Sunday, October 26, 2008

Comedians for McCain?

I perform in murder mysteries here in the Boulder area, which is almost always great fun and little money. The show we are doing this year includes as part of it's plot a 3-way election for mayor. A few weeks ago, we decided to include a debate, during which we used just about everything the 4 national debates provided us as comic fodder. We had a riot.

Unfortunately, most of the material was provided by McCain and Palin. The debate begins when one of our candidates suspends his campaign to get to the bottom of the murder that happened before dinner. "Joe the Plumber" is mentioned constantly. I refer to another candidate as "That one". And that's just scratching the surface.

My guess would be that most of the professional comedy world is voting for Obama. No matter what else they believe, folks in show biz are offended by the GOP's stance on things like gay rights and censorship. However, the problem for the comedy community is that Obama just isn't very funny. He speaks beautifully, has great posture,looks good all the time, and hasn't said anything so far that comedians can really get their teeth into. Even worse, he is apparently faithful to his wife.....even Fox News hasn't alleged he isnt. And how much mileage can you get out of his ears?

So, if Obama is elected, what are these guys going to do for the next 4 years? Oh sure, they might get some good stuff from Joe Biden traveling the world running his mouth non-stop. And perhaps Dave Barry's theory of the White House sapping mental capacity from it's inhabitants will cause him to do something really stupid within a few months. But right now, McCain and particularly the Hockey MILF (was she perhaps McCain's gift to Leno, Letterman and all the other comedians who he's palled around with over the years?) are providing most of the material.

These guys have been on easy street for the past 16 years. Between Clinton's sex drive and w's stupidity and incompetence, not to mention the Dark Knight Cheney, their political jokes have arrived gift wrapped in the NY Times every morning. Will an Obama administration force the comedy writers to work harder? Will it destroy the late night comedy industry (possibly leading to a taxpayer bailout?)?

Looks like, just as for the economy in general, there are tough times ahead in the laughter biz.

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