My mother loved a black man, and no she was not a Kardashian

June 20, 2011 12:57 PM

Republican Leadership Conference hires an Obama impersonator. Hilarity does not ensue.

The entertainment on the third evening of the Republican Leadership Conference was a Barack Obama impersonator named Reggie Brown. While the first part of his set was well received, the crowd began to turn once his material moved on to current leadership candidates. Ta-Nehisi Coates weighs in. Full video here.

posted by TheWhiteSkull (107 comments total)

I think the GOP needs to find some better candidates and stop screwing around with Obama look-alikes, both in the literal and comic sense.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 1:02 PM on June 20, 2011 [4 favorites]

It's interesting that they wouldn't let him joke about Michele Bachmann - is she turning into the GOP establishment pick?
posted by exhilaration at 1:04 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary. Seriously, what are you doing with yourselves? You're like a frat house filled with drunken legacy admissions playing on the lacrosse team.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 1:05 PM on June 20, 2011 [38 favorites]

Give them a little credit. It could have been worse. They coulda put a white guy with burnt cork on his face up on that stage.
posted by crunchland at 1:08 PM on June 20, 2011 [24 favorites]

Admiral Haddock: "Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary."

You say that like it's a bad thing.
posted by zarq at 1:08 PM on June 20, 2011 [5 favorites]

Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary. Seriously, what are you doing with yourselves? You're like a frat house filled with drunken legacy admissions playing on the lacrosse team.

And yet the jocks keep beating the nerds. It's like an 80's nightmare.
posted by Silentgoldfish at 1:09 PM on June 20, 2011 [39 favorites]

I'm totally racist for noticing that they only laughed at the racist jokes.
posted by dirigibleman at 1:09 PM on June 20, 2011 [12 favorites]

(That's a pretty good Obama impression.)
posted by ColdChef at 1:09 PM on June 20, 2011 [4 favorites]

This is the same impersonator who just "debated" Republican "candidate" Gary Johnson on the Fox Business Network.
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:10 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm just surprised they hired a real black man, and didn't put one of their own up their in blackface. Coulda been the same material, and been about as funny (for a given value of "funny"), but at least it would have been honest.
posted by dejah420 at 1:10 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

there, not their. Stupid autocorrect.
posted by dejah420 at 1:11 PM on June 20, 2011

dirigibleman: "I'm totally racist for noticing that they only laughed at the racist jokes."

Apparently racist jokes are okay, but heaven forbid someone lampoon Michele Bachmann.
posted by zarq at 1:11 PM on June 20, 2011 [6 favorites]

"I'm just surprised they hired a real black man, and didn't put one of their own up their in blackface. Coulda been the same material, and been about as funny (for a given value of "funny"), but at least it would have been honest"

LOL
posted by randomstorenet at 1:11 PM on June 20, 2011

So my current theory that Michelle Bachmann has the MOST AMAZING dirt on EVERYONE.
posted by The Whelk at 1:12 PM on June 20, 2011 [19 favorites]

Too bad he didn't get to finish with:

That's great. What do you call your act?

"The Plutocrats!"
posted by hal9k at 1:13 PM on June 20, 2011 [110 favorites]

exhilaration: It's interesting that they wouldn't let him joke about Michele Bachmann - is she turning into the GOP establishment pick?

It's hard to laugh at yourself when you take yourself really seriously.

Or, it's not so funny when it's true.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:14 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

And weighing in at 9 sentences, three consecutive reallys and one final missed period, Ta-Nehisi Coates.
posted by cashman at 1:15 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

He also debated Ron Paul. Which is to say, Ron Paul will do absolutely anything to get on the TV.
posted by Gary at 1:15 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think this was intentional sabotage. Well done, sir.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:15 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary. Seriously, what are you doing with yourselves?"

Off topic, but I tend to think the GOP is getting fantastic results by pulling the Democrats far to the right of where everyone thinks they should be. Think about it this way - If the entire GOP goes so batshit crazy that the entire Democratic Party (for some unknown reason) takes over the former conservative policy playbook...... The GOP wins big time. We are now a two party system with two conservative parties. How is this not a GOP win?

