Irony is Dead; Long Live Irony!

After 9/11, a flood of articles proclaimed the death of irony and cynicism. That lasted about two weeks.

Jon Stewart and company were back on the irony beat faster than you could tell a dumb Bush joke. (Are we really going to miss those, by the way? Shouldn’t they go in the ash heap of history along with all the horny-Clinton jokes?)

But maybe they were just a little premature — about eight years too early. For the Age of Obama is upon us, and we’re not supposed to be cynical anymore.

Remember when dissent was patriotic? Now it’s divisive.

Instead of afflicting the comfortable, give them a bailout.

Critical thinking is to be replaced with “Yes we can!”

And speaking truth to power? It’s like farting in church.

I’m as tired of irony and negativity as the next grown-up. And I would honestly love to see Obama succeed. But it’s funny that many of the same people who had no qualms setting their cynicism levels on 11 throughout the Bush presidency, suddenly want to dial it down to 0.

Call me a mushy-headed moderate, but I think maintaining a healthy 5 or 6 on the cynicism scale, regardless of who’s in power, is best for one’s long-term sanity, as well as the nation’s well-being.

We can expect less irony in the movies, too. According to the Daily Telegraph, Golden Globe-winning “Slumdog Millionaire” is the “first film of the Obama Era.” Why?

Reporter David Gritten writes: “It does not have an ironic moment. It is utterly devoid of cynicism. Instead, it is bright-eyed, optimistic – idealistic, even. To generations reared on a drip-feed of corrosive cynicism, the elevation of greed for greed’s sake and weary disillusion with our leaders and our institutions it feels almost shocking.”

Kind of like the Obama campaign.

I liked “Slumdog Millionaire.” And I suspect we’re going to be seeing a lot of movies like it over the next four to eight years. At first, the sweetness may seem like a refreshing change from all the bile of the last half-decade. But too much for too long, and we may go into diabetic shock.

And where does that leave the comedians who thrive on irony? Stand-up comics are reportedly searching for a new meme to poke fun at with Obama, but they claim there isn’t a single chink in his shiny armor. Hey, how about making fun of all that armor?

Apparently we can’t expect any good Obama jokes until he screws up. Because he’s just so darn perfect. After all, comedians don’t like to make fun of self-righteous people.

We’re just going to have to wait until Obama gets caught, oh I don’t know, say, befriending home-grown terrorists or crooked Illinois politicians. Then we’ll see the jokes fly. Right?