# White House comedian!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 10, 2009, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936 "2009-05-10T10:44:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/1 "2009-05-10T10:44:14Z")
President Obama did a [stand up routine](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/09/full-video-obamas-white-h_n_201264.html) at last night’s White House Correspondents Dinner and was very funny, I thought. He got a little serious at the end, but until then, he made me laugh out loud several times. Some of his jokes fell flat (especially at the Fox table) and a couple were groaners, but most of them were pretty darned good. He had lots of funny and pointed barbs aimed at his critics, but plenty were aimed at himself and his Cabinet too.
I don’t want to dilute the impact of what he said by just repeating jokes, at least not in the OP. The videos are not that long and are worth watching just to get some of what some people will be referencing for years to come.
President Obama smiles a lot and cracks the occasional joke, but generally he’s a very serious person, so it was fun to see him lighten up for almost a whole speech.
[Wanda Sykes](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/09/wanda-sykes-video-of-whit_n_201280.html) had some good/some great jokes too. She took on Limbaugh and Hannity, head on, and made them look like the fools they are. No one was safe though, not even President Obama. This may not be quite as up there as the Colbert speech from a few years ago, but I think it’s a classic too.
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### Author:  [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/2 "2009-05-10T11:21:46Z")
I agree, it was (for the most part) very good stuff. Very funny. Wanda Sykes was less funny, though perhaps it was the fact that Obama is not a comedian that made him so good (straight man deliverying silly lines).
I also can see Fox and the Right wing drudging (yes punny) up a big deal about this. They will be very very butthurt.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/3 "2009-05-10T12:09:13Z")
Somebody needs to stop Wanda Sykes.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/4 "2009-05-10T14:56:19Z")
Lots of inside jokes. It was on live when I was leaving for work this morning.
The Prez said something about Mr. Someone who “was a person of color, but not any color that appears in nature.”
Who was he talking about? WHat was the joke?
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/5 "2009-05-10T15:14:34Z")
It was John Boehner, but I still do not get it.
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### Author:  [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/6 "2009-05-10T15:34:08Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#):
>
> It was John Boehner, but I still do not get it.
[Bad fake tan](http://www.jameskanka.com/blog/uploaded_images/20070104_0258-771374.JPG). He’s the one on the left.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/7 "2009-05-10T16:46:03Z")
Makes sense to me. You now have a president who makes jokes, previously you had a president who was a joke.
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### Author:  [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/8 "2009-05-10T17:22:30Z")
Boehner is orange.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/9 "2009-05-10T17:31:45Z")
> [@madmonk28](#):
>
> Boehner is orange.
They prefer the term Oompa-Americans now.
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### Author:  [@quixotic78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quixotic78)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/10 "2009-05-10T18:00:39Z")
Some good zingers (I especially liked the one about Rahm Emanuel and how he’s not used to saying “day” after “Mother”), but these things are kind of silly. We’re essentially saying, “Way to go out there and read material that someone else wrote, Mr. President!”
…
…
But then again, I guess we do that for speeches too\*, so maybe it’s par for the course.
[sub]\*Yeah, I know, Obama writes some of his own stuff in speeches, maybe even most of the speech in some cases. But I can’t imagine him sitting down and writing comedy material, so my point stands.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/11 "2009-05-10T18:03:36Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> They prefer the term Oompa-Americans now.
It’s said far too often, and far too easily, blunting the impact when it actually happens, but in this case, it’s true.
I laughed out loud.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/12 "2009-05-10T18:17:47Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#):
>
> Makes sense to me. You now have a president who makes jokes, previously you had a president who was a joke.
Duh-bya made jokes. Not _intentionally_, but still…
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/13 "2009-05-10T21:16:20Z")
Actually Bush had a good sense of comedic timing and did quite well in the same venues … one of his was the line saying regarding the firing of the attornies - something like “yeah, you know you’ve blown it when people feel sorry for lawyers.”
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/14 "2009-05-10T21:28:33Z")
My favorite Sykes line, from when she was talking about Sean Hannity and waterboarding:
“I could break Sean Hannity with a middle seat in coach.”
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/15 "2009-05-10T21:35:44Z")
Republican pundits are outraged over the Limbaugh’s kidneys jokes of course. ([Buchanan got there early](http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/05/wanda-sykes-jok.html) but there are more.) Admittedly the “I hope his kidneys fail” line wasn’t funny and it was mean spirited, but how in the name of even the pretense of the shadow of fairness and balance can they be hypocritical enough to pity poor little Limbaugh over being on the receiving end of an unfunny and hateful comment will be interesting to watch.
I’ll be curious to hear what Rush himself says. Of course if he mentions it he’ll also have to mention his own comments that are far more incendiary than comments HE has called treason and his own drug addiction hypocrisy that by his own railing should have landed him in jail. But I’ve no doubt the dittoheads will lick up anything he pisses into their dish and ask for more.
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### Author:  [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/16 "2009-05-10T21:58:58Z")
The joke was playing off Rush saying he hoped Obama administration fails. It pissed some citizens off.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2009, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/17 "2009-05-10T23:58:46Z")
Obama was great fun, he’s got the touch. Sykes was tedious.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/18 "2009-05-11T00:47:33Z")
> [@DSeid](#):
>
> Actually Bush had a good sense of comedic timing and did quite well in the same venues … one of his was the line saying regarding the firing of the attornies - something like “yeah, you know you’ve blown it when people feel sorry for lawyers.”
He could just as easily have said that, you know you’ve blown it when liberals feel sorry for the CIA, because how many liberals **didn’t** feel sorry for the CIA when Valerie Plame got outed and the CIA was saddled with a horrorshow like Porter Goss? I sure did, and boy was it a weird feeling.
Yeah, I laughed at Oopma-Americans too. That was great!
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/19 "2009-05-11T01:38:34Z")
> [@Equipoise](#):
>
> He could just as easily have said that, you know you’ve blown it when liberals feel sorry for the CIA, because how many liberals **didn’t** feel sorry for the CIA when Valerie Plame got outed and the CIA was saddled with a horrorshow like Porter Goss? I sure did, and boy was it a weird feeling.
Well, Plame was working on an area that conservatives and liberals alike support - keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of crazy dictators. Which is a far cry from their _other_ job of installing and supporting crazy dictators because it benefits some US corporation or the other.
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### Author:  [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-house-comedian/495936/20 "2009-05-11T04:42:08Z")
> [@DSeid](#):
>
> Actually Bush had a good sense of comedic timing and did quite well in the same venues … one of his was the line saying regarding the firing of the attornies - something like “yeah, you know you’ve blown it when people feel sorry for lawyers.”
And also when he complained that “Cheney shot the only trial lawyer that was for me.”
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