July 15, 2008

AND THE FINAL WORD ON ALL HUMOR BEING CONSERVATIVE BELONGS TO JON STEWART (via Glenn Dryfoos):

Want Obama in a Punch Line? First, Find a Joke (BILL CARTER, 7/15/08, NY Times)

[T]here 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. [...]

When Mr. Stewart on “The Daily Show” recently tried to joke about Mr. Obama changing his position on campaign financing, for instance, he met with such obvious resistance from the audience, he said, “You know, you’re allowed to laugh at him.” Mr. Stewart said in a telephone interview on Monday, “People have a tendency to react as far as their ideology allows them.”


Bingo!

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 15, 2008 3:58 PM

They are not doing jokes about him because they want him to win, and are afraid of being called racist. There are no other reasons.

Posted by: Brandon at July 15, 2008 4:54 PM

There is nothing worse for a politician then the inability to laugh at himself. Freaking out at the New Yorker over this cover is probably the stupidest thing the Obama campaign has done, which is saying something...

Posted by: b at July 15, 2008 5:02 PM

If The New Yorker is the worse to hit him thus far he is as brittle as glass.

If Chris Rock ever jokes about him, Sen. Obama is 'stick a fork in him, he's done'.

Posted by: Mikey at July 15, 2008 6:59 PM

What do Bin Laden and Obama have in common?

They both have friends who bombed the Pentagon.

Posted by: Bob at July 16, 2008 3:04 PM

Did you coin that one?

Posted by: oj at July 16, 2008 4:19 PM
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