13 Responses

1. Laurie Kilmartin says:

   August 13, 2012 at 10:07 pm

   Hey Brian. IMO, Obama is tough because he’s a vague mark. He’s funny, he’s cool, he’s calm and collected. What can you pin on him- that he negotiates too much with Republicans? That isn’t as satisfying as Clinton being a horndog or Bush being inarticulate. Obama’s detractors are much easier to mock than Obama himself.

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   • Brian McKim & Traci Skene says:

     August 13, 2012 at 11:24 pm

     First things first: The Female Half of the Staff says, “Ouch.” (As does The Male Half.) We’re not sure why, but we have to keep reminding people that the Halves are equal, that this site is co-written.

     Second: You prove our point quite nicely. Here we are, 3-1/2 years into the Obama presidency (and 5-1/2 years since he announced his candidacy and eight years since he delivered the speech at the DNC) and some folks are saying, with a straight face, that he’s a “vague mark.”

     We understand if you like him so much that you don’t want to make fun of him. We also believe that you see him as “funny… cool… calm… and collected,” but it puzzles us as to why anyone would argue that he’s hard to write jokes about.

     And we’re also puzzled as to why any comedy writer would shy away from a topic because it’s hard. It may well be that “Obama’s detractors are much easier to mock,” but Obama, the First Lady, his wacky relatives and their scrapes with the law, his gaffes and scandals– all provide so much fodder for comedy that it is rather suspicious (and perhaps worrisome) that there aren’t more jokes about these topics.

     We’re not sure that we (or anyone else) has suggested that comedy writers or comedians find something to “pin on him.” We have suggested, however, that the pitiful dearth of jokes is somewhat… unusual. And we’ve also pointed out that the protesting is unseemly and… suspicious. (The protesting– that Obama was hard to write jokes about– started shortly before the election of 2008! The white flag was raised prior to him assuming office. Kinda makes us proud to be comedians, doesn’t it?)

     One comedian was quoted as saying that eight years of Bush made it “easy to be lazy.” Indeed. It may well be that laziness is now a permanent state among the joking class. Obama’s detractors, you say, “are much easier to mock.” Perhaps. But we have always thought that comedians love a challenge. We also pride ourselves on finding humor where none was thought to exist. (And, conversely, we quite often discard a joke because, we insist without actually knowing, “that someone has already done that.”) Somewhere along the way, shooting fish in a barrel has become our primary modus operandi.

     And, perhaps most disturbing of all, those few comedians who have figured out a way to craft an Obama joke or two have been vilified by their peers.

     We’re not for one minute suggesting that you, Laurie, are lazy. We’re well aware of– and can verify– your reputation as a superior jokesmith. But we’d appreciate it if you might just come right out and say that you just don’t want to make jokes about the man. Such honesty would be refreshing. It would be far better than saying– or suggesting– that it can’t be done. Or, as some others have suggested (and this should make the hair on every comic’s neck stand up)– that it shouldn’t be done.

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2. Paul says:

   August 15, 2012 at 11:14 pm

   Love you Laurie, but you’re a die-hard liberal, and just like with the majority-liberal media, it comes through (strongly) in your work.

   You’re talented, and you could knock it out of the park with Obama jokes…if you wanted to.

   However, you’ve given Obama a free pass, and you’re rationalizing.

   I still like you lots, despite your putting Obama on a pedestal high enough to pee on us.

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3. Laurie Kilmartin says:

   August 20, 2012 at 9:37 pm

   Well, what I meant was that it’s hard to get laughs with an Obama joke. IMO, Stewart can because most of his audience is political junkies.

   The average audience is not. I won’t write Muslim/Kenyan/Socialist jokes because they are inaccurate, not because I’m a “Paul-described” liberal. I stay away from jokes about Obama’s failure to include the public option because the audience’s eyes glaze over. Barack Obama is not a strong comedic character. Al and Tipper would’ve been fun, John Kerry and his ketchup wife would been great. Hillary and Bill would’ve been a dream. But the current WH occupants, Barack and Michelle just aren’t. Laurie

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   • Brian McKim & Traci Skene says:

     August 20, 2012 at 10:54 pm

     We’ve heard that opinion– “…it’s hard to get laughs with an Obama joke.”– expressed in dozens of articles (and in some conversations) over the past few years. Starting a bit more than two years ago, The Male Half wrote a couple jokes about the president’s withdrawal from Iraq (one of the president’s first acts upon taking office) and another about the ACA. They have received a rollicking response in casinos, comedy clubs, country clubs and college gigs. Two or three more jokes– either about the president himself, his policies, his personal life (the ACA, education, the first lady)– were added and they, too, have received robust laughs. And it doesn’t seem to matter which city or state– Las Vegas, Raleigh, Atlantic City, Lancaster, Washington, Oregon, Idaho– laughs ensue. And we’ve been observing that the demographic has no appreciable effect on the volume of the response.

     Indeed, this past weekend, in Boise, ID, described to us as “a blue island in a sea of red,”– with an audience whose median age might have been 26– a joke that trashed the ACA (and which hinged on the audience’s knowledge of a quote from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the ACA debate!) elicited major laughs consistently, even getting an applause break or two.

     We’ve seen it with our own eyes and ears. Jokes about the current occupant of the white house– no matter who it happens to be– tickle comedy audiences. These jokes might not have worked within two weeks of the inauguration. The so-called “honeymoon” tends to make people leery or protective. But folks calm down. Fatigue sets in. “Muslim/Kenyan/Socialist” is but a sliver of the makeup of BHO. And, as for Stewart’s audience being “political junkies,” we respectfully disagree– they themselves admit that they only get their news from The Daily Show. How addicted can they be?

