Nov. 10, 2008
Yes We Can Make Obama Jokes
Even If He Can't
The recent election has been filled with, and perhaps even defined by, comedy. There were some moments of unintended humor: Sarah Palin's nomination, for example, was treated as a joke by many, as was Karl Rove's characterization of Barack Obama at a country club. But there were also moments when comedians delivered more honest coverage than any of the official pundits. This isn't surprising. As any psychologist can tell you, jokes are far from superficial; they often stem from our most profound fears, hopes, and dreams. On Friday night New Yorker editor David Remnick interviewed the writers from "The Daily Show" at the Paley Center for Media in New York, and this event provided me with an opportunity to see what the comedic future held for politics, as well as to reflect on the significance of pre-election humor.
Before election night, Barack Obama's name was not often treated with levity. Whether that was to his advantage is debatable; taking oneself too seriously is not an admirable trait in modern America. In fact, one of the best PR moves the Republicans made was to have Sarah Palin and John McCain appear on "Saturday Night Live" in the weeks preceding the election. It was agreed that both candidates were funny and more importantly, that their appearances showed them in a positive light-precisely because they did not take themselves too seriously. A recent New York Times article also highlights the conservative sense of humor as being (arguably) better than the liberal sense of humor. In this regard Obama, like many Democrats, does not come off as particularly fun or lighthearted.
On the other hand, the Republican SNL appearances could be seen as a form of damage control. One pre-election analysis showed that there were seven times more jokes about McCain than about Obama on television. TV comedies (including "The Daily Show," "Saturday Night Live," "Family Guy" and virtually every late-night opening monologue) suddenly became part of the "liberal media," and were accused of a concerted effort to bring down the GOP by means of their biased joke-cracking. Indeed, many conservative viewers claimed that more jokes should be written at Obama's expense, essentially demanding "fair and balanced" comic coverage.
That request proved difficult to fulfill. Common wisdom held that it was nearly impossible to make fun of Obama. He was just too even-tempered, handsome, successful, and (as many liked to see it) "professorial." SNL's head writer Seth Meyers recently affirmed the truth of this statement. In an interview with NPR's Terry Gross, Meyers pointed out that Obama was an extremely "aware" individual, and that it was difficult "to make a joke he isn't in on." Obama's self-awareness is unlikely to diminish, especially now that he is the president elect.
But there was another, largely unspoken reason behind the lack of jokes in the past: race. Making fun of black people, blackness, or black success is completely taboo in public spheres, as is any joke perceived as racist. Consider what happened with the The New Yorkerin July. The cover showed Obama and his wife bumping fists and clad in terrorist attire. The furor that erupted was born both from Obama zealotry and from displaced racial anxiety. Those offended by the cover claimed that it actually suggested Obama was a Muslim; those defending the cover claimed that it was a humorous attack on exactly that suggestion (and this was the intent, according to Remnick).
To a certain extent, it didn't matter whether the joke was funny or not. What mattered was the immense public response its attempt at humor garnered. The explosiveness of the issue was unexpected, perhaps because its proximity to taboos about racism was not immediately obvious. But in actuality Obama's opponents had been making insinuations that he was a Muslim, essentially using the word as a proxy form of a racist slur. The New Yorker's joke on this issue hit far too close to home. As a result of the brouhaha Maureen Dowd reasonably asked if anyone could make fun of Obama, and the answer was clearly "no," at least until his position as Democratic nominee was solidified.
