In the realm of the comfy cozy
A critique of Jay Leno's opening night political humor
In the realm of the comfy cozy
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
Nobody has ever suggested that Jay Leno in his new prime-time slot would blaze new televisual trails for political humor. Jay, after all, has never been a particularly edgy entertainer. He's like a Big Mac, a juicy dependable American staple served up with all the familiar ingredients, and nary a surprise in store.
Nevertheless, the NBC brass have sought to create some buzz about Jay's plans to bedazzle people with political humor while they're still wide awake. Ben Silverman, one of the guys who greased the move to prime time, was quoted the other day as saying, "What we're so excited about is how important topical comedy is right now. All our research showed that America wants more comedy."
Well, I caught Jay's debut show last night, and suffice it to say that Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher need not quake in their shoes. Not that anybody should be shocked, but, given the massive publicity buildup, devotees of political humor were clearly led to believe that Jay would serve up a little something outside the realm of the comfy cozy.
Instead, I got the impression that, in addition to Jay's instinctive intent to play his shots down the middle of the middle of the fairway, there was also an institutional imperative on the big night to steer clear of all risk. Hollywood being Hollywood, a lot of people are rooting for Jay's show to fail, and therefore it may well have been deemed prudent to protect the first week's ratings by minimizing the odds that some viewers might find themselves offended.
So here's what we got:
A Dick Cheney punch line that could've been uttered six years ago. (The University of Wyoming is apparently opening a Dick Cheney Center for International Students, prompting Jay to quip, "Now, really, who loves foreigners more than Dick Cheney?")
A Joe Biden punch line on a topic that's roughly nine months old. (Referring to Joe Wilson's House outburst, Jay quipped: "I'll tell ya, Vice President Biden really upset about President Obama being interrupted, he said, 'Hey, that's my job!")
A George W. Bush visual gag about him being a doofus, a theme that's about eight years old. (He's riding his mountain bike a lot these days. Cut to a video of a mountain bike rider taking a huge spill on a hillside.)
A joke about the health care debate that was probably lost on any viewer younger than 65 years old. (Referring to the current scare tactics, Jay said, "You see that commercial, where the older couple gets mailed a box from Liberty Medical, and it's got Wilfred Brimley's head in it?" I haven't seen a Wilfred Brimley ad for Liberty medical since 2007. Dare we suggest that there might be edgier material in the health care debate than Wilfred Brimley?)
A joke about Barack Obama's determination to be a symbolic healer. (Jay says Obama will invite Kanye West and Taylor Swift to the White House for a root beer summit. Because, he hastened to explain, Taylor Swift is only 19, so, you see, it has to be root beer.)
There was a chance to say something edgy about Joe Wilson, or perhaps about the angry reaction to Joe Wilson, but instead Jay straddeled: "Joe Wilson yelled out 'you lie' to the president. So - at least the two sides are talking! There's dialogue!" (Translation: appeal to the broadest number of viewers by tapping their shared desire for more civility and less partisan strife.)
There was a chance to say something edgy about the family-values California Republican assemblyman, Mike Duvall, who last week was caught on tape boasting about how he had sex with two lobbyists, but instead Jay broadened it out to a general plague on all houses: "A politician bragging about having sex with two lobbyists. Now, I'm no mathemetician, but I believe that's a total of three whores, right?"
What else...There was a Biden/Pelosi joke about Cialis; an Obama joke about Viagra (didn't Viagra jokes peak with Bob Dole, circa 1997?); a quick joke about Walmart (a reliably fat target) paying its workers in pesos; a cash-for-clunkers joke that could have either lampooned big government, or lampooned the conservatives who took advantage of the program, but instead Jay the car aficionado quipped about himself ("I made $5 billion!"). And much later, he did his familiar goofy newspaper typos routine, using the stuff sent in by older viewers who still apparently read the fine print in the dead-tree medium (may they live forever).
Meanwhile, there wasn't so much as a mirthful word about the weekend anti-Obama protests that dominated the cable news coverage, or about Obama's Monday speech to the stone-faced barons of Wall Street. A nightly prime-time show that aspires to political topicality might want to be a bit more nimble about breaking news.
There once was a time - say, 20 years ago - when a politician quaked at the prospect of being flogged by the broadcast network wiseasses. I recall writing, back in 1988, that if the pols were in trouble with Johnny Carson, "chances are they're in deep doo-doo with the American mainstream," because Johnny (and Jay, his frequent guest host) would tap into what the mainstream was thinking and take it up a notch on the satirical scale. Here was Johnny, for instance, zapping Democratic candidate (and confessed womanizer) Gary Hart: "Gary has a new proposal - a halfway house for girls who don't go all the way."
But now Jay is up against the scabrous satirists and ironists (Stewart, Maher, Colbert) who are truly pioneering this so-called golden age of political humor in the slots prior to 11:30, and the betting here is that he'll need to raise his game and take some risks in order to attract and retain the young and the media-savvy.
