To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, I'm not offended as a McCain/Palin supporter, I'm offended as a comedian.
(NORTH FARMINGTON, MICH.) - Barack Obama took it up a notch – or two - at a town hall meeting tonight where he used comedy to mock and ridicule the McCain-Palin ticket.I think reporter Maria Gavrilovic would have been better off ending the story after the first paragraph. Instead she tried to bolster her argument by citing examples of Obama's "jokes." I've seen horrendous open-mikers deliver better material.
“I mean think about it, you guys remember this, it was just like a month ago they were all saying ‘experience, experience, experience’,” Obama said as the crowd snickered, “Then they chose Palin and started talking about ‘change, change, change’ - What happened?”
Can you say, "Premise, premise, premise?" A set-up without a punchline is merely a sentence.
“I mean, mother, governor, moose shooter?! I mean I think that’s cool, that’s cool stuff,” Obama said about Palin’s biography.
Admittedly, not all jokes look good on paper. Add a heaping helping of sarcasm to the above quote and maybe, just maybe, you could make it sound like an actual gag. But only a rank amateur-- or a sophomore in high school-- would end a bit with the words, "I mean I think that's cool, that's cool stuff." He just flunked Stand-up Comedy 101.
“What were the Republicans hollerin’, ‘drill baby drill’? What kind of slogan is that?! They were getting all excited about drilling!”
Who's writing his stuff? Fozzie Bear? "Drill baby drill, wacka, wacka wacka!"
The idea for the joke is "Drill baby drill" but that's not a fully formed joke. How about, "What were the Republicans hollerin', 'drill baby drill'? I bet that's what Sarah Palin's husband yells out in bed." Or "McCain's so feeble-minded they should have been yelling 'drool baby drool.' Or "I'd like to drill baby drill into McCain's skull. (Nancy Pelosi stole the "drilling into Bush's skulll" joke from me.) Anything, anything, would have been better than "they were getting all excited about drilling."
Only once did he come close to saying something that resembled a punchline.
“We don’t always catch the right person. We may think this is Mohammed the terrorist, it might be Mohammed the cab driver. You may think it’s Barack the bomb thrower, but it might be Barack the guy running for president.”
Well, it's certainly not Barack the stand-up comedian.
3 comments:
Maybe they should have Fozzie write their jokes for them. I think Fozzie would actually be an upgrade.
at least Biden has a good set... although, it IS a musical number
not exactly Flight of the Concords or Hard N' Phirm, but... maybe if he gets Barky to chime in, they could make a lovely duo/duet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmRXH7RkCZQ
That video is hilarious. I had to keep hitting replay.
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