As to the comedian - The Republicans seem to have this odd talent for not being able to judge their own sense of humor boundaries. Same deal with giving Colbert a podium to roast Bush from.
posted by y6y6y6 at 1:16 PM on June 20, 2011 [29 favorites]

Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary. Seriously, what are you doing with yourselves? You're like a frat house filled with drunken legacy admissions playing on the lacrosse team.

And yet the jocks keep beating the nerds. It's like an 80's nightmare.

Its because the nerds keep empowering the jocks by attacking the head nerd for not acting exactly as they would want him to.
posted by Ironmouth at 1:16 PM on June 20, 2011 [9 favorites]

y6y6y6: "If the entire GOP goes so batshit crazy that the entire Democratic Party (for some unknown reason) takes over the former conservative policy playbook...... The GOP wins big time. We are now a two party system with two conservative parties."

If?
posted by brundlefly at 1:18 PM on June 20, 2011 [6 favorites]

Its because the nerds keep empowering the jocks by attacking the head nerd for not acting exactly as they would want him to.

Right, we better shush up about it or daddy Bachman will REALLY give us something to cry about.

I hope you're kidding.
posted by Matt Oneiros at 1:18 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

The Republican Leadership Conference was in New Orleans? was that part of the joke?
posted by dubold at 1:23 PM on June 20, 2011 [24 favorites]

Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary.

The saddest thing of all is that, no matter how unworthy an adversary, people will still vote "R" solely because they genuinely believe the Republicans support them. People whose families, for more than one or two generations, have been born and raised in a good life due to unions will still vote Republican in Wisconsin.
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:26 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

AzraelBrown: "People whose families, for more than one or two generations, have been born and raised in a good life due to unions will still vote Republican in Wisconsin."

Of course they will! "Got mine, fuck all y'all" is the Official Slogan of the Republican Party, don'cha know?
posted by notsnot at 1:28 PM on June 20, 2011 [17 favorites]

Republicans are jocks and Democrats are nerds?
Is that really how you want to frame it going into an election cycle?
posted by rocket88 at 1:29 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Apparently racist jokes are okay, but heaven forbid someone lampoon Michele Bachmann.

To be fair, Bachmann has some legitimate trouble handling criticism that should be kept in mind:

A few dozen people showed up at the town hall for the April 9 event, and Bachmann greeted them warmly. But when, during the question and answer session, the topic turned to gay marriage, Bachmann ended the meeting 20 minutes early and rushed to the bathroom. Hoping to speak to her, [Pamela] Arnold and another middle-aged woman, a former nun, followed her. As Bachmann washed her hands and Arnold looked on, the ex-nun tried to talk to her about theology. Suddenly, after less than a minute, Bachmann let out a shriek. “Help!” she screamed. “Help! I’m being held against my will!”

Arnold, who is just over 5 feet tall, was stunned, and hurried to open the door. Bachmann bolted out and fled, crying, to an SUV outside. Then she called the police, saying, according to the police report, that she was “absolutely terrified and has never been that terrorized before as she had no idea what those two women were going to do to her.” The Washington County attorney, however, declined to press charges, writing in a memo, “It seems clear from the statements given by both women that they simply wanted to discuss certain issues further with Ms. Bachmann.”

posted by Rhaomi at 1:31 PM on June 20, 2011 [56 favorites]

Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary.

If only this was true! Sure, this makes them look a little dumb, but compare how the democrats treated Wiener to how the republicans treated Vitter. At least they know how to stick together.
posted by Edgewise at 1:32 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

Republicans are jocks and Democrats are nerds?
Is that really how you want to frame it going into an election cycle?

Hey, it worked in 2000, didn't it?
posted by Garm at 1:33 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

dubold: The Republican Leadership Conference was in New Orleans? was that part of the joke?

