Add the folks at FunnyOrDie.com to the list of modern humorists unwilling to mock the most powerful man on Earth.
The comedy clip site, created by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, offers an extensive array of politically charged humor sketches and articles. The site even features a page exclusively set aside for political content. Take a peek – you’ll only find three items including Obama on the main page. That leaves 16 humor pieces attacking Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich or the GOP in toto.
The Obama-related material barely lays a glove on the president. One, featuring Obama having a light sabre duel with Oprah Winfrey (hysterical, right?) does mention he’s been a disappointment so far. But neither that sketch or an “open mic” montage manage to skewer Obama in any significant way, or sustain an existing media narrative designed to damage his chances for re-election.
It’s not as if Obama doesn’t provide rich comic fodder. What about his vainglorious nature, his broken campaign promises, his class warfare rhetoric, his affection for teleprompters and his thin skin?
Heck, the stuff practically writes itself, and we haven’t even mentioned his childhood dog snacking.
Compare that to the site’s Mitt Romney quiz, an article hammering home the liberal meme that the likely GOP presidential candidate can’t connect with regular Americans. Or the “Santorum!” music video – “he isn’t rich or handsome, and by most accounts he isn’t super bright … He’s a creepy man with a creepy wife.”
Ferrell and McKay are well known Democrats, so it certainly shouldn’t surprise anyway that the site’s politics lean in one direction. But you have to wonder if the site operators reject material tweaking the president, or they simply post what they receive, since very few modern comics have the stomach to do what their predecessors took great delight in doing – comically dressing down the president.