After Inauguration, No More Laffs? A Re-Mix

After we posted this a few days ago, we realized that it could have been improved in so many ways, from using the correct font, to cleaning up the spelling errors, to uh, actually being funny. So we mixed it up a bit and this entry is now something like a whole new entry. Really. 

Some people--the New York Times in particular--are a little concerned about what happens after George W. Bush goes home.

No, not the eternal question of Will he really leave the White House? What guarantee do we have? Or even Has anyone even told Dick Cheney about this?

The big worry is, what will we laugh at now?

For as many years as anyone's been counting, Presidents have been funny. 

Maybe it started with Vaughn Meader and the JFK comedy album. Lots of people don't remember this deeply funny tribute to a man who was inaugurated with, if possible, even more idealistic hope than President Obama, but it rocks. Check it out at YouTube. 

We have to thank our friend La Skolnique for this reference. And also for the joke, made when she was 3 years old, that goes like this:

La Skolnique's Dad, Le Pere Skolnique: What little girl has the best Daddy in the whole world?

La S.: Caroline Kennedy!

LBJ was funny because he came from Texas.  And his wife was named Lady Bird.  And he showed his appendectomy scar to reporters. So that might have been more "horrifying" than "funny", but at least it brought the man down to earth. Did it ever.

Richard Nixon was funny for the same reason that watching a cat trap a mouse is funny.  The cat takes itself so damn seriously. The mouse is blithe, unconcerned. Okay, the "kill" is not so funny, and neither was Watergate. But everything before and after was pretty cool.

Gerald Ford? We're still collapsing in mirth. The falling down. The dumbness. The pardon.

And Jimmy Carter was from the south. Always funny. He also had extremely humorous teeth. We'll see how funny teeth can be if Joe Biden does anything to attract attention to himself.

Reagan...even his best pals made fun of Reagan, and he joined in, because he was a sociable and humorous man. (You pretty much had to be, to get along with Jack Warner back in the day). Of course the opposition made fun of him too. Everyone was pretty happy, except the people who were dying of AIDS.

Poppy Bush was preppy and his wife looked like a human with Mad Cow disease.   

Now, with the Clintons you also got a two for one. Because even if you saw Hilary as an important trailblazer, there were still her hairstyles. And Bubba? Unlike FDR and JFK, WJC was dumb enough to to get involved with the girl under the desk. FDR just flirted with them. JFK didn't know their last names.

And then there was W. Don't make us talk about that.

Now we have Barack Obama, about whom no one can speak without getting a little verklempt. And even when those lumps in the throat go away...which they have to, someday, right?...he's just cool and competent and intelligent and strong and sweet and wonderful and has a terrifically good build.

So, no, not much funny. Not even from the Chicago in-laws who, back in the seventies, probably would have had a Norman Lear sitcom of their own.

But here's something I figured out. And JC, if you're reading this, you can have it free for nuthin'.

 

We're not saying the resemblance is a bad thing. But it certainly does exist.

Comments

[La Skolnique]

Funny! (And, good news! The vinyl didn't make it to Santa Cruz, but The First Family is available on DVD!)

[La Skolnique]

I mean CD.

[La Skolnique]

From The First Family, "The Malayan Ambassador for Dinner" - the message goes through several thousand channels until finally it reaches little Caroline who runs to JFK saying, "Daddy, Daddy, it's the Malayan ambassador for dinner!" JFK answers, "Tell him it's TOMORROW night!"

Then there was the bit about world leaders ordering lunch, and someone says hold the mayo, which is how people then probably thought Mao was pronounced. Someone pipes up, "Please not to mention that name!"