No, because the Superdome is where GHW Bush got nominated in 1988. And where Reagan made his speech about the United States of America being the Land Where You Can Choose 200 Different Flavors of Ice Cream.

rocket88: Is that really how you want to frame it going into an election cycle?

If the shoe fits.
posted by blucevalo at 1:34 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Okay, so some people are terrified of clowns, or mall Santas, or mimes. Apparently Bachmann is terrified of polite, diminutive nuns in restrooms. You're not saying that's... crazy, are you?
posted by aught at 1:35 PM on June 20, 2011 [7 favorites]

It makes sense that he'd get pulled off the stage. To many on the right, words are not units of meaning, they are units of power. This is part of why Democrats often look weak and dithering: they actually want to know what the words SIGNIFY, while their GOP counterparts are content with incantatory chanting. "Freedom!" "Tax cuts!" "Nanny state!" "Traditional family values!" It doesn't matter what these things ARE or what they DO, what matters is that they are the words and phrases that unlock the desired results -- people going to the polls and voting GOP.

So when Reggie Brown started in on GOP favorites, that had to end! Can't have some unfamiliar warlock abusing your Words of Power.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:35 PM on June 20, 2011 [37 favorites]

In related news, the Netroots Nation conference has inspired a dedicated Republican-troll conference, Right Online, which is taking the whole Bizarro world/mirror-universe approach to fighting liberals to an even higher level.
posted by emjaybee at 1:38 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary.

With results like 2010, I don't think they much care about being "worthy adversaries".
posted by Thorzdad at 1:39 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

Can't have some unfamiliar warlock abusing your Words of Power.

But he was one of the dusky-skinned Men of Harad! I thought they were allies of Sauron!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:40 PM on June 20, 2011 [5 favorites]

To be fair it looks like he had the stage for a full 18 minutes before they pulled the plug. I'd say that takes a sense of humor.

I see little wrong here. You have roast style lampooning of the current establishment and the establishment wannabes. I only watched the 2 minute clip, so if the full one is reprehensible then I won't stand by these statements, but if you can't make fun of actual facts what can you make fun of? Romney is a Mormon. Some back woods sects have multiple wives. Deal with it. I'm sure he's heard worse. Obama had a white mom. Fine. If you can't find any humor in these things then you can't, but a lot of people can and still manage to not be racist about it.

Hell, I am mortified by Lisa Lampanelli, but the very people I would think would be even more offended make up her audience.

Again, haven't watched the long version, but I thought the short clip was brilliant considering. If I were the GOP I'd book this guy again to prove they don't have sticks up their asses.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:43 PM on June 20, 2011

Brilliant use of satire.
posted by stbalbach at 1:46 PM on June 20, 2011

Yep, the GOP basically suck at teh funny. It's like watching Hitler pretending to have a good time at his birthday party. The strained, paranoid grimace in place of a smile. . .

It's some solace to realize that comedy belongs to the good guys. Perhaps that's because comedy requires empathy, while the will to power requires a sad, cold heart.
posted by flotson at 1:46 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

You say that like it's a bad thing.

A democracy needs two functioning political parties. Right now you have one, possibly zero depending on who you ask.

Canada would be happy to send you the Bloq Quebecois. They've fallen on hard times and could use a new gig. Fierce and competent. You'd have universal health care and/or Virginian secession within six months.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 1:46 PM on June 20, 2011 [17 favorites]

Reggie Brown, a comedian and Obama look-alike, had attendees rolling in the aisles with his racially-tinged one-liners aimed at Obama, including one referring to Obama's parentage: "My favourite month is February, Black history month. You see, Michelle celebrates the full month, and I celebrate half."

