They are pretty funny. (Via Instapundit.) But I bet we could come up with 10 more that are just as funny.
(Spare me the predictable and boring attempts at humor like the first comment at the link.)
December 7, 2006
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27 comments:
We had a pretty funny moment here in Arizona when Bill Montgomery, the GOP candidate for Attorney General, filmed a commercial (which never aired) on illegal immigration. It turned out that the men his campaign hired to portray illegal immigrants in the ad, actually were illegals.
Needless to say, Montgomery got hammered at the polls in November.
Whitney and Bobby's little debate over George Bush has to be in the top ten...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR7CCQ2QAKE
With all the flotsam and jetsom of election season, I'd actually forgotten that -- per item (2) -- if nothing else, this year saw Cynthia McKinney make a gloriously undignified exit from Congress (again). That almost makes it all worth it.
That's, ahem, quite a flattering shot of Katherine Harris that they found. :p
I saw that Harris photo earlier this year and thought "damn, when did she get hot?" Guess there's just something about a woman on horseback.
I don't think anything quite matches the humour of Sandy Berger getting caught with confidential documents down his pants.
Hmm.
I think Koizumi going wild in Elvis's old house was pretty funny, and that was this year right? But it's a gentler kind of "funny" than most of these.
Eli Blake's example would be better than most of the examples on the webpage, only I'd never heard of it before.
The best, though, for this year, is still Dick Cheney shooting an old man in the face.
Careful with the Harris comments, we'll start another Boobs and Bloggers brouhaha.
Most often what is "funny" is really sad. Perhaps its just me but I have a hard time with most political humor, Scrappleface and Iowahawk do some good work but most of it is mean-spirited without prejudice.
Seems like an ignoring of the elephant (so to speak) in the room to mention Bush's "twin" and not Colbert's performance at that dinner. Whether you found it brave and hilarious or in poor taste and disrespectful would seem to still put it in a similar category as the others in that list.
Well, I guess you can't have two Colbert items in the same list.
Balfaegor:
The story was in the Arizona Republic on Sept. 23. Unfortunately, they archive anything that is more than a week old, but a good blog post on it was done by Tedski at Rum, Romanism and Rebellion.
I dunno if it's really political or not, but the Raj Bhakta leading a six piece mariachi band and three elephants across the Rio Grande to promote border security (no one showed up to check it out) just slays me.
See here.
Don't know if he won or not.
Actually, I did find a Republic link, to an editorial on it by Richard Ruelas:
right here
Re: Anthony
Don't know if he won or not.
Lost, if I recall correctly. I think the elephant and mariachi bit was something where the execution really had to be right for it to be funny, and it wasn't. I only saw it on YouTube, but the pacing and setup were wrong. Fell flat. Funnier in concept than in execution, in my opinion.
Re: Eli Blake -- thanks for the link.
Re: JohnK:
You do have to give to Harris for on thing; that woman looks good in jeans and a sweater.
Well, better than with pancake makeup, certainly.
SteveR said...
"Careful with the Harris comments, we'll start another Boobs and Bloggers brouhaha."
No, no - that's a horse, not Bill Clinton.
Yes Harris should have used these pictures to get votes. Does she really look this good? Every picture I have seen of her makes her look like she just left the mortician's.
And I forgot already about Raj and the elephant- that certainly was creative. Wonder if Raj was RUI- he had 2-3 DUI's I believe which certainly hurt his election chances.
I once was a voter in that district then my town (and yes I have my own town) was gerrymandered to another (Weldons soon to be Admiral Sestak).
And how about Clinton's blowup with Wallace? There was some flashback humor in that when he used the term "right wing hit job".
Yeah, I'd put Clinton's blowup on the list, too.
Also, Trent Lott being elected "Minority Whip" is worth at least a chuckle. :)
Simon: I couldn't tell the rear end was covered by the blanket. An honest mistake.
Ann:
You write that this comment is a "predictable and boring" attempt at humor.
“ "I don’t know Mortman. I thought this October quote from the president was pretty funny: “Absolutely, we’re winning.” ”
I can see why you might find this comment predictable, since jokes about the president's inability to deal with the reality of the situation in Iraq or his willingness to present the situation as better than it really is have been common fodder on The Daily Show, among other venues, for years. However, I do not see why you think it is "boring."
After all, we have the soon to be new Sect. of Defense stating just this week that we are NOT winning in Iraq.
Isn’t such a disconnect between recent optimistic public statements by the president on Iraq and what seems to be the reality on the ground (at least if we are going to give credibility to the characterization of the situation in Iraq made by ISG and Bush’s own nominee to be Sect. of Defense) interesting and rather amusing, not “boring”?
Of course, it is a dark humor, given what it says about President Bush's state of denial and/or willingness to deceive the American people, but it is humorous nonetheless.
Balfegor said:
"I don't think anything quite matches the humour of Sandy Berger getting caught with confidential documents down his pants".
I agree but I guess that made the list in 2005? It should make the Top Five if they do a list for the decade!
M.F.L.
