What's the Difference Between 9/11 and Barack Obama?
From The CC Insider…
One is the result of a years-long secret plot hatched by sadistic Islamic extremists bent on destroying Western Civilization, and the other is a day in September?
No, sorry. What I meant to say is everything. Everything is the difference between 9/11 and Barack Obama. One is horrible and the other is awesome, right? Yes.
So, why are so many people reacting to Obama being elected the same way they did to 9/11. Remember when Time declared The Age of Irony Comes to An End?
With a giggle and a smirk, our chattering classes–our columnists and pop culture makers–declared that detachment and personal whimsy were the necessary tools for an oh-so-cool life. Who but a slobbering bumpkin would think, "I feel your pain"? The ironists, seeing through everything, made it difficult for anyone to see anything. The consequence of thinking that nothing is real–apart from prancing around in an air of vain stupidity–is that one will not know the difference between a joke and a menace.
Yeesh. I know it was a confusing and scary time, but seriously, yeesh. How many lemons does it take to make a puss that sour? And, obviously, irony did not die. It'd be hard to argue that the seven years since the attacks haven't seen some of the sharpest and most meaningful satire ever. It's also seen plenty of dull and meaningless satire, and we've L'd OL all the same.
Which brings us to last Tuesday and the election of Barack Obama. Just like 9/11, it's being called The End of an Era, and we're being asked Can The Daily Show Survive President Obama? Well, of course it's not and of course it can.
First of all, expecting us to laugh at politics less in an Obama administration is like expecting us to have sex less in an Obama administration. Fun things are fun to do, no matter who's President, dummy. If we're hungry for a Whopper, but we're at McDonald's, we will not starve to death. (You see, George Bush is a Whopper and Barack Obama is a Big Mac and I'll show myself to the euthenasia clinic.)
Meanwhile, assuming The Daily Show can only be funny under someone like George W. Bush gives far too much credit to the outgoing President and is obscenely insulting to the writers of The Daily Show. As if they're not just brilliant satirists. As if they never made us laugh under Bill Clinton. As if there wasn't plenty of failed Bush-based humor from shittier sources than The Daily Show.
So, cut it out. Please. Yes, we laughed at President Bush. A lot. But I assure you, we'll all laugh at President Obama very soon. A lot. The only possible difference is we might, hopefully, every once in a while laugh with him.
RSS
I'll believe it when I see it. I really hope that the Daily Show doesn't shy away from making fun of Obama if and when he makes a poor decision. Then again, considering how much they fawned over him during the election, I wouldn't be surprised if they give him a free pass on just about everything.
The Daily Show used to be funny. Now it's crew is made up of nothing but biased partisan hacks.
Not to be messianic, but when they asked the Monty Python team about the Life of Brian movie, Eric Idle said that they really expected to be able to make fun of Jesus, but found when they read the New Testament there was nothing funny about him. "Jesus was cool. But his followers, and some of the people who interacted with him, they were hilarious and gave us endless material."
Obama will be less cool than Jesus, I think we can all agree, so he'll give us some good laughs along with all his buddies–but some of the comedy, it is to be hoped, might be about how funny it is that we used to have to be so damned cynical about everything, and that backward notions in all their hiding places are becoming more and more trivial and obsolete across America.
Eight long years of laughing instead of crying. Thank you Daily Show for making it bearable. So, Obama isn't funny enough? I'm sure we'll be able to reap humor from our economic crisis, 2 wars, faltering education etc. to make up for his lack of material. And don't despair, there are plenty of Republicans in the Senate and Congress to remind us of days gone by. Lest we forget FOX news, which is screwing it to both Palin and republicans-a comedy show in the making. They've given the Daily Show GREAT material. Irony to be sure.
It's quite obvious that the Daily Show cast and crew won't be looking to Obama for humor. They'll be too busy fawning over him during his term and won't even think about saying anything remotelyl critical.
What kind of objectivity is this? Conservatives and libertarians are always open targets, but you can't make fun of any liberals? Jon Stewart and the Daily Show staff have become biased partisan hacks. And it's causing their humor to suck big time.
Obama doesn't need to provide Teh Funny — you got the media for that. Not to mention Christian chrazies putting the "fun" back in "fundamentalism." Plenty of comedy gold there for the panning.
Exactly.
The death of comedy is ridicules. Just because Obama will be a better president then Bush, doesn't mean he will be perfect, and as soon as he slips up, we'll be right there to point it out, because that's what it really means to be a good American. If we don't tell them they messed up, how can we expect them to fix it.
People keep saying comedians are going to have trouble making fun of Obama. Well I didn't. Check out my stand up about Obama here. Its a pretty funny impression.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KCDxo6RpYQ
If we do not laugh at Obama, then the terorists will have won ..
Obama should provide plenty of material for the Daily Show's staff, if they do actually have a bias for the democratic party and fail to highlight their bullshit (and there is plenty of it) then I definitely won't watch the show outside of the occasional youtube video.
How much material did the Iraq war provide? Obama seems bound to continue/expand the insane "war on terror" in to other countries. Run with that first of all.
The only reason it will be harder to make fun of Obama than Bush is, hes a much better speaker. The incompetence and corruption however will still be there in spades. Sorry party-liners and hopefuls, Obama isn't going to be changing much for the better.
This is actually a great opportunity for the Daily Show to get its game back again.
Many try to imagine some big liberal conspiracy among comedy shows (Daily Show, SNL), but I think the real problem is a lack of conservative humorists. Republicans too often just don't do comedy well, the criticism comes across as mean and unfunny. Liberals meanwhile on talk radio tend to sound whiny and pretentious. Go figure.
Besides politics, consider intelligence! Frankly Jon and the writers will identify with Obama as being liberal AND smart; note how much ridicule of Bush turned on his intellect. A smart conservative would have fared better.