I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but political humor can be tricky. Comedy is entirely subjective anyway, and introducing politics into it just makes it more likely that one person will laugh while another doesn’t find it funny (or, in some rare and tragic cases, even realize you were trying to be funny).
No one feels the brunt of the rancorous political season worse than the candidates themselves, and that’s why it’s happy-making to watch these clips from last night’s annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York City. In election years, the two presidential candidates traditionally are invited to speak at this event, and it’s become a sort of “roast,” where they can crack wise at one another’s expense all in the spirit of good fun.
McCain’s segment is broken into two parts, followed by Obama’s in one. It does my heart good to see them not only making some very good, very clever jokes (they had speechwriters, of course), but to also see them laughing at each other’s jabs. It looks like honest laughter, too, not the fake kind you do because you have to. Like I’ve always said, a good joke is a good joke, regardless of who the target is.
And they’re both funny! They make fun of themselves, of their public images, and each other. Why can’t McCain be this loose and energized in general? His routine here is snappy, animated and smooth. Obama is more deadpan and doesn’t have quite as polished a delivery as McCain. As for the overall quality of the jokes themselves, I’ll call it a draw.
Here are the videos, after the jump.
McCain part 1
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bhvIvYrsQo]
McCain part 2
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ-XOVmNia0]
Obama
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5SWQJWm6Tg]
I watched it live and I agree that they both were funny. It did seem like honest laughter but not from Hillary Clinton. She was laughing so hard that she must have been faking when McCain was making fun of Bill not really campaigning for Obama.
Thanks for this, Eric. It’s a nice break from a nasty campaign.
It’s nice to see them both laughing at themselves and each other. Thanks for all the effort you went into to get this to us. You must be really trying hard here…
Finally! Some campaigning that is actually believable.
😀 Man, they both NAILED it didn’t they? This is the first time both candidates have made me laugh. I think they both did a fantastic job!
Hah! This is hilarious! I didn’t know this existed, thanks for sharing!
That was great. I demand that all debates now be in this style.
I love the Obama line: “My greatest weakness…I may be a little too awesome.”
LOL
That was hilarious. But, even though I am an Obama supporter, I thought McCain was way funnier.
I thought McCain was the funnier comedian as well, though I enjoyed them both! And my personal suspicion is that Hillary’s laughter was genuine…it was just caused from her having a bit too much wine.
Saw this last night too, and they were both very funny. McCain had the most consistent laughs, but Barack’s joke about Bloomberg/Clinton was priceless. Barack had the AIG joke, though, and man did that fall flat–mainly because EVERYONE saw it coming TWO miles away. One thing that redeemed Obama was the little laugh he had after a few of his jokes.
I enjoyed McCain more and I thought he got much louder, longer laughs from the audience, but Obama had some good cracks. The Superman joke was my favorite from him.
That felt great to watch.
I also appreciated the serious comments and praise for each other they had. It’s worth finding the rest of Obama’s speech.
The humor, I think, makes the serious comments more meaningful. It’s like the old days of seeing the cartoon before the movie. Today, I suppose, I would mean the trailers. Somehow all the humor better prepared me for the scant seriousness. The humor also helped eliminate some of the nasty feelings many might have felt about one or the other before. I hope that’s true, anyway.
I wanted a shot at Dubya squinting and thinking hard at some of these guys’ surprisingly witty one-liners. “He was pandering to the strict constructionist crowd.”
My favorite was when McCain said that Obama would suspend his campaign at the first sign of an economic recovery.
Y’know, McCain was funnier, mainly because his material built on itself rather than consisting of one-liners. Obama seemed a little nervous and didn’t have a lot of comic timing. Anyway, it wasn’t a contest :).
The end of McCain’s speech seemed a little patronizing to me, as well as both candidates’ comments toward Hillary.
I don’t get the joke about the Russian Tea Room. What’s that about?
Did Giuliani really cross dress?
Cincinnatus: It was a reference to Palin’s comments on how you can see Russia from Alaska (or something along those lines; I don’t remember exactly what she said).
Cincinnatus: Yes, Giuliani really did cross dress. Behold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IrE6FMpai8
McCain was much funnier overall, but Obama had the only line that actually made me laugh: “My middle name isn’t what you think.. it’s actually Steve.”
Cinc and Amp, Palin said you could see Russia from Alaska. Tina Fey, impersonating Palin, said she could see it from her house.
Maybe I need to lighten up a bit but I found this disturbing. Though both had some good jokes that made me chuckle, seeing the kind of extravagance that our political “servants” are used to is kinda sickening. Cracking jokes about the economy while sipping champagne only further establishes the fact that these guys are completely out of touch with the regular American and enjoy a much more plush lifestyle than the majority could ever dream to have. Sad.