During the Obama presidency, blunt and biting honesty was nowhere to be found in this venue.
Comedy is a powerful tool. In many ways, the ability to tell a joke is one of the best examples of free speech. In its purest form, it doesn’t matter if comedy is politically incorrect, if it offends the powers that be, or if it pushes cultural boundaries. All that is supposed to matter is that it is funny and honest.
That biting honesty has been lacking in mainstream comedy for eight years. Power was not kept in check by satirists, and a fumbling administration was not just given a free pass by most comedians, but many downright used their comedic tools to celebrate the outgoing president. The powerful tool of comedy was used to celebrate power instead of humbling it.
There were perhaps no better examples of this than the Luther/Obama skits from Comedy Central’s “Key and Peele.” Comic actors Jordan Peele and Keegan Michael-Key have performed in skits throughout Obama’s presidency, with Peele taking on the role of an always calm and collected Obama, while Key takes on the role of Luther — Obama’s “anger translator.”
While Peele and Key have created numerous viral comedy bits, the Luther sketches have been embarrassing for the comedians. You get to watch as two talented artists use their tools to service the government and play partisan politics.
Saturday Night Live is another great example. For eight years they’ve practically had their material written for them, but they avoided it like the plague. Obama as a bumbling fool in way over his head, and Biden as a barely functioning human could have been absolute comedic gold, but the PC gods said “Thou shalt not make fun of Barack Hussein Obama” and SNL listened. Too bad for them.
Add a laugh track to obama’s swan final address tonight. Now that would be comedy gold.
Unless they do that I won’t watch.
Who am I kidding? I wouldn’t watch anyway.
Feeling giddy. Only one more obama speech to avoid. Light at the end of the world’s longest tunnel.
PUSSIES!
You can bet they won’t lay off Trump. And it will still be partisan.
the silver lining of this 8-year disaster has been that the corrupt, hypocritical, arrogant partisanship of the media, hollywood, the entire liberal machine has been laid bare in the rawest form., and it is even uglier than we had envisioned
they got used to getting their way and, like the spoiled brat who is finally disciplined with a spanking, they are in disbelief, in shock, stomping their feet, throwing their toys, slamming the door to their safe space
it has been a joy to observe the pussified progressive movement over the past 2 mos
Didn’t one of these two say he would leave the country if Trump won? It’s amazing people like this think that threatening to leave the country makes a difference to anyone else.
Leftists still don’t understand that they have been rejected en masse. No introspection. No reevaluation of policies or tactics. They just march, lemming style. The only comedy they provide are supposed to be serious moments, like the Jeff Sessions confirmation hearings today.
It’s a binary situation.
When a Democrat is president, comedy snark is at 0.
When a Republican is president, snark sticks at 1.
The problem is, that doesn’t reflect reality. Obama was pretty incompetent, after all. A large target for snark. But no comedian would go there.
SNL sold out to the Establishment a long time ago…around the time the great Phil Hartman died.
Mean drunk Alec Baldwin will ride the Trump-wig shtick for as long as he can milk it.
Yeah, I miss honest political satire.
Trump has a sense of humor.
He’ll be fun to watch.
MAGA!
9 more days.
Make entertainers, etc pay for their pet projects through higher taxes on the entertainment industry.
Comedy didn’t fail. It migrated to places like this. We were the comedians. I cant believe some of the shit I saw here. I cant believe some of the shit that my own two fingers typed up in the early parts of this decade when I finally found the voice that had been bottled up for thirty years
I miss the days when you could call a politician, say, Cheney a cocksucker and people knew it was sarcasm. Now, when you call Obama a cocksucker they shrug, look sheepishly down at their feet and agree with you because it’s FUCKING TRUE.
Comedy doesn’t stand a chance when the entire Obama regime is made up of ass clowns!
Former Prez Obozo had a deserved reputation as being extremely thin-skinned. If a comedian had made fun of him, that comedian was in for an extreme anal probe, courtesy of the IRS.
Bring back In Living Color. Now that was
snarky comedy.