Op-Ed: Political Humor in the Obama Era

As the new President Barack Obama settles into the White House, popular culture will probably find itself walking a fine line stringing genuine political humor between potentially awkward stereotypes.

Comedians dating as far back to Don Rickles and George Carlin and up to Dennis Miller and Bill Mahar, have made a living using politically incorrect humor as part of their routines. Don Rickles was indeed one of the pioneers of this. I watched an episode of David Letterman this past Veterans Day in which Don Rickles was a guest. Rickles told a joke along the lines of Barack Obama, faced with his first international crisis, telling his advisers he couldn't be interrupted because he was busy playing basketball. I laughed a bit at that, but the joke bombed with the audience and he later felt the need to disavow it. That joke was so inoffensive compared with the rest of his routine, and throughout his career Rickles has been an equal opportunity offender. Why didn't the audience laugh? I must contend that Black men playing basketball is a stereotype, but it is also true just as many White men do. The audience probably felt this was an inappropriate way to talk about the first Black soon to be President. But he actually does love to play basketball. I found the premise funny and perhaps a bit true. As a former avid hoopster, who still maintains some game, I would not be particularly quick to stop a game and check my pager or cell phone. However my job is not nearly important as being the POTUS, and after all, it was a joke. I would have been more offended by a food joke perhaps. Right now, it's not particularly safe to joke about President-elect Obama, and that's understandable. Americans are rightly proud of the historic advance that Obama's election represents. Our nation's struggle with race and racism goes back hundreds of years, so we can take a few weeks or months to savor this moment. Those people in David Letterman's audience were perhaps feeling a little protective of the President-elect. They weren't quite ready for him to be turned into a punch line. For comedians, it's going to be a little bit hard to have dig and find stuff on Barack Obama. Our new President has been so cool and unflappable, that it's not going to be offered up on a silver platter, as it has been during the Bush administration. But soon enough however, comedians will find a way to safely joke about the new President. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were even doing it regularly throughout the campaign before he got elected President and they got little heat. Denis Leary is a guy who knows a bit about politics. He played Democratic strategist Michael Whouley in the HBO film Recount about the 2000 Election recount. He recently said about Barack Obama on an episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews:

First of all, he's a politician. And politicians screw up at some point. Second of all, that much exposure, you are guaranteed to find something. I mean, listen, there's something to be said for already he intimated on the "60 Minutes" interview that his mother-in-law may be moving into the White House. Right there, that's going to be 15 minutes of material if I'm on stage tomorrow night.

Making fun of our political leaders is second nature to most Americans, not just comedians, and this trait will inevitably express itself. Eventually, some comic will come up with a dead-on Obama impression, the way Fred Armesin of Saturday Night Live has, and audiences will ROTFLOL. I eagerly wait for Dave Chappelle to re-emerge and bring his comic genius back to us. President-elect Obama should enjoy this honeymoon from late-night ridicule while he can. It won't last forever.