July 27, 2007

Did you notice the visual pun when this ran on CNN?



I didn't. Chris Dodd can't catch a break. This was hilarious.

23 comments:

MadisonMan said...

Okay, I'm being obtuse, but I don't see the pun either. Even though explaining a joke kills it, can someone explain the joke to me? Is it something beyond white hair/white hare?

Brian Johnson said...

Sorry, I'll be checking back today to have this explained to me also. :)

Not a bad ad; a little odd though.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

Go ask Alice.

Superdad said...

I thought it was more desperate than funny. What this add says, "is despite the fact that I have been in the US Senate since 1980 my name ID is so pathetically low that I have to tell people what color my hair is so the can figure out who I am."

Meade said...

Thanks, Ruth Anne. He's obviously late for a very important date (though not obvious enough to Dodd).

from Wikipedia: The Rabbit was perhaps most famous for the little ditty he sang at the beginning-"I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!". [...] In psychological terms this suggests an Anxious personality disorder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rabbit

MadisonMan said...

Well, if that's the pun -- that Dodd is late because of the White Rabbit thing -- well...is it a wonder I missed it?

I thought the ad was dumb for other reasons. I don't vote for people because of their hair color; give me some idea of your position on something.

Roger J. said...

perhaps its too obvious--there is a white rabbit (hare) in the clip along with Dodd's white hair. Or am I being too simple?

Jennifer said...

Maybe I'm too simple too, but that's what I caught. The guy with the white hair for the White House. And he's the guy with the white hair and the white hare.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I did not get it either. Guessed it was something to do with the two ears standing up in the footage next to the two Channel 7 logos on the microphone.

So assumed Doddd's lucky number is 7 and he is such a flippng longshot he need rabbit's ears not a good-luck rabbit's foot.

Guess I over-analyzed it heh.

Hey said...

You can tell that he's one of the very left-wing candidates for the Dems just by his answer. No Republican would proudly announce that he had hobbled the US' struggle against communist influence and insurgencies in Latin America or that his peace process" in Northern Ireland meant no punishment and no concessions from the IRA.

Chris Dodd shows the inherent corruption of politics, as his senior roles in finance committees force firms to give him huge amounts of money lest he destroy them through his committee power. One more reason to abolish regulations.

Henry said...

The pun is obvious, but no one gets it (I didn't until I watched it the second time). That's why Dodd can't catch a break.

The joke is that the interviewer is asking "What's with the white hare?" and Dodd starts talking about his hair. The problem is we hear what Dodd hears: "What's with the white hair," so while the question seems odd, his answer makes sense. Meanwhile we're wondering "What's up with the white rabbit? Is that his pet?

I thought it pretty clever, nonetheless. Dodd knows he's an obscure underdog and he's addressing that directly, with humor. It's like the way Bob Dole always referred to himself in the third person. The first goal in politics is to get the name out.

Since Dodd does have that great shock of white hair, it offers a pretty good touchpoint for associating the name with a head.

Roger J. said...

Henry: ahem--see above wherein I explain based on the opening line of the clip :)

This thread makes it obvious there are the intuitives and the analyzers!

Paddy O said...

I like Henry's answer the best. The internet would be quite boring if it was just a bunch of people intuiting We need a good analysis letting us know why we're intuiting what we're intuiting.

Though, maybe all intuiting would be more mystical and that would make it another kind of fun.

Henry said...

Roger - You were on the money. Even after I got the hare / hair pun, I didn't intuit that the interviewer was asking about the hare. So I was trying to analyze why it was that Ann wrote Dodd couldn't catch a break.

Roger J. said...

Henry: some times its an advantage to be simple minded like me :)

Jennifer said...

Ah, Henry! The "what's with the white hare?" question makes it fall into place.

Jennifer said...

You know, what he should have done was end it with "The guy with the white hare for the White House". He still would have gotten the same message across, but more people would have caught the joke as well.

Anthony said...

Is that the killer rabbit that chased Jimmy Carter?

Joe said...

I'm fairly sure the white rabbit isn't a hare, but just a cotton tail rabbit. (Yes, there is a difference and yes, I'm weird enough to have been thinking that while watching.)

Roger J. said...

Joe--you are correct; it would have had to be a snowshoe hare (larger and longer legged)

Ann Althouse said...

I didn't notice the rabbit, maybe because I didn't look at the screen, but I also Googled and saw that none of the newspapers had talked about it, even though it was quite amusing.

Chip Ahoy said...

Like I'm going to vote for a guy lacking in basic animal knowledge. Hares are different from rabbits. Hares are precocial, rabbits are altricial -- that has to do with their condition at birth, eyes open etc. See? This is like the ostrich sticking its head in the sand myth. That rabbit should DEMAND AN APOLOGY! I propose disclaimers for political ads, "no live animal was mischaracterized on purpose by this ad."

Brian Johnson said...

I got the hair/hare thing right away. I just thought there must be something else. :)