Polman's last three posts were on Joe Wilson, South Carolina and now Jay Leno. He probably does not even know about the ACORN story, as Charlie Gibson admitted this morning on a radio talk show that he had not heard anything about it. Of course, the Census Bureau has severed ties with ACORN since the video story broke, the Senate passed an amendment to cut off funding to ACORN by a vote of 83-7, the NEA was caught trying to get its members to promote the White House agenda (which, since they are non-profit, is against the law), many aspects of Obama's speech were outright lies, such as the guy with cancer dying because his healthcare was cut off (as was debunked yesterday in the WSJ...he actually lived 3 1/2 years longer due to surgery he received paid for by his health insurer), and Obama is speaking AGAIN to the ACLU (he just spoke to them last week) which makes sense since HR3200 gives so much to unions. I guess since nothing relevant is going on in the political world, Polman has nothing better to write about.— tom - wilmington, de- Tom--re your post earlier, there's no hate crime law that applies only to crimes against people of the "black race." Race as such is the only criterion. The argument that a federal hate-crimes law can only apply to crimes against blacks comes from right-wingers who assert that the federal government has no authority to adopt a hate-crime statute except under the 13th Amendment (anti-slavery provision) which applies only to blacks. We appreciate your digging up infomation and sharing it, but too many of your posts are of the "urban legend" variety.— liberal
- Some of the conservative anti-illegal immigrant posters here seem to have a strange idea of law enforcement as it applies to this issue. They seem to think it's inadequate to make something illegal and provide criminal penalties. There must be a "verification" scheme in place or the prohibition is a "lie." By this standard, our laws against murder are fraudulent. For these laws to be effective, the police would have to periodically bring every citizen into the precinct to be interrogated as to whether they were murderers or intended to murder. Citizens would have to prove that they were not murderers.— liberal
- cd75--you missed the entire point of the blog.— voiceofreason
- Tom--exactly what does HR3200 give to the unions? Union members with negotiated health insurance are actually among the bigger losers in Obama's plan.— liberal
- When will these so-called "golden age" political humorists develop the balls to make fun of the current president? There's a lot to work with, if you stop and think about it -- for about 30 seconds.— pj katauskas
- Pete Stark, (D-CA), on the House floor, said that Republicans voted to fund the war in Iraq so soldiers could get their heads blown off for the President's amusement. Pete Stark (D-CA), on the House floor, called the President a liar, not once, but twice...the second time even saying he would not apologize for his comment. He eventually did apologize, but he was not censured and he was actually defended by other Democrats and the talking heads on Air America.— tom - wilmington, de
- Liberal...my exact statement was that a hate crime can only be committed against a MINORITY, not only against BLACKS. Maybe to you blacks are the only minority, but I don't know. Anyway, I appreiate your trying to debunk my posts, but next time at least get my statement correct. After all, you have the text, you can even copy and paste it, so please get it right.— tom - wilmington, de
- Eric Holder...testifying before the Senate, in response to a question from Jeff Sessions.."Sessions: "[A] minister gives a sermon, quotes the Bible about homosexuality, is thereafter attacked by a gay activist because of what the minister said about his religious beliefs and what Scripture says about homosexuality." Is the minister protected, is what Sessions said. Here's a portion of the answer, the testimony from Eric Holder. HOLDER: Well, the statute would not -- would not necessarily cover that. We're talking about crimes that have a historic basis. Groups who have been targeted for violence as a result of the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, that is what this statute tends -- is designed to cover. We don't have the indication that the attack was motivated by a person's desire to strike at somebody who was in one of these protected groups. That would not be covered by the statute." So, according to our AG, only minorities or gays/lesbians can be victims of hate crimes. If your race/sexual orientation was not persecuted in the past, you cannot be the victim of a hate crime.— tom - wilmington, de
- Liberal...again with the ridiculous scenario. What you said would be true if, AND ONLY IF, people who were not murderers were eligible for some government service that murderers were excluded by statute from receiving. So, if the government said that all people except murderers were excluded from having to file income taxes for three years, then people would need to prove they were not murderers. Under healthcare, illegals were not eligible but there is no verification mechanism. That would be like saying only murderers had to file income taxes, then not setting up a process to verify if a person was a murderer or not. Get it now?— tom - wilmington, de
Comment removed.- Liberal...check out page 1008 and afterwards of HR3200. It has "organized labor" all over it, and organizations where the members have a direct vote on selecting their leadership. I'd call that a give away to unions.— tom - wilmington, de
- Comment removed.
- Tom, for me the issues with Joe Wilson was the time and place of his shouting. If one believes that a president -- any president -- has lied about something and can cite proof or reasons for such an accusation, there should be a place to do that. After all, one of the roles of opposing parties is to be a watchdog. But the place to do that would have been after the speech when he was being interviewed. Or on the floor when the bill is being debated. Not in the middle of a speech to Congress, which is (or should be) a decorous occasion that has a long history with a formal protocol. It sounded like the Democrat you used as an example called Bush a liar when he was on the floor debating. Is that correct?— NigeltheMastiff
- I think today calls for celebration. The Senate voted 83-7 to block funding for Accorn! Bipartisanship is alive and well on capital hill.
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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