That's Not Funny
Looking at The New Yorker flap, Bill Carter has an interesting article on why there are so few political jokes about Obama. Late night show writers claim there's not enough to make fun of, but I think that's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I can come up with of plenty of things they might attack, all more imaginative than "old" jokes about McCain. (I can think of better joke areas for him, too). The question should be is the paucity of material because the audience won't respond, or because the writers don't want to mock him?
Rob Burnett, David Letterman's producer, claims, in general, you "can't manufacture a perception. If the perception isn't true, no one will laugh at it." I wonder if that's true.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:21 AM
2 Comments:
Sounds like one of those iron laws of showbiz. I would amend the Burnett rule as follows:
You can't manufacture a perception, except where you can. If the perception isn't true, no one will laugh at it, except when they will"
Here's a good discussion of the creation of perceptions via political cartoons. I can think of one wholly media-created perception that stuck for a while -- Oliphant's depiction of George HW Bush with a purse on his wrist. When he was VP, that was accepted as a funny, true view of his weak, somewhat effete personality. It was based on a few, ridiculously trivial incidents and wholly ignored the fact that the man was a legitimate WWII war hero. But it stuck until his election as president, and he was even rumored to have kept a copy of one of the cartoons in his desk to remind him.
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