Word: joking
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What's the material like for a 17-year-old comic? They were weird, esoteric jokes. I was heavily influenced by Andy Kaufman and Steven Wright. So it was some strange amalgam of those two things. I can remember I used to do this joke about, I was driving down whatever street the other day, and this woman in the car in front of me had this ridiculous bumper sticker. It was like, "Follow me to Tennessee." And then people chuckle or whatever, and I pause and go, "So we got into Nashville...
...Making jokes about Barack Obama is the big test for political comedians these days, and like many, Smith did it mostly by talking around him. Obama could never get away with the kind of sexual shenanigans that Clinton did, he mused, because Michelle wouldn't stand for it: "She would impeach him herself!" Obama's election victory was inevitable the minute Oprah Winfrey endorsed him: "There's nothing bigger than Oprah. Oprah can do anything. 'Betcha can't make a black man President.' 'Watch me!' " The joke isn't Obama himself; it's the cultural shift - and the country...
Letterman, typically, managed to turn the comedian's predicament itself into the joke. For months after Obama's Inauguration, the Late Show host trotted out a nerdy staff writer to read his latest attempts at coming up with Obama jokes - all of which turned out to be lamely repurposed Bush jokes. ("Barack Obama is so dumb, when he was governor of Texas, someone asked him what the capital of Texas is, and he said, 'Capital T.' ") Still, the edge that crept into Letterman's comedy during the Bush years has, if anything, only gotten sharper. (Yes, he was forced...
...opposite the increasingly politicized Letterman - whose contempt for Bush-era politics comes through in his interviews as much as his gag lines. (It may not be a coincidence that Letterman is beating O'Brien in the ratings.) Letterman may have wimped out in apologizing for his Palin joke, but it's hard to imagine O'Brien even cracking a Palin joke worth apologizing...
...Bush presidency, it turns out, may have had a more lasting impact than comedians appreciate. As it opened up a bitter divide in the country, it forced stand-up comedians to take notice - and take sides. Even with a President who's no longer a ready-made joke, for comedians, there's no going back. As for Obama, he'll need to watch his step. Those White House rugs can be dangerous...