Obama Elected, Humorists Hardest Hit
It’s tough out there for a jokester now that The Messiah is sitting in the Oval Office. What used to get the yuks just doesn’t seem funny anymore. A malaise has fallen over the gag writers and website authors who had grown fat on the pratfalls of George W. Bush.
Oh me. Oh my.
After nine years of poking fun at George W. Bush, political humorist Daniel Kurtzman may not have the last laugh.
Since the Texan left office, Kurtzman’s Bushism business — a collection of linguistic errors by the former president — has also gone south.
Phrases like “they misunderestimated me” and “I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully” have been key attractions on Kurtzman’s About.com political humor site, which tracks funny photos, jokes and gaffes in the political world.
But now Kurtzman says he’s struggling to find a new political punching bag to keep his Bushism traffic numbers up. He’s combing newspapers, television and speech transcripts to expand his new line of Obamaisms, Bidenisms and even Palinisms, but the pickings have been hit or miss.
“There’s just not a lot of material to go on,” Kurtzman said. “After eight years of Clinton and eight years of Bush, it’s like people have to get creative and work for a living.”
Do they now? Perhaps Kurtzman need to meet Ed Morrissey, who is a pretty funny guy but isn’t a professional comedian with nine years of experience or anything like that. Ed has managed to find enough goofs and gaffes to start his own Obamateurism of the Day feature. He’s done 16 of them in about three weeks. Surely a brilliant comic mind could do better than that, right?
Political humorist Bill Feldspar, who has claimed to have made a living for eight years selling T-shirts comparing Bush’s facial expressions to those of chimpanzees, has disappeared from the political humor scene. He admitted in a November column that he was struggling to find a replacement for Bush.
Hmm….how about something involving a piece of equipment near and dear to the President? A constant companion, perhaps? Perhaps one could find a replacement to Chimy McHitlerburton in some fumble-tongued answer to a straightforward question?
Maybe this will help those poor, unimaginative humorists get started. Or this.
Perhaps some prominent aspect of the President’s appearance would prove ripe for ribald japery? Sure, these guys wouldn’t want to go the chimpanzee route, because the likelihood of having to defend yourself against moronic complaints is really high, but are they sure there isn’t some feature of the President’s that couldn’t be lampooned?
Really?
Gosh, something has to be funny about the guy.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Hooray for Experts Bearing Alibis!
- Obama to Close Gitmo…One of These Days
- Barack Obama to Use Soldiers for Worldwide Photo Op
Category: It's Entertainment!, President Barack Obama
That picture reminds me of the "Heroes" eclipse… ^_^
But on-topic, if these people can't find something to satire, then they deserve not to have jobs. I'm tired of listening to people saying "Ooh I'm so glad to be proud of the President again!" None of these politicians are as smart as they think they are (did you see Obama's smug smile when he was talking about not knowing "Austrian?"), and for that reason alone, they should be easily lampoonable.
Their silence is its own reward.
I found this little gem the other day…not cartoon humor, but still humor – in a wry way…
http://www.4-blockworld.com/