Sooner or later Obama’s grace period will wear off for these guys and they’re going to have to start with some type of jokes to rib the current president.
Carter- Southern peanut farm guy
Bill Clinton- He’s a lady’s man going after the young girls.
Bush- Clueless, not that bright.
McCain- Would have always used the old age angle.
Obama- ???
When in doubt, pick on the VEEP. It is going to be a long 4 (or 8) years for Joe Biden.
The “messiah” angle seems pretty well established already.
There may be a few jokes left to play off the Obama worship, but now that the election frenzy is over it might just be seen as nontopical and mean-spirited.
I’m going with the geek angle. He’s got a slightly geeky look (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), and he’s more into technology than most politicians. There should be a few jokes they can pull out of that.
Most likely, though, the comedy focus is going to be less on Obama and more on current events in general. I guarantee, though, the first time he makes a slip, they’ll be all over him.
Yeah, I thought of the celebrity/messiah/too-cool-for-school angle but how long will that stick for? And it doesn’t seem that insulting or funny to make “ha-ha you’re really popular” jokes.
With Hillary as SoS, they’ll never be at a loss for material.
I don’t think Obama has to do anything, some comedian will do an impression and it will get more and more outlandish and will just be funny on it’s own. After all Bush Sr. never said “nah ghanna do it.”
There’s a guy on MadTV that does a spotless impression of him already.
The Monica Lewiski scandal took place five full years into Clinton’s presidency. He had been a ladies’ man before that, but not to the exclusion of everything else.
Bush didn’t become clueless probably until after Katrina. He got an extra-long honeymoon because of 9/11 and Iraq.
So we won’t know what tag to put on Obama for a long while, maybe years. Don’t expect anything to coalesce immediately.
John Stewart had a great time poking at his Surgeon General nomine Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Also there was the whole Bill Richardson fiasco. Really, Obama is in no way untouchable even by decidedly liberal talk show hosts, but then liberals are much more willing to eat there own.
Just use what the Republicans have tried to paint him as: Arrogant snob.
Obama “Ums” a lot when he talks extemporaneously. That’s a hook. Well, more like a safety pin with a ball of wonder bread on it.
He’s just so frapping SERIOUS. I caught his news conference the day before Thanksgiving. He answered questions about the economic crisis very seriously. Then he answered a question about his daughters’ letters to Santa with the exact same level of seriousness. 
Um, Barry, do you think your kids’ Xmas is just a leetle bit less serious than the worst economic crisis in a generation? :dubious: Then talk like you do!
Somewhere out there is the Vaughn Meader or David Frye of the 21st Century. I can’t wait! (And I voted for the guy!)
You can’t make fun of a black person unless you’re black, otherwise you sound racist. So it’ll take awhile to work something out
In his first press conference after winning the election he talked about the White House pet situation as if it was the Dayton Peace Accords. I think it was funnier than he meant it to be.
So far TDS has been taking off on the coverage of Obama more than on Obama himself. I don’t think he’ll get much heat on Richardson, since Richardson has been very visible and since the press missed this problem also. As for Gupta, him announcing it seems a bit premature. I loved Asip Mandvi’s take on it, being Jewish and having the “it’s not a Cabinet position, we’re so disappointed” meme well embedded.
JFK had a very distinctive speaking style. In any case, The First Family was very JFK friendly. The closest thing to a slam I can remember from the album was him cutting out in the middle of the 50 mile hike. My family was very pro-JFK, and we loved it. Frye was a very different story.
So far I think the seriousness is the most likely choice.
Better tell that to SNL, which has been using a white guy to impersonate Obama for months.
Katrina? There were plenty of sketches and jokes that centered on Bush’s dim wittedness even before the 2000 Election. Strateegery, anyone?
Yeah, like The Daily Show is really afraid to do a Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton gag. :rolleyes:
On what planet? Here on Earth he was mocked as clueless from the start. “Misunderestimate” and several other famous Bushisms were said during the 2000 primaries. I was seeing “Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing their idiot” bumper stickers pretty much as soon as he took office.
I agree with this. He’s never seen without his Blackberry, he’s internet-savvy, and he even did the Vulcan solute to Leonard Nemoy at a party.
Another vote for the seriousness thing. When he appeared on WWE’s RAW, he had a perfect opportunity to pop the crowd. All he had to do was sell the obvious “If you smellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll…what Barack is cooking” line they gave him. Instead, he did it deadpan. I sorta look forward to him doing the annual pardoning of the turkey at Thanksgiving.