Disarming the GOP Memes

Yesterday I posted the video to Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Dinner and took the opportunity to watch them a second time. I thought the second time was better than the first in regards to both the President's and Jimmy Kimmel's performances.

But something struck me while watching the President. There were the dog eating jokes. A lot of dog eating jokes. Just when you think he'd move on, he'd come in with another one. For a bit, I thought it was too much. But watching it a second time, I realized that all the self deprecation was yet another tool to disarm some of the ridiculous right wing talking points and conspiracy theories that still resonate with the uninformed, misinformed and ignorant that plague our society.

The President's wink after he stating he was born in Hawaii, the GSA scandal cracks, Hillary Clinton's "drunk texting from Cartajena" joke, and the constant dog eating jokes, all designed to disarm the constant harping from the right wing on things that don't matter, or more serious issues that are being dealt with but are used to misplace the blame on the President.

Why this struck me the way it did was because I can't recall such self deprecation on the other side. Sure, there's that hilarious time President Bush was looking under his coffee table for nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, but that wasn't so much humorous as it was sad and insulting. Eating dog because it's part of the culture in Indonesia when you're eight years old is a little different than starting a war under false pretenses. An "Oops, my bad" joke in that situation is not at all funny. But I digress.

The point is, watching the idiots on Fox and Friends or Hannity make the off-handed dog eating joke now is only going to make them look childish.

White House Correspondents' Dinner - April 28, 2012

President Obama



Jimmy Kimmel



I don't mean to sound like an Obamabot, but you have to admit that President Obama is a natural at this. He's likable, not stiff and knows how to dish it out as well as being a master of self deprecation while also being able to take Kimmel's best punches.

Jimmy Kimmel was funny and a bit more biting than performers from previous years. I thought he did well, although in my opinion not as well as Seth Meyers last year and the command performance of Stephen Colbert in 2006. It seemed he rushed through some of his material. Whether it was due to nervousness or the fact that he seemed to have a large volume of material and was trying to get through it all is yet to be determined. Just because you write a thousand jokes doesn't mean you have to use all of them.

But overall, it was a good time. With so much caustic, partisanship these last couple of years, it's nice to sit back and not take things so seriously. Anyone who was offended (I'm looking at you Keith Olbermann and awaiting a Donald Trump tantrum) needs to lighten up.

Tweet of the Day

And that, in a nutshell, illustrates the rank hypocrisy of the right wing pundits in today's Republican Party. Good for you to call it out, Meghan.

UPDATE: Louis C.K.was announced as host of the June 8 Radio and Television correspondents’ dinner – which is not the same as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. He has since withdrawn from the event.

Just Say "Oops" and Get Out

Here's MENSA member Sarah Palin caught with another "gotcha" question. While attending the White House Correspondents' Dinner After Party, literally SURROUNDED by jounalists, Palin is asked who she thinks is the most influential journalist today... and she can't name a single one. She then runs into Greta VanSusteren and blurts her name out. What. A. Moron. The fun starts at the 1:20 mark.



Check out Chris Matthews name Peggy Noonan, George Will and Charles Krauthammer(?!?!) as his picks. Jeezum Crow!

Hey Trump, Grow A Set

After weeks of interview after interview, questioning the citizenship of the President of the United States, calling it possibly "one of the greatest scams in history," and even flat out lying about having investigators in Hawaii following up on the birther conspiracy theory, Donald Trump showed how absolutely paper thin-skinned he is by his comments following being eaten alive at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last night.

Being booed upon his entrance to the venue outside the friendly confines of the Fox News/Right Wing bubble, Trump sat stern-faced and got schooled by the President and Seth Meyers. A guest of the Washington Post, Trump thought President Obama wouldn't mention him, but when you're an ignorant loud mouth and suggest the president's birthplace was somewhere other than America, and question his intelligence for the last two months, I suppose you'd be stupid enough to think that you're untouchable even when sitting in the same room with the President.

Back at home under the protective wings of Rupert Murdoch, Trump licked his wounds.

“You get to a certain level and you rise to a certain level, let’s say in this case in the polls and boy, does the world come after you,” Trump, a potential 2012 candidate, said on "Fox and Friends*" Sunday.

