Random Thoughts On “Obama Humor”
Posted on July 16, 2008 by andrew
Since it seems to be the Meme O’ The Day…
Point 1: There was a time following 9/11 when it wasn’t acceptable to make jokes about the president, his administration, Rudy Giuliani, the government, or America in general. Any jokes perceived as attacking, even mildly, any of the above were Unpatriotic and In Bad Taste.
If people feel the need to tread lightly around Obama-centric humor right now because he’s extremely popular, that’s not so great. But it’s not like anyone who does attempt to crack a joke about him is labeled a Terrorist Sympathizer Who Wants To Destroy America, so I wouldn’t exactly call it a state of national emergency.
Point 2: If people are avoiding making jokes about Barack Obama for fear of being labeled racist or bigoted, I don’t really see a huge problem. It strikes me as not such a bad thing for people to learn to think carefully about whether something they say might be racist or bigoted before they say it. Of course, if others insist on unfairly labeling the joke-makers as racist or bigoted, then we do have a problem, but I have yet to see the slightest bit of evidence of this occuring frequently or loudly enough to dissuade anyone from making jokes which are genuinely not racist or bigoted.
Barack Obama is going to be president fairly soon. I suspect when that time comes we’ll all be glad certain people had a few months in 2008 to learn how to make jokes about Barack Obama without necessarily being racist douchebags.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama
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