I'm not a big fan of using terse, overdone internet abbreviations to express one's self, but WTF?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:48 PM on June 20, 2011

Arnold, who is just over 5 feet tall, I believe Bachmann is even less than 5 feet tall--It may be reasonable to conjecture she finds the whole world very frightening.
posted by rmhsinc at 1:53 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm pretty sure this whole thing went according to plan. Like they didn't know what his material was going to be? I'm sure he prepared 20min, and they pulled him off at 18 in order to ensure his surprise and preserve the GOP's credibility in their ensuing PR blanket. "Look how mature we are!" Nevermind that they just sat through the meat of the act and loved it.
posted by rhizome at 1:53 PM on June 20, 2011

"My favourite month is February, Black history month. You see, Michelle celebrates the full month, and I celebrate half."

"White people drive a car like this, and black people drive a car like this. I drive both ways!"
posted by cottoncandybeard at 1:55 PM on June 20, 2011 [6 favorites]

It is so fucking adorable that they opened with the whole good-morning-what's-that-I-can't-hear-you thing. Like they're about to do children's theater at the local branch library.
posted by penduluum at 1:57 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

I can't understand the appeal of these types of conferences, regardless of the party or politics represented. Three days of political speeches? I'd rather get sucked into a jet engine.
posted by brain_drain at 2:05 PM on June 20, 2011 [5 favorites]

It's some solace to realize that comedy belongs to the good guys. Perhaps that's because comedy requires empathy, while the will to power requires a sad, cold heart.

Wish that were true. Spent a lot of time doing political comedy and I can vouch for the fact that Democrats are as bad when you push their little buttons. Worse, in fact. Generally, Repubs would laugh at Bush jokes in that weird, "Yeah, we're proud that we're not stuck-up smart people!" way. Yet virtually ANY joke, no matter how benign --in fact anything not flat-out laudatory-- about Hillary Clinton was met with actual hisses in front of hard-left crowds. Democrats have a great sense of humor...if you're making fun of Republicans. In fact, I actually don't do much in that direction anymore since --for the first time-- it is almost impossible to make fun of this President without drawing even more than hisses from the left. Both Stewart and Maher, among others, have commented that what would normally be even MOR political humorizing now comes tainted with non-existent racial implications.

Comedy doesn't' belong to the good or bad guys. It belongs to anyone who doesn't take themselves so goddam seriously.
posted by umberto at 2:07 PM on June 20, 2011 [5 favorites]

That's probably not true.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:07 PM on June 20, 2011

(That was directed towards brain_drain.)
posted by shakespeherian at 2:08 PM on June 20, 2011

I find that when conservatives try to do humour, hilarity often fails to ensue.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:08 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

Again, haven't watched the long version, but I thought the short clip was brilliant considering. If I were the GOP I'd book this guy again to prove they don't have sticks up their asses.

I watched the whole thing, and it is not brilliant. It's decent roast-lite topical political from a decent impersonator, with some weird racist dalliances from an otherwise basically G-rated schtick, and it wears out its welcome as a comedy fan pretty quickly. The audience mistakes straight line setups for actual praise (mention GW in setup line, wait for audience to BREAK INTO SPONTANEOUS, LENGTHY APPLAUSE FOR GW, then deliver weak punchline with rhythm completely fucked at that point, audience grumbles), and the "oh shit he's telling jokes about Republicans" moment really is sort of WTF abrupt when it comes.

It was a meh act, tailored to pander, right up to the point where it stopped pandering sufficiently, and out came the shepherd's crook. I'd have liked to hear his material about Bachmann et al, but I would like my twenty minutes back more.

It's some solace to realize that comedy belongs to the good guys.

A less happy restatement of this is "if you're the ones with a sense of humor, you're probably fucked."
posted by cortex at 2:09 PM on June 20, 2011 [7 favorites]

y6y6y6 wrote: We are now a two party system with two conservative parties. How is this not a GOP win?

Because people that work for a political party don't just want their policies to be instituted; they want the spoils of victory. For party workers this includes things like extra staff and the nice offices; for supporters it includes things like access to politicians and influence with officials. If people just cared about influencing policy they'd spend their money on lobbyists.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:09 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

rocket88: "Republicans are jocks and Democrats are nerds?
Is that really how you want to frame it going into an election cycle?"

