Obama killed. He should be the new host of THE DAILY SHOW.
My guess is Nixon wasn’t hilarious at his Correspondents Dinners.
I missed the Red Carpet show. Was Sam Rubin & Mindy Burbano there to ask Katie Couric if she’s had a colonoscopy lately?
Comics like to tryout their material. Wouldn’t it be cool to be at your local comedy club on a Thursday night and the President of the United States shows up unannounced at midnight to test some jokes?
Of course “unannounced” in Los Angeles means every street in the city is closed for 72 hours. There is still gridlock from his March appearance. (Again, I will vote for any candidate from any party who promises never to come to Los Angeles.)
The real laughs came after the event when CNN had the obligatory roundtable analysis. Four of the unfunniest people on the planet weighing in on his material and delivery. Makes you wonder if they have same expertise when analyzing politics.
Based on her lackluster performance I can only assume she’ll be asked to host next year’s Oscars.
How funny could Carter have been?
If Obama had delivered this speech as his State-of-the-Union he’d be way more popular.
Was Amy Schumer unavailable?
After maybe eleven minutes in office, has there ever been in recent times a President who wasn’t at odds with the media?
The President made a reference to ABC’s BLACKISH. See, NBC? This is what happens when you put on sitcoms that people watch.
The funniest part of the anger-translator bit was Obama starting to lose it. Otherwise, the routine went on too long.
Regarding that bit, thank you Mr. President for getting Keegan-Michael Key instead of Tyler Perry.
Tea Leoni was at the Correspondents dinner. Why? Tea, you’re not really the Secretary-of-State. You’re just play-acting a role on a television show. Please don't announce your plans to run for President.
How many irate comments am I going to get today because I wrote a post that's even remotely political?
The big celeb of the night was not the President of the United States. It was Bradley Cooper. The POTUS finished third behind vlogger Bethany Mota.
How funny could Eisenhower have been?
You ask "How funny could Carter have been?" Sam Donaldson, many years ago, said that of all the Presidents he's met, Jimmy Carter was the most humorless.
ReplyDeleteYesterday morning I was listening to a CBS Radio newscast and was surprised that they even aired the "rhymes with bucket" part.
But Carter was funny in his heart many times.
ReplyDeleteTry to imagine this event if Chris Christie ever becomes President. Ready the TVMA bug!
ReplyDeleteNeeded more pelvic mesh jokes.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Prince Charles when he was traveling in the US. No shutting down roads for him. And the police across the street are not for him.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.steynonline.com/pics/1220.jpg
To Anonymous: We Amurricans like royalty; it's easier than thinking.
ReplyDeleteKen, I'm irate you had to go and besmirch your blog with politics. :)
ReplyDeleteKen Said:
ReplyDelete"If Obama had delivered this speech as his State-of-the-Union he’d be way more popular. "
He should have delivered it right after Benghazi.
Timing is everything, Ken.
VP81955 said...
ReplyDelete"To Anonymous: We Amurricans like royalty; it's easier than thinking."
We especially love anointing trailer trash to royalty status. Note the Clintons, Carter, as well as our first Affirmative Action president. Beats thinkin'.
affirmative action president?? really?? the man was elected, not selected from a pool of whiter candidates.
Delete
ReplyDeleteKen wrote: "Makes you wonder if they have same expertise when analyzing politics."
If it makes you wonder if comedy folk have the same expertise when analyzing politics... Then the answer is -
Yes!
That is, funny - yes; but informative - not so much.
Oh, Ken, but not you. I mean, but youse people.
I still like the comment Obama made last year about Boehner being out of favor with his own party. "Orange is the new black"
ReplyDeleteCecily Strong was replaced on SNL's Weekend Update because she was not funny delivering the political humor. Why would they then have her at the Correspondents dinner?
ReplyDeleteJohn Kennedy was the ONLY politician who could really deliver a joke. Reagan, Obama and others are okay, but no way would either of them ever be considered funny people who didn't agree with them politically.
There's funny, and then there's "politician funny", which means they get raves for being able to deliver a line adequately, surprising us.
Love him or hate him . . .agree with him or disagree with him . . .
ReplyDeletePresident Barack Obama is one of the most talented presidents we've ever had when it comes to humor.
This is one of the best political send-ups I've ever seen. Brilliant!
He is also better at stand-up comedy than 90% of today's working comedians. Yes, I know he has writers put his material together . . but you still have to deliver it well. He does. When he is no longer president, he could become a touring stand-up comedy act.)
lyle e davis
editor/publisher
The Paper
http://thecommunitypaper.com
It took a lot less than 11 minutes. Remember Roberts screwed up the oath and all these people were claiming Obama wasn't really President because of it?
