...Bill Clinton was a McDonaldโs-starved sex fiend. George W. Bush was a cocky moron led by the cold, sinister Dick Cheney. Remember Ross Perot and his charts, Admiral Stockdaleโs loony rants, and Al Goreโs petulant, haughty sighs? Michael Dukakis had bushy eyebrows and a losing attitude. Hillary Clinton was a woman desperate for power at all costs and Joe Biden is a slick-talking, loud, brash, phony everyman with a Cheshire Cat grin. All classic SNL created characters still sold on collector DVDs to this day.
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Students and fans of television comedy are seeing for the first time in modern history productions devoid of laughs at the expense of the most powerful office in the world. Not only have SNLโs attempts at capturing the essence of Obama fallen flat, the inability of the showโs writers to find any laugh-worthy faults in this administration borders on disturbing.
Clearly attempting to write around this president, we have seen opening sketches of House Republicans debating their latest โobstructionistโ strategy. Dan Aykroyd made a guest appearance as House Minority Leader John Boehner. It would be interesting to conduct a focus group in the live studio audience after the show. Their awkward, politely required half-laughs seemed to indicate there were not many who understood what they were watching. When sizable demographics of the population canโt name the Vice President, it seems safe to assume most Americans wonโt know House minority leadership.
Weโve seen ridiculous scenes of Senate Republicans being thrown out of the Oval Office window by an Incredible Hulk version of President Obama. Again, show of hands in the audience. How many knew Oklahoma Senator Tom Colburn and Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison? Certainly there have been half-hearted attempts to tweak Democrats like Tim Geithner, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Joe Biden and even Rahm Emmanuel. But in each scene, each sketch, each show, each week - President Obama is portrayed only in various degrees of calm and cool, almost victimized by a sea of buffoonery surrounding him.
In actuality, the Obama administration is a satirical gold mine; a comedy of errors just over two months in the making. There are scores of actual events and instances gone completely ignored by our creative friends in New Yorkโs hallowed halls of comedic television that have been inexplicably, but now predictably ignored.
First Lady Michelle Obama recently confessed to ABCโs Robin Roberts that their weekly Wednesday night cocktail parties in the White House get so wild that furniture has been broken. In the interview, she further admitted to repeatedly warning her guests to tone it down. A high school drama club could write this sketch.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently gifted President Obama a wooden penholder. The wood used for the gift was taken from the timbers of the anti-slave ship HMS Gannett, whose sister ship supplied the wood used to make the Oval Office Resolute desk. The Prime Minister also gave the President a first edition biography of Churchill by Martin Gilbert. These are gifts that can only be described as priceless. What did President Obama give to the Prime Minister in return? A box set of โclassic American moviesโ on DVD.
The DVDs, by the way are not formatted for viewing in Great Britain. This story writes its own comedy.
Underscoring the power of comedy shows, President Obama decided to visit one just last week to tout his economic recovery plan. โThe Tonight Show with Jay Lenoโ hosted the President for most of the hour-long broadcast. This was the first time a sitting president visited the set of such a show. During the taping, President Obama made an astounding gaffe that has since been all but forgotten if never mentioned in the case of the New York Times.
When asked about his poor bowling skills President Obama remarked, โItโs like โ it was like Special Olympics or something.โ Couple this embarrassment with Vice President Joe Bidenโs request for a paraplegic at a campaign rally to โstand-upโ and be recognized * and youโve got the new Martin and Lewis!
It can only be concluded that ratings and obvious comedic material are being pushed aside in favor of protectionist partisanship.
How about the newest head of the Internal Revenue Service, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner not paying his own taxes? Nothing there? SNL didnโt think so. Multiple Obama cabinet appointees stepping down for unpaid taxes? Not funny either. Nine thousand earmarks in the Presidentโs newly signed budget? He promised a line-by-line scrutiny of wasteful spending only to tell us the day of the signing earmarks were useful? Guess not.
When Jon Stewart excoriated CNBCโs Jim Cramer for โplaying gamesโ with financial reporting, the criticism rang hollow. Cramer is no more a serious financial show than Stewartโs a serious showcase for journalism. Stewart is correct in a broader sense. Many in America can agree on the lack of serious, honest reporting on everything from finance and politics to faith and family within the newspapers and networks we used to rely upon. Sadly, shows like Stewartโs and Saturday Night Live are where a growing number of people are turning for opinions and perspective. This grants a tremendous pulpit of influence to these programs. They may not acknowledge it publicly, but privately they are most certainly aware.The uninformed audience is just happy to be along for the show.
Hereโs one for the pop-culture set. A quote from the comic book, make that box-office hit Spider-Man: โWith great power there comes great responsibility.โ Comedians and writers have great power today, but no sense of responsibility. Responsibility is not funny, nor does comedy require it.
Comedians are clowns and modern day court-jesters, not journalists. They write punch lines not bylines. They frame the debate and craft the joke as they see their world * a world based exclusively in New York City and Los Angeles, by the way. It doesnโt have to be โfair and balancedโ because there is no such thing as ethics in comedy. Indeed, comedy doesnโt have to be fair, or accurate, or responsible. Individuals must be the judges of those things on their own. But if comedians and writers expect us to collectively laugh at their work they must be honest with their audience once again. That applies to this president and what is funny about him, too.
The truth about the Obama administration is that there is a lot to laugh about right now. Perhaps there is a fear of implied racism or a lingering respect for the historic nature of the last election, or simple blind devotion to a man todayโs comedy writers have invested in both financially and emotionally. But for millions of Americans who did not vote for Barack Obama, and still millions more who see the daily folly of an administration full of missteps is to ignore truth. Comedy without that grain of truth just isnโt funny.
