By Bree Hocking
Shame on you, Senator Obama. If this New York Times story today is to be believed, you’ve been depriving Americans of their inalienable right to a good laugh at your expense. Apparently, you’re so suave, self-assured and on message, that the nation’s jokesters-in-chief (and just about everyone else) are drawing a blank when it comes to finding something, anything, about you in need of a little joshin’.
You’re just so damn perfect, in fact, that when they do try to throw spitballs at you, they repel right back. And it’s not just The New Yorker magazine that’s found itself in hot water over its attempt at satirization, Mister Second Coming of the Political Messiah Himself.
As the NY Times’ Bill Carter points out:
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.”
The whiteys, of course, both the comedians and their guilt-ridden audiences, are in a tougher position. Poking fun at black people has never been an easy option for them - at least when the cameras are rolling.
And let’s face it, one reason guys like Stewart and Colbert have enjoyed meteoric success in recent years is because of the sublime inanity of American political dialogue. These guys are good, no doubt, but it’s been like shooting fish in a barrel. What happens if you win, and you want us to actually start taking things seriously again.
I hope you’re prepared to pay severance to the court jesters.