ReplyDeleteYou're being too harsh on Cicely. I thought she very good. Granted, her false eyelashes could be trimmed with a weed whacker but she was a huge upgrade from certain recent speakers like Wanda Sykes, Jay Leno and Rich Little.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if other countries have the equivalent of the Correspondents' Dinner? I would love to hear Angela Merkel riff on Der Spiegel.
i loved wanda sykes.
DeleteLast month, Prince Charles and President Obama both were in Louisville and I didn't know when Prince Charles was here. Obama, the whole frakkin' town shut down. What can take between 8-20 minutes on a normal day when I pick up my wife from work took like an hour and a half.
ReplyDeleteOriginally, he was scheduled to come at 2 and leave at 4. However, the Iran nuke deal sneezed so he stuck around DC for a while. Didn't get to town until rush hour, then they basically blocked most major roads downtown. In fact, one of my wife's co-workers had her 7 year-old trapped at school because all roads getting to the school were blocked off. When she tried to ask the police if she could get him, they said she'd have to wait until the POTUS left.
Don't blame me! I voted for Nader and Gary Johnson!
Like I've asked many times before, "Who is that joker in the White House?
ReplyDeleteJefferson would have brought the house down!
ReplyDeleteObama was in NYC last week. I'm still sitting in traffic from that day.
ReplyDeleteFranklin Pierce was very funny on MASH.
Carter trotted out a pretty good story on a talk show; I like to think it was a true one:
ReplyDeleteCarter is giving a speech to a foreign audience through a translator. A mildly humorous line kills. Afterwards, he asks the translator about it in hopes of getting a pointer for future speeches.
The translator admits he said "President Carter just told a joke. Please laugh."
Then again, perhaps Carter's biggest confirmed laughs were courtesy of a Polish translator who spoke of Carter's "lust for the future."
Sorry, Ken, but I thought Cecily killed it. She made some excellent points wrapped in humor. She and Obama were ON.
ReplyDeleteBanya: "It's Gold, Barack, Gold"
ReplyDeleteWhat I thought was funny was how humorless the media are when the joke is directed at them (i.e., CNN, MSNBC). Trump actually cracked a smile, although he was only the butt of one joke this year.
ReplyDeleteI didn't Strong was funny, but I don't think she's funny on SNL (but then, most Saturdays who is on that show?). I'm guessing nobody else wanted to do the gig, so she was up to it. I kept waiting for the false eye lash on her left eye to drop to her chin.
I remember hearing how Bob Dole was funny on the campaign bus but that personality never made it to the podium.
Obama, is one talented funny prez.
ReplyDeleteI watched it three times. He's very smooth.
And today, got 9 scripts to read for the boss.
Reading with 5 hours of sleep. Started off good. But need more coffee.
Remember,
Keep re-writing.
believe it movie magic
write it
Huh. Well, I know he didn't write his lines, but he seems to have a better feel for timing, which is everything in comedy, than past presidents in my memory. Bush Jr. would have mispronounced everything. Reagan would have forgotten the punch line. Bush Sr would have had Barbara tell the jokes ... now she would have killed. I did like Barbara. I think Clinton carried it off okay. Carter ... he's much more popular as a former president than he was in office. Curious, that.
ReplyDeleteFifty miles away from where Obama had them rolling in the aisles, this was going on outside Camden Yards.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLrHTW-zVWk
Hilarious.
Bob Dole was a new man after losing the election, being genuinely funny and sharp on talk shows. Pundits and voters were asking where the hell this guy was before. I suspect it had a lot to do with no longer answering to handlers, party hacks and other alleged experts.
ReplyDeleteThere are always figures in politics and other forms of entertainment who can only project a personality that's packaged by executives. Many execs seem to prefer it that way, clinging to the myth their managerial skills are more valuable than any talent or experience they hire. It's like McDonald's hiring an actual chef and beating him down to the level of their standardized and easily replaceable employees
If you don't want traffic loused up when the head of the government comes to town, you need to move to a country where people can't buy assault rifles at the hardware store and carry them to church. Try Japan.
ReplyDeleteCanadian PM Harper plays piano and guitar and sings Beatles songs at his dinners.
ReplyDeleteAbout Bob Dole.
ReplyDeleteI know Bob Dole. I worked with Bob Dole in the Senate. Bob Dole was a friend of mine. (OK, that last part is an exaggeration, but I was channeling Lloyd Bentsen.)
Thing is: Bob Dole was/is always Bob Dole. He always has been funny. But he was also a man of the Senate (thus his tendency to speak about himself in the third person, as Senators do on the Floor).
Once he gave up any plans for elective office, he just let loose - and let the public see it.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"We especially love anointing trailer trash to royalty status. Note the Clintons, Carter, as well as our first Affirmative Action president. Beats thinkin'."
