The LA Times pointed to a recent report about how comedians seem to be laying off of Barack Obama while laying into almost anyone else (relatively speaking.)
The report doesn't explain why, however. Interestingly enough when questioned comedians seem to believe they are joking about Senator Obama, but the numbers show that they are laying off of Obama. The perspectives of the jokes are also seemingly different. The article outlines the nature of some of the Obama jokes and to share my opinion, they are almost flattering at best.
In my opinion almost all of the material for humorous fodder has been exhibited by both sides of the presidential run (commedian John Stewart did a report on the changing opinions of John McCain, and while he could have easly done a similar report of equal size on Obama, but chose not to. the closest example of joking about Obama is here and Stewart has to remind the audience that it is OK to laugh. Is that canned laughter then? maybe.) For whatever reason, while there doesn't seem to be a universal lack of material, McCain is being targeted more than Obama.
In asking a friend about his perspective with regard to this, he said, "Well, it's a comedy show." Fair enough. The trouble is that this comedy gets youtubed and travels the web carying remarks like "well, somebody needed to say it." Statistically, someone could "need to" crack the same jokes about Obama (because they are there just as often), but they just aren't getting said. Why are McCain foibles "needing to be said" but Obama foibles are lost to commedians? Listen here to just a sampling of issues that surround Obama's political career. This is the exact kind of goof-ups and affiliation with other shifty politicians that McCain jokes are laced with.
I have a theory and it goes like this: agenda, agenda, agenda.
I am not saying that the jokes aren't funny. I just wish the networks would be more evenhanded on doling out the humor. Everyone should get a chance to laugh, regardless of their political position.
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2 comments:
A comedian's job is to make people laugh. It's a lot harder to make people laugh at Obama than it is to get them to laugh at McCain and/or Palin, and the reason is simple: Palin (like Bush) is stupid, and that makes for some easy laughs. McCain is OLD -- that's where a lot of McCain humor comes from.
Seems to me, it's not an "agenda" issue, but more of a laziness issue. Perhaps you should be challenging comedians to work harder at their political joke-writing.
I would agree that Palin and McCain have made blunders worth a joke or two. I am definitely not arguing against that. I think it is a good thing for us to laugh at this whole process a bit and not take ourselves so seriously... however, my guess is that you didn't review the videos I attached. Many of jokes about McCain are with regard to his changing his mind on stuff or verbal blunders or financial issues. Palin gets jokes about being dumb or a house wife or confusing geography with diplomacy or foreign relations (again, she has been to Europe and the Middle East on business and is connected with foreign relations with regard to Russia, Japan, Mongolia, etc... so the "seeing Russia from my back yard" is funny, but doesn't reflect reality, hence is a statement of classic ignorance if we think it's "funny 'cause it's true.")
Obama has Illinois and Federal financial scandals, he has fumbled his words, he has changed his mind on a number of big campaign points, has a laughable lack of experience, and has said blunderous things about the economy and foreign diplomacy. Biden has been in the senate for more years than McCain, so he qualifies for some "old" jokes. Why aren't we seeing these jokes? In a word, bias. How about another word: a-g-e-n-d-a.
To end on a positive note, this week Saturday Night Live is going to be doing a political humor special (I think on Thursday.) Hopefully we all will have a good laugh.
Thanks for your comments, Dave.
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