YUP!
posted by symbioid at 2:11 PM on June 20, 2011

Canada would be happy to send you the Bloq Quebecois. They've fallen on hard times and could use a new gig. Fierce and competent. You'd have universal health care and/or Virginian secession within six months.

You think that we'd allow FRENCH-LOVING SOCIALIST QUICHE-AND-FREEDOM-FRY EATING SURRENDER MONKEYS to form a major political party in the US? It is to laugh.
posted by blucevalo at 2:16 PM on June 20, 2011

Dammit, now I'm craving poutine.
posted by darkstar at 2:17 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

The impersonator was interviewed on BBC World News today. He does do a pretty good Obama impression, at least on radio (I haven't seen the video). According to him, he was pulled off the stage due to time constraints, not because of his material, and that the audience loved even his Republican-bashing jokes. Then the BBC's interviewer repeatedly asked him if that was really the reason he was pulled, and if they really thought the jokes were funny, and he eventually said he thought that maybe they didn't like the jokes too much and maybe that is why he was pulled off the stage? It was kind of a weird reversal.
posted by m0nm0n at 2:19 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

If people just cared about influencing policy they'd spend their money on lobbyists.

Actually, no, most of the time, they wouldn't. They wouldn't have to.
posted by blucevalo at 2:20 PM on June 20, 2011

For the most part, when a performer is running long, they don't actually go up on stage and get him off. They make signs, wave from offstage, etc. I mean, at some level I guess that's on the event organizers, and if the performer himself it was because of a time conflict, I guess it's reasonable. And when the guy comes up to walk him off, you can see/hear him say something about time or "too long". They've already killed the mic by then. But it's not SOP by any stretch.
posted by penduluum at 2:26 PM on June 20, 2011

I'm still trying to find out what he said with the Bachmann joke. Anybody know what it was ?
posted by Webbster at 2:26 PM on June 20, 2011

According to him, he was pulled off the stage due to time constraints, not because of his material, and that the audience loved even his Republican-bashing jokes. Then the BBC's interviewer repeatedly asked him if that was really the reason he was pulled, and if they really thought the jokes were funny, and he eventually said he thought that maybe they didn't like the jokes too much and maybe that is why he was pulled off the stage? It was kind of a weird reversal.

I think that he's probably very aware of which side his bread's buttered on, and that he's not likely to be hired by Democrats or independents.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:31 PM on June 20, 2011

Republicans, get your fucking act together. You are not a worthy adversary. Seriously, what are you doing with yourselves? You're like a frat house filled with drunken legacy admissions playing on the lacrosse team.

So what does it say about the democrats that they won the last congressional election?
posted by delmoi at 2:38 PM on June 20, 2011

I'm still trying to find out what he said with the Bachmann joke. Anybody know what it was ?

They cut his mike and pulled him offstage just as he was beginning to tell his Bachman joke.

You can watch the whole thing on YT here in two parts: Part 1; Part 2
posted by marsha56 at 2:42 PM on June 20, 2011

Republicans are great at getting elected. Horrible at governing, but great at getting elected. Different skills involved, I guess.
posted by darkstar at 2:42 PM on June 20, 2011

I didn't think he was so bad. I didn't like the Sanford and Kardashian jokes, but I liked most of the rest. I think he's also one of the better Obama impersonators I've seen. I'd like to hear his Bachman joke. I hope he gets to go on some late night show and tell it. Since the Repubs had to cut him for time, I'm sure they're hoping he gets that chance as well.
posted by marsha56 at 2:47 PM on June 20, 2011

By which I mean to say that it's quite possible to compensate - in the political arena - for a systemic, structural incompetence at governing by being a charismatic part of a political organism employing extremely highly developed electioneering methods.

The result: charismatic people who should be nowhere near the corridors of power because of incompetence or poor judgment are often elected and re-elected.
posted by darkstar at 2:47 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm still trying to find out what he said with the Bachmann joke. Anybody know what it was ?

