The joke's on McCain: Late-night comedians lay off Obama

[Kire]

The joke's on McCain: Late-night comedians lay off Obama

A hilarious new study of late-night political jokes, due to be released later today, finds the network comedians clearly avoiding humor about Democratic candidate Barack Obama, while piling the jokes on President Bush and Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton.

The study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs finds that only cable's Comedy Central, whose primary comedians, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, more closely follow the day's headlines -- which have been dominated by Obama -- has slightly more jokes about the freshman Illinois senator.

The study covered all jokes between January 1 and July 31 in late-night monologues by Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, David Letterman, Stewart and Colbert.

Apparently, Jimmy Kimmel was not deemed funny enough to be included, which should give his writers some ammo for tonight's show.

The center found that the network shows broadcast only 169 jokes about Obama, compared to 428 about Bush. McCain drew 328 jokes. Hillary Clinton, who dropped out of the presidential race and much political news in early June, still drew more than twice as many attempted yuk lines (382) as Obama.

More: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/08/obama-jokes-tv.html

Late night jokes tend to make fun of things that are wrong with people. I guess there isn't that much wrong with Obama.

Does anybody know any jokes about Obama? The last one I heard got banned from DU.

Feel free to post them here.

[Pirate Smile]

1. New York Times article on this topic from July

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/politics/15humor.html?pagewanted=1&ref=weekinreview

Want Obama in a Punch Line? First, Find a Joke

By BILL CARTER
Published: July 15, 2008

-snip-
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 Mr. 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 Mr. O’Brien on “Late Night.” The jokes will come, representatives of the late-night shows said, when Mr. 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 Mr. 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 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 Mr. Letterman. “He’s not a comical figure,” Mr. Barry said.

[Kire]

2. that shold be Obama's campaign slogan

not buffoonish in any way

[beac]

3. And soon enough we'd see McLame in front of a green screen whining

"That's not Buffoonery we can believe in" followed by a sickly grimace.

[Kire]

4. I put it in my signature.

fun

[rocktivity]

5. "The jokes will come...when Mr. Obama does or says something

that defines him in comedy terms."

And so far, the only thing he's done that defines him in comedy terms is bowl a 30. Whereas McCain has had his senior moments and Palin has had, well, her Palin moments.

:headbang:
rocknation