This week’s Saturday Night Live skit has gotten quite a bit of attention. Republicans are delighted that even in the bastion of liberal comedy, there is some recognition, indeed mocking, of Obama’s notions of “cost savings.” In the skit, the faux Chinese president observes: “I am noticing that each of your plans to save money involves spending even more money. This does not inspire confidence.” No, it doesn’t.

But like many things that have changed over the course of the year since Obama’s election, it seems the fact that Obama can be funny — or the source of humor, at any rate. Granted, the comedy driven by the events of this week or the unfulfilled to-do list, which was the topic of another skit, does not match the ferocity of the jibes thrown at George W. Bush and other politicians, but it is something. Moreover, humor of this type depends on a set of shared perspectives (so that everyone “gets the joke”), one of which is that Obama is presiding over a fiscal train wreck. Another, also from the SNL skit, is that the stimulus is a bust (”How many jobs has it created?” ”Uh, so far, none”) and that it’s impossible to explain how extending health-insurance coverage to 30 million more Americans will save money (”I … don’t know”).

Does this signify something beyond the necessity to find good material for political humor? Well, it suggests that Obama no longer enjoys deity-like status and that even among liberal comics there is a shared understanding that he’s peddling snake oil. It’s not everything, but it’s a lot — and it happened less than a year after Obama took office.

del.icio.us

Google

Facebook

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 3:39 PM and is filed under Contentions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.