But Can Obama Laugh?

National Review Online: Lack Of Humor Over New Yorker Cartoon Shows Off His Less Charming Side

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Kathleen Parker.

---

Oh, for a good riposte.

Barack Obama’s levity-free reaction to the now-famous New Yorker cartoon leaves one reluctantly wondering: Is he humor-challenged? Perchance, does he take himself too seriously for a nation of wits and wags?

So soaring has been Obama’s rhetoric and so dazzling his smile that we’ve missed the possibility that the Illinois senator is less the lanky rock star and more the purse-lipped church lady, clucking his tongue in disapproval of the chuckling masses.

His campaign’s angry reaction to the magazine cover shows a stunning lack of political dexterity. It wasn’t always so.

In earlier days, Obama was self-deprecating and light of touch. But something happens as people get closer to Washington, as Obama himself has pointed out in other contexts. A popular story that Obama tells concerns a Las Vegas debate during which he was asked about his weaknesses.

Obama answered that he has trouble keeping up with paper, that his desk is a mess. O.K., it wasn’t knee-slapping hilarious, but it was honest and, therefore, endearing. A real answer from a real person.

In contrast, two of Obama’s contenders, both Washington veterans, responded to the same question with the kind of painful earnestness that makes dogs cynical. As Obama recounts it, one of them said his biggest weakness was that “I’m just so passionate about helping poor people.” The other said, “I’m just so impatient to help the American people solve their problems.”

Oof.

Obama continues the story: “So then I realize, well, I wish I’d gone last and then I would have known.” (Laughter, applause.) “I’m stupid that way, I thought that when they asked what your biggest weakness was, they asked what your biggest weakness was. And now I know that my biggest weakness is I like to help old ladies across the street.”

Now, that’s funny. And there’s a reason the other two candidates - John “passionate” Edwards and Hillary “impatient” Clinton - aren’t leading the Democratic ticket.

Obama’s self-deprecation was his most charming bit, but lately he is, well, less charming. He and his wife seem more like a finger-wagging principal and teacher tag team, with Michelle Obama promising that her husband will make us work harder when he becomes president. You get the feeling that should the Obamas take over, we’ll all be staying after school. They used to call that detention.

Of course, John McCain isn’t exactly a merchant of mirth. He didn’t like the cartoon either, or so he said. Although his usual disregard for politically correct reverence is refreshing, his humor often seems not offbeat, but off-a-beat. Spontaneous jokes, such as his singing “Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran,” are actually less funny than the fact of his telling (or performing) them. Does he get it?

When I hear McCain “being funny,” I’m reminded of a booklet of after-dinner jokes my father compiled to help pay his college tuition. The World War II-vintage jokes simply aren’t amusing anymore. They belong to another time and place, another set of cultural markers, the common understanding of which is crucial to humor.

What’s missing - and much missed - are the timeless, biting quips of politicians past who put the “rip” in riposte. Classy, biting, and pandering to no one, these elder statesmen knew something about language - and American attitudes - that we seem to have forgotten.

Chris Lamb, a College of Charleston (S.C.) journalism professor and cartoon historian, reminds us with his recent political-comeback collection, “I’ll Be Sober in the Morning,” that the wicked retort is invariably more effective than righteous indignation. A couple of sample anecdotes:

Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, told that he couldn’t play golf at a Chevy Chase, Md., country club because it was restricted, replied: “I’m only half Jewish, so can’t I play nine holes?”

Sa-wish.

U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson was giving a speech in Dallas when a heckler demanded to know the ambassador’s beliefs. Replied Stevenson: “I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.”

Sublime.

There’s no better tonic - nor better defuser of enemy bombs - than humor. How refreshing it would have been had Obama merely pointed to the New Yorker cartoon and said: “He didn’t get my ears right.”

With a deft trip off the tongue, the cartoon and the baseless controversy would have been rendered impotent, revealed as what they were: laughable.

It’s not too late. Humor us.

[trbundro1277]

A vote for mccain is a vote to allow over 12 million illegals get amnesty! Vote Obama 2008! No Amnesty!

[trbundro1277]

So if the New Yorker would have a cartoon on the cover of Bush and Cheney in Nazi uniforms, lookng like Hitler and Himmler, the NRO would laugh at that too. Rigggghhttt.
Posted by Rafterman1 at 06:35 PM : Jul 20, 2008
*** I wish Bush and Cheney would have acted more like nazis towards illegal mexicans! Then I wouldn''t hate Bush so much! I hate bush because he let illegals get away with all kinds of stuff over the past 8 years. He promised he would close off the border when running in 2000! I hate Bush! I hate Mccain even more though, because Mccain is openly for total amnesty for illegals! I hate illegals! Why didn''t the magazine make a cartoon for the front cover that had Mccain looking even older.... i''m sure he would have found that funny.... rightttttt

[carolc241]

I read one comment somewhere that said that the New Yorker cartoon cover was nothing to be upset about--that anyone familiar with New Yorker magazine would know it was meant as satire. Well, the problem is that most Americans are not familiar with the satire of New Yorker magazine (or with the New Yorker at all, for that matter!). And so I''m sure that there are many ignorant and racist people who saw this cartoon and did not take it as satirical but as factual! It is very sad that in America today there is still so much bigotry and hatred.

[habu99-2009]

Once again CBS promotes this POS right wing rag. For all the hot air over "liberal media" I sure don''t see any voices on corporate-owned media outlets other than the usual whining conservatives. Even the links to offsite articles are all conservative. Not a progressive voice to be heard, or linked to in order to read a variety of opinions across the political spectrum.

Thanks CBS for being just like Fox Noise, where "fair and balanced" is just an empty slogan. You are doing a bang-up job of informing the public of the latest Republican talking points, like an American GOPravda.

[rafterman1]

So if the New Yorker would have a cartoon on the cover of Bush and Cheney in Nazi uniforms, lookng like Hitler and Himmler, the NRO would laugh at that too. Rigggghhttt.

[joyous88]

who can even smile after the last eight years of republicon rule,

Cuba has more status in all respects than the United States;

thanks to the Nazi conservatives.

lets all pray that the christians become human beings

[suzyku]

This is plain stupid and you are totally clueless! Why don''t we do a nasty cartoon of you showing what a complete idiot/jerk you are and you can laugh! Putz!

[mcvet]

Now what is it that a Nazi Rag like this can''t understand about the effect of that Cartoon on a Black Man in America. Who reads these trashy things anyway?? Sieg Heil Bush

[sparks224]

But can the NRO stop pumping out right-wing noise?

[ubrew12]

NRO apparently prefers the ''GW Bush comedy style''. Ah, yes, what a laugh-riot that has been! Remember when he killed half-a-million people in Iraq, thinking it was Al-Qaida? WoooHooo! Ahh, good times...