...“I really knew what I was getting into last night. I had no idea it would be to that extent where, you know just joke after joke after joke,” the mogul said. “It was almost like, is there anyone else they can talk about?”

...He also found the event “inappropriate in certain respects” and spent the evening thinking about how “the American people are really suffering and we’re all having a good time.”

First of all, no, you didn't know what you were getting into or else you wouldn't have predicted you wouldn't be mentioned. And secondly, are you that worried about "the American people suffering"? You didn't have to go, did you? I'm sure you don't enjoy your life because of the suffering of your fellow human beings in the country you love so much.

But seriously, what did you think of Seth Meyers, Donald?

“His (Meyers) delivery was not good. He’s a stutterer and he really was having a hard time,” Trump said of the “Saturday Night Live” star.

...Uh, huh. I suppose that's why Meyers got a rare standing ovation in this forum from the crowd. Because his delivery sucked. Or maybe you just didn't like the jokes at your expense. Just sayin'.

How soon do you think Trump was on the phone to NBC looking for a way to have Seth Meyers fired? And Donald, if you can't take a good ribbing from a "friendly" foe, what's going to happen once you start playing hardball with the big boys in the primaries? You know you'll actually need to know more than talking points during the debates, don't you? Oh wait... The Republican primaries. My mistake.

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* Fox and Friends is broadcast on Sundays as well?! Man, that's a whole lotta stupid on one channel.

White House Correspondents' Dinner 2011

My guess is that when Donald Trump sat down at this year's WHCD, he wasn't expecting to get roasted again. Seth Meyers did an outstanding job and destroyed, DESTROYED Donald Trump. President Obama was a lot of fun too. Always self-depricating when he needs to be, but he couldn't miss the opportunity to pound The Donald as well. Watch and enjoy.





Trump showed how much of a douche he actually is, sitting there seething, unable to laugh at himself for even a minute, and immediately bolting from the room as soon as the event was over. I suppose the truth really does hurt.

Anthony Weiner at the Congressional Correspondents' Dinner

Very, very funny! It's too bad Weiner wasn't asked to participate in the Donald Trump Roast.

Among the favorites: "Is Michele Bachmann here? She's probably not -- she's campaigning in Iowa and organizing in that important caucus state because she's running for president. ...That's really all I have for that joke."

Comedy FAIL!

Seriously?

Washington Post: White House Correspondents Association has picked this week's most unpopular stand-up comic Jay Leno be the keynote speaker at this year's White House Correspondents Dinner.

An NBC rep confirmed the invitation to The TV Column.

In fairness, the association asked Leno weeks ago -- when he was just the host of a primetime show that was failing five nights a week.

What a far, far cry from the comedic genius of this just four short years ago.

Nope, try again

posted by Armadillo Joe

Apparantly, Keith Olbermann thinks that Rush Limbaugh's kidneys are off-limits:



And I would say to Keith that he can get all sanctimonious about a black comedienne saying something mean about the kidneys of a charter member emeritus of the white plutocratic Establishment to, oh I dunno, let's say um... Michael J. Fox:



Sorry, Keith, but the depth and putresence of Rush's œuvre makes every part of that porcine, drug-addled sex tourist's ample anatomy fair game for mocking and derision. If anything said about his shriveled, diseased body parts happens to shock! shock! the sensibilities of the insulated, fatuous media elite of D.C., well hey... live by the sword, die by the sword, motherfuckers.

Fuck Rush Limbaugh and screw you for taking his side in a fight.

Here Comes The Fauxtrage - UPDATED

It seemed pretty quiet yesterday, the day after President Obama's first White House Correspondents' Dinner. What with comedienne Wanda Sykes joking at the expense of the Almighty Rush Limbaugh, leader of the Republican Party and Hutt crime lord, I thought there would be more initial fallout on Sunday. But, it was Sunday after all and Mother's Day to boot, so the blogosphere, although making occasional mention of Sykes comparing Rush to a terrorist, calling him a traitor and hoping he'd have kidney failure, was relatively subdued regarding this matter. After all, the wingnuts rest on the seventh day.

