I’m afraid a lot of folks are missing the big story on the White House Stenographer’s Association Dinner.<\/p>\n
First of all, I think Colbert’s material was devasting but his delivery was a little stiff and he was too dependent on his notes. But that’s really irrelevant. The routine itself was more about media punditry than the president. even when he addressed politics, it was in the context of how a pundit would frame it. He never broke character.<\/p>\n
The most important thing that happened that night was the routine with Bush and his impersonator. Here’s the reason it’s important:<\/p>\n
In satirical comedy the key is to identify the most recognizable characteristic of the subject and amplify it. It must be an actual characteristic or there will be no humor<\/strong>. Think about every good impersonation you’ve ever seen whether political or celebrity. You laugh because you recognize the subject’s peculiarities.<\/span><\/p>\n And what charactersitic was selected for amplification in that routine:<\/p>\n Bush Is Stupid!<\/strong><\/p>\n This may not be news to people with measurable brain activity, but it is significant that it has now been validated in public by this event. And the fact that the president would participate in this certification of his idiocy is astonishing.<\/p>\n This was not typical self-deprecation, it was a confession. It was an acknowledgement that the one element of Bush’s character that is obvious to all is what an ignorant boob he is. And it was funny because it was true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m afraid a lot of folks are missing the big story on the White House Stenographer’s Association Dinner. First of all, I think Colbert’s material was devasting but his delivery was a little stiff and he was too dependent on his notes. But that’s really irrelevant. The routine itself was more about media punditry than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-2f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33206,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=33206","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":0},"title":"Trump’s Cabinet May Be The Most Inexperienced Ever – And That’s Actually Good News!","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/24\/2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As the administration of President-Elect Donald Trump takes shape, there is one characteristic that is inescapable. Most of his appointees so far are utterly incapable of performing the jobs for which they have been chosen. There seems to be a deliberate effort to select people who lack the necessary skills\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-zzz.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-zzz.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/trump-zzz.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49967,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=49967","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":1},"title":"Kayleigh McEnany of Fox News Lies that ‘All of Our Founding Fathers Were Against Slavery’","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/6\/2021","format":false,"excerpt":"There is one unmistakably common characteristic of Donald Trump's administration and particularly his press office. It was a festering morass of lies and liars. And no one did it better than his last press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany. Which is why she was so quickly hired by Fox News after Trump\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kayleigh McEnany","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/mcenany-liar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/mcenany-liar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/mcenany-liar.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1283,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1283","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":2},"title":"Fox News: Republicans Divided Over How to Attack Sotomayor","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/29\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"An article on FoxNews.com is lamenting the difficult position in which Republicans find themselves with regard to President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court: \"Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, is posing a conundrum for Republicans who are struggling to unite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1265,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1265","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":3},"title":"The White House Correspondents’ Comedy Hour","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/11\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The White House Correspondents' Dinner is an annual event that places members of the media in close proximity to the subjects they are supposed to be covering. It's a little like the philosophy behind modern zoo design, where they attempt to show animals in their native habitat. The event generally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62113,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=62113","url_meta":{"origin":139,"position":4},"title":"Fox News Hack Posts Blatantly Racist Op-Ed Attacking Kamala Harris in Murdoch’s New York Post","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/7\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The obsession by MAGA media operatives to malign President Biden and sow discord within the Democratic Party has been trodding full bore ever since the Biden\/Trump debate ten days ago. 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He even published an anti-media page on the White House website. 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