Meanwhile, his VP has become a favourite target. “It’s almost as if Obama thought he’d toss the comedians a bone by picking Biden,” says Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “When comedians don’t have the time or intellectual energy, they can always play the Biden card.” Trouble is, Biden jokes are a no-brainer.
Due no doubt to the President’s popularity, some hosts have faced a bit of resistance from their audiences. After one joke that didn’t go over well, Stewart explained that it is okay to laugh at Obama. Unless, of course, the jokes are in poor taste. CBC received more than 1,300 complaints following a New Year’s Eve special on Radio-Canada, which included a skit in which one of the hosts joked how a presidential assassination was made easier by the fact there’s a black man in the White House. The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council ruled it a “disturbing, wounding, abusive racial comment.”
Obama courted controversy of his own with a comedic slip, when he appeared on The Tonight Show in March and equated his bowling skills to those of special Olympians. During most late-night appearances, however, he’s seemed to be in total control, often landing some of the best lines. On O’Brien’s second night hosting The Tonight Show, he showed a clip from an interview Obama had done with NBC news anchor Brian Williams. During the sit-down, the President deadpanned that the transition from Leno to Conan had been a hot topic at the White House. “I just want [Conan] to know,” said Obama, “that there is not going to be any bailout coming out from Washington if he screws it up.” A week later, Obama was at it again, appearing via satellite on The Colbert Report. This time, the President ordered a four-star general to give Colbert a buzz cut.
Not only does Obama seem in on the jokes, he doesn’t take himself all that seriously. When critics latched on to his dependence on a teleprompter during speeches, Obama added it to his arsenal. In the opening bit of his speech at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month, Obama explained that he was going to scrap his prepared speech and “try something a little different.” He was going to “speak from the heart,” he said, just as his teleprompter appeared. Ronald Reagan utilized that strategy of picking on his own weaknesses to perfection. Having repeatedly faced questions about his age (Reagan was 69, the oldest man ever to be elected president, when he moved into the White House in 1981), he used every opportunity to make fun of how ancient he was. In doing so, he undercut his opponents, so much so that when he ran for re-election, although he was four years older, age wasn’t a campaign issue.
Whether he learned tricks from Reagan or not, Obama knows how to play the game. “When SNL made fun of Ford, or H. W. Bush, it seemed like hip youngsters mocking square oldsters who didn’t understand how funny they were,” says Peterson. “Clinton and W. were boomers, but they still lacked a certain self-awareness. It seems glib to say that Obama is ‘cool,’ but he is, and that makes him a lot harder to make fun of.”
While it hasn’t happened yet, Thompson agrees that smartening things up on late-night may be “good for society.” But he doesn’t think it will translate into bigger laughs. “More substantive doesn’t mean more funny,” he says. Maybe that’s why the more mainstream hosts are holding on so tightly to George W., Clinton and, recently, Cheney, whose refusal to go away is providing comedians a “connection to those good times,” says Thompson. But it’s only a matter of time, he says, before Obama slips up. “It’s inevitable,” says Thompson, “unless we’re being governed by some divine perfection. And, as much as some people thought Obama was, he’s not.”
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