Since when does satire and irony depend for its existence on which political party is in power? Last time I checked, politics was ripe for derision no matter who's in the driver's seat. If Schaller is worried for the poor comics, and staying up nights wondering what they'll lampoon, then he should relax. Stewart, Colbert, et. al., will always have things to point and laugh at.
Humans are just funny that way.
There's a wealth of stupidity out there for these guys to go on about.
Have no party.
was hilarious before 2000. I remember they were worried that Bush would not provide the material that Clinton had. And Obama has already been the subject of a number of routines.
Anyhow, TDS spoofs the TV news as much as it analyzes politics. The TV news boobs are not going away.
We'll all be crying if Obama wins the election. Crying because
we'll discover that "hope" and "change" doesn't create jobs.
Yeah, right. not.
Let's not forget about whom we're talking. The Republicans have been such egregious assholes it's been tough to top, but face it, the Democrats en masse are easily as big a circus and corporate shills as the Republicans, they just aren't as authoritarian and shrill.
But they're just as dunderheaded, vain and corrupt. PLENTY of fodder for good humor, you won't be disappointed.
I saw him in the U.K. He was from South Africa, and did political impressions. His act was about how we went into a depression when Mandela became president. What lifted him out of it? I paraphrase: "you will see the monkey's ass when he gets up on the flagpole."
And he did a KILLER Margaret Thatcher.
At least as far as The Daily Show is concerned.
And we'll always have plenty to make fun of there.
Not to mention: If you actually count how many Democrats and how many Republicans are skewered by The Daily Show, it's come out even.
Satire aims at power, not ideology. No matter how they got there or who they're allied with, the powerful will always be prime pickings.
Obama? Satire-proof? Really? I've had a great deal of fun with him this year, and I expect to continue doing so well into his second term.
No, an Obama victory is not the end of history. Crap will still flow downhill and Jon Stewart will still be funny. Saturday Night Live will fade back to irrelevance and resume its comfortable task of making senior citizens feel edgy. In the meantime, the economy will still be in the crapper, the two wars will lurch along uncontrollably, and we still won't have functional social services. And sooner or later, someone will figure out how to make fun of Obama properly.
"now,what are you gonna do about iraq, about afghanistan, about the recession, about foreign trade and job exporting?"
do you really think there'll be any trouble laughing at obama?
Unfortunately sites like this, which go every Palin skit in detail, aren't talking about this skit at all.
September 11 was supposed to have been the death of irony, the time of a new sincerity and a glorious earnest restoration. It did not work out that way. The rise of this satirical complex for liberals had nothing to do with laughter through our tears. At one point it appeared that the ONLY way to get liberal opinion expressed broadcast media was through comedians. Think of the original line-up of Air America. If the docile, passionless, so-called liberals invited on "Opinion" TV had actually acted in the interest of liberals, the rise of this complex would have been muted. Liberals had no one to seriously attack the clowns of conservative talk radio or cable news.
The satirists arose to attack the clowns, since serious liberals would not attack them, or couldn't gain enough viewership to stay on the air. The clowns will still be at work if Senator Obama wins the election, trying to undermine his legitimacy. If you think you have heard the last of calls for clownish investigations into the "Unamerican" past of Senator Obama come Wednesday, you have not been paying attention.
Did the clowns ever stop pretending to be concerned about the murder of Vince Foster, or did the clowns charge the Clintons with pulling the trigger for 8 years. Do you think the ridiculous fixation with PLO spokesmen will go away? Do you think that the serious media will stop taking their stories from Drudge? Since the serious liberals can not prevent the clowns from dominating the national discourse or news cycle, the comedians will still be needed, if only to point out who the clowns are.
Three reasons.
1) As much as I admire Barack Obama for his no-drama and (oh, god intelligent) campaign, He will pull stupid stuff. Plenty of fodder there. Plus, after winning, he will cause a physics breakthrough because scientists will discover that there is a time shorter than Plank time, and it will be his honeymoon period in Washington.
2) The frothing crazy wing of the republican party looks like its going for a "night of the long knives" on the remainder of its moderate wing and will be bringing the crazy by supertanker load.
3) Palin 2012, enough said.
The late night hosts haven't benn able to poke fun at Obama during the campaign. None of the faux news shows have dared to comment on Obama at all.
Tonight Boston Legal took extreme care to attack McCain and not attack Obama in any substantive way.
Do I think that these shows will comment satirically on Obama. NOT A CHANCE.
Obama is an untouchable. To Satirize him will be considered a hate crime.
He doesn't yet offer up much material to use. He might but his insanely measured controlled reserve and unflapability make that hard to do.
Fundamentally the thing that makes Bush so funny is that he never, and never will realize how funny he really is. Bush is that guy everyone knows who's too clueless to get humor. That's what makes him so easy to poke at. He's a blank wall, a man who utterly does not know himself or anyone else.
I don't think Obama will give that up to you.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox