What's Pretty Funny

Is that there's nothing funny about Obama.

When Mr. Stewart on “The Daily Show” recently tried to joke about Mr. Obama changing his position on campaign financing, for instance, he met with such obvious resistance from the audience, he said, “You know, you’re allowed to laugh at him.”

Fair call. So do jokes about John McCain instead - he's hilarious!

One issue that clearly has some impact on writing jokes about Mr. Obama is a consistency among the big late-night shows. Not only are all the hosts white, the vast majority of their audiences are white.

So give Dave Chappelle a nightly show! Oh no, they wouldn't dare!

Here's the funniest joke in the NYT article:

“We’re hoping he picks an idiot as vice president.”

Heh. It's a long time since Dan Quayle, isn't it?

George H. W. Bush called on Quayle to be his running mate in the general election. Quayle was chosen to appeal to a younger generation of Americans and his supposed good looks were praised by Senator John McCain, who said "I can't believe a guy that handsome wouldn't have some impact."

Now there's a satirist's dream come true.

Isn't it ironic that Bush 41 picks the weakest Veep in history, then Bush 43 gets picked by the most powerful? Actually, no - it's not ironic, it's tragic and diabolical. Critics used to joke that Quayle's VP role made Bush 41 impeachment-proof. You could say the same for Cheney, in a totally different way.

Just for fun, a few select Quayle quotes to remember:

"We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward."

"The future will be better tomorrow."

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."

But wait, there's more!

In April 1999, [Quayle] announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for 2000, attacking George W. Bush by saying "we do not want another candidate who needs on-the-job training".

Quayle supported Bush after coming eighth in the straw polls.

Dan Quayle signed the statement of principles of the Project for the New American Century.

You have to wonder if he even understood it.