Here's the exact quote:

"Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails," Sykes said. "So you're saying, 'I hope America fails', you're, like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq'. He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight."

Sykes then said, "Rush Limbaugh, I hope the country fails, I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs."

Well it's Monday and the the fauxtrage* is now in full swing. Here is Joe Klein calling the whole notion that this was an affront to humanity ridiculous and calling bullshit on the Washington Times' Amanda Carpenter who named certain "inappropriate" jokes.



Good for Joe Klein to point out that it wasn't like Sykes was talking about Mother Teresa. She was dishing it back to a self-centered, self-important sonofabitch who routinely goes over the line on a daily basis, whether it be making fun of Parkinson's patients or suggesting that the only reason people voted for Obama, including Colin Powell, is because of his race.

What is wrong with these people? Where was the outrage during the 2004 WHCD when George W. Bush showed a slide show of himself searching under sofa cushions in the Oval Office looking for weapons of mass destruction while US soldiers and Iraqi civilians were dying by the thousands in the Middle East? What do they expect? It's a night of poking fun and hiring a comic that will probably be offensive to someone somewhere. If they want a fucking cotillion, then do that and cancel the fucking dinner.

As far as Limbaugh is concerned, that motherfucker can't take a debate in person. When have you ever seen him go head to head with someone of a different ideology? Answer: Never. He briefly had a television show and couldn't handle his own audience. He sits behind his desk spewing shit on a daily basis and has been for the last 20 years because he knows that as long as he has the power to cut off someone's microphone, there's no need to have an actual conversation with someone with a difference of opinion, someone who'll dissect his outrageous lies and give him the bitchslap of a lifetime - one that he's deserved for so very long.

I was about to say that once Limbaugh apologizes to Michael J. Fox for the horrendous mockery of his illness, I'll consider that he get an apology. But the truth is, what Wanda Sykes dished out to Rush Limbaugh last Saturday night doesn't even begin to make up for his 20 years of disgusting behavior. He deserved that and lots more.

Luckily for the Democrats, they don't have to answer to and grovel at the feet of Rush Limbaugh and apologize for disagreeing with him, belittling his status in the Republican Party or yes, even hoping his kidneys fail.

Stay tuned for more fauxtrage.
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* Thanks for Armadillo Joe for introducing me to the word "fauxtrage."

UPDATE (4:10pm): Drudge leads the way not only in fauxtrage, but in picking a photo of President Obama laughing and pointing, inferring that moment to the Limbaugh-kidney joke.

4:40pm How soon before Bill Bennett apologizes to Rush Limbaugh for calling him an "entertainer"?

5/12/09 12:20am Malkin Fauxtrage

Adam Serwer: One word. Sweet.

Wanda Sykes' comedy routine at the White House Correspondent's Dinner was really offensive. In it, Sykes suggested that conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is supported by Hamas, and that Islamists are "constantly issuing Limbaugh talking points." She joked about terrorists supporting conservatives in general, suggesting that recent violent events in Iraq are attempts by terrorists to swing the upcoming midterm elections in favor of Republicans.

Then she got really personal. She joked that Limbaugh was a racist who doesn't want black people to "escap[e] the underclass." She accused him of being responsible for killing "a million babies a year," and aired her friend's theory that Limbaugh himself was a terrorist attack," a followup to 9/11. She also, most disgustingly, said that if conservatives kept apologizing to Limbaugh, they'd eventually contract "anal poisoning." She wondered when Republicans would finally stop "bending over and grabbing their ankles" for Limbaugh, and finally concluded that Limbaugh was just a "bad guy."

Oh wait. Wanda Sykes didn't say any of these things. These are things Rush Limbaugh has said about Obama or other Democrats in the past year, the kind of statements few reporters found offensive enough to write about, despite the fact that most of them were said with the utmost seriousness. And while Sykes is a mere comedian whose influence on the Democratic Party is negligible, Limbaugh's influence in the party is so great that Republican leaders can't even criticize him without having to issue apologies after the fact.

President Obama - White House Correspondents' Dinner 2009

Wanda Sykes



Commentary to follow, but I just wanted to add one thing. Am I mistaken or is this much funnier than, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere."?