There’s a surprisingly entertaining op-ed in the L.A. (Left Apologist) Times today by Joel Stein, about the wonder boy-nerd. I knew I was going to enjoy this one when he lobs the first volley…
“…comedians have appeared on every news outlet to whine about how hard it is to make fun of Barack Obama. Really? They have an arsenal of jokes to use against a 71-year-old ex-POW cancer survivor and Obama is too touchy a subject?”
There are several really great points, here’s just a few…
“He’s A Nerd. …Compare Obama with other 46-year-olds and he’s Urkel. He’s the kid at the Model United Nations conference who says, “Guys, guys, c’mon. Let’s not make fun of Eastern Europe.” And the brutal truth is, even if women faint at your rallies, you’ll never feel cool inside when you have Alfred E. Neuman’s ears.”
“He’s ridiculously earnest. …Comedian Marc Maron does a really smart bit about how Obama stares out into the distance while giving a speech. “The first time you see him you’re like, ‘What’s he looking at?’ But then you’re like, ‘I don’t know, but it’s good and full of hope. And he’s the only one who can see it. If we vote for him, maybe he’ll take us there.’ ”
“He called his own grandmother a racist. We all have racist grandmothers, but we don’t brag about it to everyone. I like to imagine that his granny wasn’t that bad and that Obama was just super-sensitive. Like she would tell him it was bedtime and he’d yell, “Oh, I have to go to bed because I’m black!” Or she’d tell him to clean up his room and he’d start yelling, “Oh, clean my room, huh? My people stopped obeying the white woman 100 years ago, Grammy!” Then they’d both laugh and she’d whip him.”
I know it’s nit-picky on my part, but I should share my personal favorite of B.O.’s presentation flaws: his hard left, hard right, hard left, hard right head movements while delivering his ethereal speeches (of course ethereal in the insubstantial, not heavenly, meaning). Perhaps it’s in his script.
- Look down as if to read from the podium (don’t worry it’s on the teleprompters)
- Lift head looking to the hard right, teleprompter #1
- Deliver half the sentence
- Whip head hard left (with the urgency of change!), pick someone adoring in audience, preferably female (to feed your ego delivery)
- Deliver second half of the sentence off of teleprompter #2
- Whip head hard right again. Rinse. Repeat.
- When finished, be sure to shake hands in the middle to regain folks who got nothing but profiles for 20 minutes
He’s a sock-puppet. Anyway, read the article, not to be missed.