They needed all the optimism early on to stampede the country into the war in Iraq (incidentally, let's not forget that it was Al Gore who stood, almost alone in mid 2002, saying that the shift in focus from Afghanistan to Iraq was a mistake. For that reason alone, the 2000 election result is a real turning point in history).
Then, they needed the optimism to keep people behind George W. Bush. As his inflexible cover of certainty grew ever and ever more brittle they had to turn up the volume on optimism. When it finally broke during the fall of 2005 (and his polls dropped precipitously in the wake of Katrina) there was no denying it.
He is incompetent, and has led us deep into the woods, from which he knows no way out.
However, I do not see why you think it is "boring."
It's boring because it's predictable, and the sort of thing that can be found in just about every single post having to do with George Bush. We get it. You think he's a miserable failure and Iraq is a disaster. We've heard it for four years.
It's not funny because it's never meant to be funny. They are always those sad ironic little comments meant to assert anti-Bush fervor, to make us frown or cry or engage in argument.
Cynthia McKinney was funny because who else acts that outlandish? Abramoff in the hat and coat, that's kinda funny.
Cheney's hunting accident. Hilarious -- what a crazy, dumb silly thing that was. Never happened before to such a major politician and likely won't happen again.
What else happened this year with other politicians and politics?
Bashing Bush is like making a fart joke -- it's far too easy and common for anyone to do to make it at all interesting or witty.
Never happened before to such a major politician and likely won't happen again.
Ahem.
"Cheney's hunting accident. Hilarious -- what a crazy, dumb silly thing that was."
That was also funny because all of a sudden all of these supposed liberals suddenly changed their mind about Scalia going hunting with Cheney.
That was a duel. It's a lot funnier if it's accidental. I don't really think they're comparable myself.
Hey Paddy!
Been drinkin' the Kool Aid again, I see. Hey look! It's a jackalope! Is that a pony? For a Christian, he sure kills millions of civilians with indiscriminate napalm phosphate carpet bombing... Rachel Corrie Terri Schiavo Max Cleland... Re-elect Gore...
See? Anybody can do it.
My point being what you are saying is pretty much spot on. If it's predictable, it's not funny, it's just sloganeering unless you have a pretty amazing delivery. And "spittle flecked LCD monitor" does not count as pretty amazing or funny, unless you are trying to get people to laugh at your spittle flecking self.
simon:
liberals suddenly changed their mind about Scalia going hunting with Cheney.
ROTFLMAO.
good one.
MonkeyBoy:
You wrote "MFL and Al posted to remind us that nothing is funny as long as George Bush is president."
I do not understand why you interpreted my comment that way. In my comment I state why I think a comment that Ann found "boring" is, in fact, "amusing" and "humorous".
This seems to be in direct opposition to your interpretation.
And, given the number of times I laugh watching the Daily Show, I would certainly never say that "nothing is funny as long as George Bush is president."
Could you explain your reasoning for your comment?
Paddy O-
I am not sure if I agree with you that because something is predictable it is therefore boring.
After all, one can predict that usually there is going to be a "silly misunderstanding" occur on Three's Company -- yet I don't think that show was boring (at least not when Chrissy was on the show.)
Also you write that "It's not funny because it's never meant to be funny." I don't think you should judge something as funny or not based upon the intentions of the writer. After all, I do not think Lindsay Lohan intended to write a funny email, yet the email was funny nonetheless.
You also state that the comment was "meant to assert anti-Bush fervor, to make us frown or cry or engage in argument."
I am not so sure. I think the comment, much like Cheney's hunting accident, demonstrates what a "crazy, dumb silly thing" the Iraqi War is, and how "crazy, dumb and silly" our current Iraqi policy is.
Of course, as I noted, such a joke is dark and also hints at the tragedy of the Iraqi war, but I don't think humor has to be "light" to be funny. Consider Dr. Strangelove for instance. A very funny money, but also a dark and tragic movie at the same time.
Peace,
Monkey Faced Liberal
Monkeyboy:
While I might disagree with your characterization of my comment as "predictable, boring, and puritanical." (Puritanical? How can saying that you think a comment was funny that someone else did not be puritanical?), I think, in the end, these are subjective judgements, so of course you are entitled to them.
However, I don't understand how my comment was not "relevant." I was directly commenting on a point brought up in the orginal post by Ann, that a comment was not funny.
How can you say a discussion of said comment was not relevant? It was clearly related to Ann's orginal post.
Moreover, I think my comment goes to the question of what is "political humor." Ann was clearly putting forward a position on this idea given her link and her discussion of the comment. I was responding to this position by providing my own reaction to the comment. Isn't that relevant?
Finally, why should this thread necessarily be "lighthearted?"
Again, as I point out with the reference to Dr. Stranglove, often things which are particularily funny also deal with very "heavy" ideas.
Consider "The Clouds" by Aristophanes (which does have fart jokes in it) and "Much Ado About Nothing" by Shakespeare.
Both are funny, and have lighthearted moments, yet also make jokes about serious ideas and difficult issues.
Peace,
Monkey Faced Liberal
Ken Mehlman on Russert squirming and generally wetting his pants. I liked that.
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