Obama is now the target of late night talk show comedy. During Obama’s first term and the good old days of when Americans signed up for insurance voluntarily, comics found it difficult to find anything with which to lampoon the President.
How could you? As comedian Chris Rock said about Obama in an interview with CNN, “It’s like ‘Ooh, you’re young and virile and you’ve got a beautiful wife and kids. You’re the first African-American president.’ You know, what do you say?”
What a difference a few million computer glitches and a destructive healthcare act makes. Now, late night TV variety shows, the Country Music Award show, and weekly comedy series have lambasted the president, which must leave Chris Rock examining his stand-up material. Here’s a sampling: Country Music stars Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley ridiculed Obama in a sketch at the CMAs last week, singing “Obamacare by morning/Over six people served.”
Of course, South Park couldn’t resist, mocking the President’s healthcare act with biting satire, including a Kathleen Sebelius look-alike as a school faculty member scapegoated as being responsible for a faulty new technology system at South Park Elementary.
We can’t be too surprised by South Park parodies, but it doesn’t stop there. Now even SNL tanked Healthcare.gov with a skit mocking it’s failure and its ability to sign up only a few users at a time. John Stewart has also jumped in with his regular commentary on “The Affordable Horror Show”. Recently, Jay Leno piled on with his characterization of “Obamacrash.” Not convinced that the website will be fixed in a few weeks as Obama and Sebelius assure us, Leno asked, “When was the last time the government fixed anything in a few weeks? We still have troops in Korea,” he said.
Never the less, all the mocking of Obamacare will not deter the entertainment community from helping Obamacare get traction. Spanish-language entertainers and journalists joined with California Endowment to grant $500,000 for television writers that play up the Affordable Care Act in their upcoming TV shows for the purpose of educating Hispanics. The scripts will include “true-life stories” that the writers hope will transcend the “noise” they hear from the “talking heads” who criticize Obamacare.
Also coming to the aid of the Affordable Care Act is Funny or Die, which promises to promote content that praises the benefits of Obamacare. In order to help in the outreach to young people, “We have ongoing projects in development and are shooting two new videos this month to release them by the end of the year.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.