Yes, the BBC interviewer asked him that too. IIRC the joke was (allow me to paraphrase here, I do not have an impersonator's timing or finesse) "Michele Bachman has called me a one-term President. But at least that is better than a one-syllable President." So, a dig at Bush.
posted by m0nm0n at 2:49 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think that he's probably very aware of which side his bread's buttered on, and that he's not likely to be hired by Democrats or independents.

Uh, I'm quite certain he won't be getting anymore Repub gigs anytime again in this century.
posted by marsha56 at 2:49 PM on June 20, 2011

I for one am quite relieved. The presence of a functioning sense of humor is what distinguishes a true conservative from these reptilian, pseudo-religious flesheaters that have taken over the Republican party. A shibboleth in the truest sense of the word.
posted by facetious at 2:51 PM on June 20, 2011

I agree with the odd choice - this did remind me of the time Colbert was invited to speak at the media dinner (Bush sitting just a few feet away). Maybe their event people just don't know anything about entertainers, just accept names without seeing any of the work. (Someone should suggest that bounce girls group for the next convention).
posted by Surfurrus at 2:58 PM on June 20, 2011

dubold: The Republican Leadership Conference was in New Orleans? was that part of the joke?

Republicans don't get deeper significance much, it seems. They're kind of shallow like that.

Rhaomi: according to the police report, that she was “absolutely terrified and has never been that terrorized before as she had no idea what those two women were going to do to her.

She has an amazing imagination. Too bad she's trying to apply it to reality, instead of making money writing fiction.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:59 PM on June 20, 2011

Congressional Democrats hire Bush impersonator.
posted by clavdivs at 3:02 PM on June 20, 2011

You're like a frat house filled with drunken legacy admissions playing on the lacrosse team.

Hey, it worked in 2000 and 2004.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 3:03 PM on June 20, 2011

The only black speaker was an Obama impersonator.
posted by absalom at 3:03 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

Congressional Democrats hire Bush impersonator.

These are two different stories; there's a difference between making fun of Bush for being supportive of big oil companies and making fun of Obama for being, um, black.
posted by EarBucket at 3:08 PM on June 20, 2011 [3 favorites]

This is disgusting. It's okay if the fake negro President makes real jokes about race (so they don't have to and get bombed for it), just don't insult the white assholes - however mildly.

The upside is this impersonator did a kickass job and has a new fan.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 3:15 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Uh, I'm quite certain he won't be getting anymore Repub gigs anytime again in this century. -- Dennis Miller better brush up on his rendition of "Camptown Races" then.
posted by crunchland at 3:29 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I agree with the odd choice - this did remind me of the time Colbert was invited to speak at the media dinner (Bush sitting just a few feet away). Maybe their event people just don't know anything about entertainers, just accept names without seeing any of the work. (Someone should suggest that bounce girls group for the next convention).

Colbert spoke at the Whitehouse Correspondent's dinner, which is organized by the press.
posted by delmoi at 3:31 PM on June 20, 2011

Colbert spoke at the Whitehouse Correspondent's dinner, which is organized by the press.

Yes, and the press were especially sycophantic of the Bush regime at that time. Same odd choice of comedic guest speaker ... perhaps the GOP and press share the same event people (or just the same clueless-ness).
posted by Surfurrus at 3:42 PM on June 20, 2011

Okay, so some people are terrified of clowns, or mall Santas, or mimes. Apparently Bachmann is terrified of polite, diminutive nuns in restrooms. You're not saying that's... crazy, are you?

To be fair, Bachmann has never been the same since the penguin incident.
posted by sebastienbailard at 3:53 PM on June 20, 2011

I heard a lot of groans during the jokes about Republicans but it didn't especially hostile to me.
posted by zzazazz at 4:14 PM on June 20, 2011

A part of me secretly hoped that the comic would pull a bait switch, then the real Obama would walk on stage and proceed to roast each of the nominees.
posted by Decimask at 4:23 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

Republicans don't get deeper significance much, it seems. They're kind of shallow like that.
And this is where I tell the younger among us about how in the mid-80s the Republicans tried to appropriate "Born in the USA" as a Reagan theme. They'd obviously never listened to any of the song's lyrics except "born in the USA."
posted by NorthernLite at 4:24 PM on June 20, 2011 [7 favorites]

Surfurrus: "Yes, and the press were especially sycophantic of the Bush regime at that time."