To state some objective facts: Bill Clinton earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, and both Clintons earned law degrees from Yale Law School - not bad for Trailer Trash.
Jimmy Carter is one of the most admirable of former Presidents, earning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts at advancing democracy and human rights across the globe among many other accomplishments.
Affirmative Action had nothing to do with President Obama being honestly and legally elected to office - twice - even if he is black (that's sarcasm, Anonymous.)
Ken, you asked "How funny could Carter have been?", but (as I recall) Carter refused to attend the dinners, sending his press secretary instead. Jimmy Carter was pretty much a dick.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the anger-translator routine went on too long and that started to work against the initial funny. I guess that's why improv and skits need two people participating and judging when to do something different, like stop.
ReplyDeleteRCP said...
ReplyDelete"To state some objective facts: Bill Clinton earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, and both Clintons earned law degrees from Yale Law School - not bad for Trailer Trash."
I'm sorry, RCP. I just assumed you'd heard about President Clinton getting blowjobs from at least one intern, lying about it by claiming the intern in question was a psychopath and a stalker. He finally had to admit it, after lying under oath, when experts determined that the jizz spray on her dress was, in fact, the presidents.
Despite the fact that your upbringing may be informing you otherwise, that is white trash in action.
Some might say the fact that Hillary would stick around with him after this, is just more "stand by your man" white trash behavior southern women adhere to. Others might say she had been banging Vince Foster anyway, so it's all good.
"Jimmy Carter is one of the most admirable of former Presidents, earning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts at advancing democracy and human rights across the globe among many other accomplishments."
Jimmy Carter, through his incompetence, enraged the Iranians, who took hostages, leaving him impotent. Don't forget the smell of the burning bodies next to flaming helicopters in the middle of the desert, imam's dancing around with the charred body parts of American airmen. If you wanted to buy a house during his administration, mortgage rates were above 20% (!). He bullied through a "peace" initiative between Israel and Egypt, leading to Anwar Sadat's assassination. And let's not forget "Brother Billy," the drunken redneck who made national news every other week. Finally, Carter was voted out of office because he sickened the majority of his own political party. How much would a democrat have to hate Carter, to vote for Reagan?
Plenty.
"Affirmative Action had nothing to do with President Obama being honestly and legally elected to office - twice - even if he is black (that's sarcasm, Anonymous.)"
For a "community organizer" who had spent two years in congress before being elected president, and you're right–he's not black, he's mulatto, and raised by rich white people–marked by the yelling and crying of many white folks as the beginning of a "post-racial" america, I think if you don't believe this over-his-head administrator wasn't an affirmative action hire, you might be high on tea and skittles.
Or you just might be white trash, in which case there's very little I can do to inspire you to change your wretched ways.
Reagan could tell a joke with the best of them. Read Tip O'Neal's book.
ReplyDeleteI was gonna add something not so glowing about Obama but " Anonymous" is such a jackass, I don't want to align with his camp.
Aloha.
@Buttermilk Sky, "you need to move to a country where people can't buy assault rifles at the hardware store and carry them to church. Try Japan."
ReplyDeleteTrue - in Japan they don't go to church.
@Anonymous (whoever they are) -
ReplyDelete"RCP said...
'To state some objective facts: Bill Clinton earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, and both Clintons earned law degrees from Yale Law School - not bad for Trailer Trash.'
"I'm sorry, RCP. I just assumed you'd heard about President Clinton getting blowjobs from at least one intern, lying about it by claiming the intern in question was a psychopath and a stalker. He finally had to admit it, after lying under oath, when experts determined that the jizz spray on her dress was, in fact, the presidents."
So the moral is: Get BJs from interns who swallow, like JFK did? That's what separates "trailer trash" from Kennedys?
RCP Said:
ReplyDelete"So the moral is: Get BJs from interns who swallow, like JFK did? That's what separates "trailer trash" from Kennedys?"
I just cherry-picked examples. There is plenty more. The Kennedy administration was a fiasco that almost brought on a nuclear war, his brother Bobby's initiation of a Irish/Italian clan war, via the US senate is well documented, and yes, his classic Irish white trash lineage is quite apparent, as you've duly noted. I'll spare you Joe Kennedy's laundry list, which you must be somewhat aware of.
Good thing for Anonymous that the Bush family never did anything embarrassing in their private lives! No "trash" they. Their drug abuse, felony convictions, going AWOL, etc., those were all done to the utmost standards of tastefulness.
ReplyDeleteWait wait wait...Obama was only funny because his writers were good. He has decent delivery. I thought Cecily was good and I don't get why she isn't a permanent host of the Weekend Update.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete