoonists/2012/11/lincolns-smile.html

[warrior1]

2. Stop Bill

we get it, this president can't do any thing right in your eyes. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it wasn't funny.

[NYC Liberal]

3. Idiot. Lincoln was KNOWN for his sense of humor. In fact, he said that if

he couldn't tell jokes or keep his sense of humor he wouldn't make it a day in the White House.

[PCIntern]

4. ...coming from Not-Exactly-Ed-Murrow...nt

[immoderate]

5. Lincoln never flew in Air Force One either.

It was not considered a presidential thing to do.

--imm

[Brainstormy]

14. And wouldn't use cellphones,

I've heard.

[tsuki]

6. Lincoln would not have talked to O'Reilly. nt

[11 Bravo]

11. Well, Abe might have said, "Hey, Bill, look over there", and then kicked him in the nuts.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I think Lincoln would have done it.

He was known to be a funny guy with a great sense of humor.

[frylock]

8. when did this splotchy shithead become lincoln's spokeperson?

[Brainstormy]

13. Ashamed of myself

for how much I enjoyed your comment. Not the nerve-of-the-guy-to-presume-to-be-Lincoln's spokesperson part. The "splotchy shithead" part.

[LeftofObama]

9. Of all of the TV interviews I've seen with President Lincoln

I don't remember him being funny in any of them!


in case it's needed.

[malaise]

10. Abe wouldn't have allowed O'Lielly to interview him

that's for sure.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. I'm sure Abe Lincoln would have loved people making millions off of his death, too.

[tanyev]

15. Pretty sure Lincoln wouldn't have pretended to look for nonexistent WMDs in the Oval Office.