How Do You Mock a Senator Like Obama?
Newsweek’s “Periscope” talks to stand-up comics about what it calls their “Obama problem:”
“There’s this thing in America where you can’t make fun of someone who’s a nice guy, works hard, does well,” says Darrell Hammond, the pitch-perfect “SNL” impersonator of Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and others. “And that’s all we know about Obama right now.”
Still, comics offer a few examples of how to get around this:
“Daily Show” viewers heard a heavenly noise — “a choir of angels,” host Jon Stewart said. “It can only mean one thing: Barack Obama did something.” Jay Leno’s line: “The big story, of course: ‘American Idol.’ But enough about Barack Obama.”… “Since Obama lacks faults, weaknesses or imperfections of any kind, I guess they’ll just have to soberly discuss his evenhanded policy positions,” suggests Peter Koechley, managing editor of The Onion. He’s making a joke.
(Hat tip to RunObama.)
January 30th, 2007 at 3:36 am EST
And now Slate.com is jumping into the comedy fray with their “Obama Messiah Watch”http://www.slate.com/id/2158578/