     Besides– when the target of your barbs is the most powerful man in the world, audiences shouldn’t be required to be political junkies, nor should the jokes written about the man require a minor in political science to grasp. No such proscriptions were in effect for the last ten presidents. We’re skeptical that they should be in effect now. It seems that, ever since television came along, writing jokes about the leader of the free world should be about as easy as falling off a blog.

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   • Laurie Kilmartin says:

     August 21, 2012 at 12:21 am

     “Jokes about the current occupant of the white house– no matter who it happens to be– tickle comedy audiences.”

     A very broad statement. It totally depends on the audience and the joke. What’s your ACA joke?

     I’d rather have an audience that gets their new from TDS than, say, NBC. At least TDS deals in facts. (And they target Obama frequently). http://newsinfo.iu.edu/web/page/normal/4159.html

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     • Brian McKim & Traci Skene says:

       August 21, 2012 at 12:59 am

       When we said, “Jokes about the current occupant of the white house– no matter who it happens to be– tickle comedy audiences,” we knew it to be somewhat of a broad statement, not meant to apply to every audience at all times. But it’s been mostly true for a long time, dating back to Will Rogers, or even back to Mark Twain. Let’s go even further, all the way back to Dan Rice, aka “Lincoln’s court jester.”

       Everything “depends on the audience and the joke.” That much is understood. But there’s always been a “market” for jokes that poke fun at the Executive in Chief. There’s been a willingness to laugh at such lines. It’s as if it’s in our DNA, as a nation– as if we know it’s in our best interests to both make fun of our elected officials… or encourage others who do… and go along good-naturedly even when we’re not in full agreement with such jokes. Sure, it may well depend on the audience and the joke, no one disputes that. But we’re puzzled when comics who are confronted with the challenge claim it to be impossible or even difficult. And the bizarre reasons they concoct to bolster this contention has been puzzling at best.

       You said that, “Al and Tipper would’ve been fun, John Kerry and his ketchup wife would been great. Hillary and Bill would’ve been a dream.” And we assume that Bill and Hillary, in their first iteration, were a dream as well. And we also assume that George W. Bush was a dream. (As evidenced by the reluctance of so many comedians to stop making such jokes a full 31 months after he’s left public life!) And we don’t dispute any of this. And we assume that Ronald Reagan was a treasure trove of humor. And his successor, while somewhat bland and boring, was an easy target for jokes. And, as anyone who can recall (or who can access old kinescopes of Mort Sahl or who has a copy of Vaughn Meader’s “First Family”), John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson provided plenty of opportunities for gags, sharp, gentle or otherwise. (Even Happy Days scripts contain jokes about Adlai Stevenson!) And we seem to recall a couple jokes about Richard Nixon from our early years.

       But the current WH occupants, Barack and Michelle just aren’t?

       We’d much rather have an audience that gets their news from as wide a variety of sources as possible. Modern standup comics depend on an audience having a broad and shared pop culture knowledge– a somewhat less serious version of what Hirsch called “cultural literacy”– that way, more people “get the joke.” If we have too much segmentation, too much “specialization,” we’re all screwed.

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       • Laurie Kilmartin says:

         August 21, 2012 at 4:01 pm

         I think you’re talking about what you wish was true-that the Obamas made for great jokes- versus what is true- that they don’t. If they did, every comic would be on it. We’re whores for laughs. Probably the quality that helped Obama get elected the first black president is also the quality that makes him hard to mock- he’s a vague character. He’s no Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton. (And they aren’t him, which is why neither of them were elected president.)

       • Brian McKim & Traci Skene says:

         August 21, 2012 at 5:53 pm

         We’re not really wishing. We actually have witnessed The Male Half delivering Obama jokes… and hearing– with our own ears– the response. We’re dealing in the concrete, not the abstract.

       • Brian McKim & Traci Skene says:

         August 22, 2012 at 9:05 pm

         Jay Leno manages to find a way to craft a clever joke about our president. There’s no excuses any more.

       • laurie kilmartin says:

         August 28, 2012 at 2:41 am

         Hey, I’m not trying to be a snot, but that Leno clip is a video piece, not a monologue joke. We do TONS of Obama video pieces. Poke around TeamCoco.com and you’ll find some.

       • Brian McKim & Traci Skene says:

         August 28, 2012 at 3:56 am

         No, it’s not a monologue joke. But many of the writers quoted for the endless pieces over the past four years or so have been identified as “writers,” not “monologue joke writers.” And we’re sure you’re not a snot, nor are you trying to be. And that joke could have easily been a monologue joke. As a video clip, it was pretty good, though.

4. Mike Stephenson says:

   December 10, 2012 at 4:48 pm

   There is no humor in the following Obama quote, “This is the moment when the planet began to heal.” You can’t create any material from the staggering debt he’s accumulating, the apology tour (submission accomplished),his constant use of a teleprompter even when speaking to children, his incessant blaming of President Bush, every sentence starting with, “We inherited…”, the cult like following he had in 2008, his reversal on public financing of campaigns, his belief that the sheer magnitude of his personality would create world peace, his getting a Nobel Peace Prize shortly after 2008 while continuing the wars, his community organizer backgroung, Reverend Wright, Black Panthers in Philadelphia getting a free pass, the beer summit,the failings of the stimulus, etc, etc

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