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Nov 7 2008 10:35AM EST

Memewatch: Obama Is Hard to Write Jokes About

Hey, you know what would be a great article? Something about how comedians might find it hard to make jokes about Barack Obama.

What's that you say? Someone's already written that piece?

-New York Post, 11/7/08: "After eight years of easy laughs at the expense of a bumbling President Bush, now the joke is on Barack Obama. Comedy writers began a liberal new era of laughs this week, as they tried their best to lampoon a much harder target in the good-looking, smooth-talking, gaffe-free president-elect."

-New York Times, 11/7/08: "[T]he shifting political landscape is also a perilous one to make fun of, and many questions remain unsettled, even for those who are paid to do the mockery. What's funny, and what's fair game, about a President Barack Obama? Is it too soon to start ridiculing his achievement? Can blacks make fun of him? Can whites? No two comedians seemed to have the same answers to any of these questions."

-New York Daily News, 11/7/08: "So where will 'SNL' go from here? Will it still be funny, or do we have to wait another four years and hope -- against our better judgment -- that Palin runs again?"

-New York magazine's Vulture blog, 11/6/08: "The end of the election campaign won't doom 'The Daily Show.' The Barack Obama presidency just might. It's no secret that plenty of satirical outlets -- 'Saturday Night Live,' the 'Onion,' late-night talk shows -- have had trouble finding good Obama jokes. But we're not forecasting their doom. 'The Daily Show' is unique, though, in its audience and in its comedic approach, and we're very worried that an Obama presidency might send Jon Stewart's show speedily on the road to obsolescence."

-The Big Picture blog on latimes.com, 11/5/08: "For months, comedy writers and comedians have been brooding about the horrifying prospect of an Obama presidency, fearing the worst -- the man isn't funny. Or more to the point: It isn't fun to make fun of him. Apparently having had a series of fat targets like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin around has made comedians lazy."

And we journalists know from lazy, right?

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