It is pretty remarkable that a comedian best known for skewering the Bush Administration and the news media was invited to perform at an event attended almost exclusively by those two groups. There was a lot of silence in that room, and not all of it was in reaction to jokes about Bush.
posted by brundlefly at 4:43 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think this was intentional sabotage. Well done, sir.

Follow the money. If ever there was a guy with a vested financial interest in Obama winning in '12, it's an Obama impersonator.
posted by gauche at 5:03 PM on June 20, 2011 [8 favorites]

Can someone explain the Kardashian joke for me?
posted by Joe in Australia at 5:19 PM on June 20, 2011

As I gather it, Kim Kardashian is well known for dating black men. Which is the sort of thing that you're likely to notice if you're the sort of person who notices that sort of thing.
posted by brundlefly at 5:21 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

So what does it say about the democrats that they won the last congressional election?

The party of the sitting president almost always loses congressional seats during the midterm, and usually loses the majority in at least one chamber if they had it to begin with? I think it probably says that.
posted by Errant at 5:26 PM on June 20, 2011

Can someone explain the Kardashian joke for me?

More information is available on the internet.
posted by cortex at 5:29 PM on June 20, 2011 [9 favorites]

If the entire GOP goes so batshit crazy that the entire Democratic Party (for some unknown reason) takes over the former conservative policy playbook...... The GOP wins big time. We are now a two party system with two conservative parties. How is this not a GOP win?

I want to address this line of thinking. It is a conservative win, certainly, but it isn't a Republican win. Republican funding depends on Republican success, and to a degree they have to worry about getting their own guys in office just to continue existing.

Whenever these political threads come out I'm frequently amazed by the assumptions of Machiavellian genius thinking on the Republican side. Look at the candidates they field! If you think they continually back utter morons because they're easy to control, then why they put one of these supposed geniuses in the actual office?

What the Republicans do have going for them is lots and lots of money. They have folk like the Koch brothers funding a plethora of noise-making think tanks. As we've seen tens of thousands of times by now, if you have money then people will pretend you're smart, partly because you'll never suffer for a lack of sycophants, but also because people don't want to seem to believe that dumb people could become so rich. The great lie of the American Dream, that people get money largely because of effort and talent, is rooted deep.
posted by JHarris at 5:42 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

They'd obviously never listened to any of the song's lyrics except "born in the USA."

Born in the USA,
Born in the USA,
Born in the USA,
Born in the USA.
posted by EarBucket at 6:13 PM on June 20, 2011 [2 favorites]

Their first choice, a white comedian in blackface, was not available, as he was booked in the Catskills.
posted by Renoroc at 6:42 PM on June 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

"My favorite month is February, Black history month. You see, Michelle celebrates the full month, and I celebrate half."

Why would it be your favorite month if you only get to celebrate for half of it? It would be a better joke if it went more like, "Michelle's favorite month is February, Black History Month. But I never liked it as much, since I only got to celebrate for half." Or something. It would still be a shitty joke, but at least it would sort of make sense. I am almost as offended by the unfunniness of it all as I am by the racism.
posted by naoko at 7:09 PM on June 20, 2011 [4 favorites]

Poorly-written comedy has its own offensiveness.
posted by Spatch at 7:59 PM on June 20, 2011

She has an amazing imagination. Too bad she's trying to apply it to reality, instead of making money writing fiction.

Add another one to her fiction career.
posted by never used baby shoes at 8:04 PM on June 20, 2011

If I were the GOP I'd book this guy again to prove they don't have sticks up their asses.

Ummm. It might take more than hiring that guy again to prove they don't have sticks up their asses.
posted by notreally at 8:49 PM on June 20, 2011

Yet virtually ANY joke, no matter how benign --in fact anything not flat-out laudatory-- about Hillary Clinton was met with actual hisses in front of hard-left crowds.

Supporting Hillary Clinton is considered hard-left in the US? Wow.
posted by acb at 2:26 AM on June 21, 2011 [7 favorites]

Canada would be happy to send you the Bloq Quebecois. They've fallen on hard times and could use a new gig. Fierce and competent. You'd have universal health care and/or Virginian secession within six months.

In my head I am hearing Pepe le Pew saying "Eh Virginia iz fuur luveeerz"
posted by srboisvert at 4:56 AM on June 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Supporting Hillary Clinton is considered hard-left in the US? Wow.

I think umberto's experience may not be typical of all progressive crowds in the U.S., if he's talking about recent events. (Though before and during the 2004 campaign when Clinton was a candidate for both the Senate from NY and for President it's true many on the Left in the U.S. saw criticism and mockery of Clinton springing from her being a woman candidate, and therefore contemptible.)

If in recent years, the hissing may simply have been at the very mention of Clinton's name, since she's part of the Democratic administration who have essentially prolonged so many of Bush's despised militaristic foreign policy, human rights-violating, and domestic privacy-invading initiatives.

[Disclaimer: No, I am not another Joe Beese sockpuppet. (Will we need the abbreviation IANAJBSP for criticisms of the Obama administration?)]
posted by aught at 8:06 AM on June 21, 2011

Yet virtually ANY joke, no matter how benign --in fact anything not flat-out laudatory-- about Hillary Clinton was met with actual hisses in front of hard-left crowds.

I don't think the "hard Left" liked Hillary Clinton at all. Maybe back in the 90s or something.
posted by delmoi at 8:30 AM on June 21, 2011

Though before and during the 2004 campaign when Clinton was a candidate for both the Senate from NY and for President it's true many on the Left in the U.S. saw criticism and mockery of Clinton springing from her being a woman candidate, and therefore contemptible.

Do they defend Sarah Palin as well?
posted by acb at 8:58 AM on June 21, 2011

We are now a two party system with two conservative parties. How is this not a GOP win ?

Indeed, within a generation, Lincoln, Eisenhower, Nixon, Clinton and Obama will be remembered as the 5 greatest Republican presidents
posted by y2karl at 9:09 AM on June 21, 2011

Well, I suppose one must include Teddy Roosevelt--so make it 6.
posted by y2karl at 9:12 AM on June 21, 2011

MarisaStole, I didn't get the "half of Black History Month" joke at first either. I occasionally surprises me how much some Republicans are still hung up on Obama's race.

He's "black, but only half-black". I think some of them actually believe he's being intentionally sneaky and inauthentic. "Yeah, he says he's black, but he's really only half black. You just can't trust those blacks."
posted by benito.strauss at 10:22 AM on June 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Indeed, within a generation, Lincoln, Eisenhower, Nixon, Clinton and Obama will be remembered as the 5 greatest Republican presidents

I thought it was more a case of Nixon being remembered for the left-wing tone of his administration.
posted by acb at 10:24 AM on June 21, 2011

Well, he was certainly well to the left of Clinton and Obama, now that you mention it.
posted by y2karl at 4:42 PM on June 21, 2011

"My favorite month is February, Black history month. You see, Michelle celebrates the full month, and I celebrate half."

On the surface, it looks like an lame half black guy only celebrates half blah blah blah. But look at the first part. It's his "favorite month". Why? Because he doesn't want to celebrate the whole month only half.

See the "joke" is that the "president" hates Black History Month, just like everyone else in the room
posted by zinc saucier at 11:00 PM on June 21, 2011

If anyone is still interested, Bill Maher had Reggie Brown come on his show and finish his routine.
posted by m0nm0n at 12:21 PM on June 26, 2011