You be the judge: was this an attempt at humor by Obama?
Yesterday commenter Roy Lofquist wrote:
Obama’s 57 state comment was an obvious attempt at humor. That it was taken as a gaffe illustrates something, but damned if I know what.
I hadn’t heard that defense before, but I wanted to keep an open mind since I’d never seen the actual clip. Of course, if it was such an obvious attempt at humor it’s hard to see how it could have been so very thoroughly misunderstood, even though Obama isn’t exactly a master of timing and delivery.
Fortunately we have You Tube video:
I’d say nope, not a hint of humor, not even of the deadpan variety. Nor does the audience seem to think so.
Compare and contrast the following. It’s far from hysterically funny, I know. But it sure is funnier than anything that Obama has said, even though the kid seems to be about twelve. It’s the trailing off at the end—“somewhere, far away…”—that gives it a nice touch, I think:
This reminds me when John Kerry said if you do poor in school you end up in Iraq.
For 12 hours there was a firestorm ,and then it emerged… Kerry was Telling a Joke!
Theres something wrong besides a gaffe that this man said 57 states. Not once but twice.
What’d be really interesting is seeing a 7th grader quiz Obama on 7th grade American History. I’m convinced the man is clueless to 80% of it.
Here’s what I don’t understand. I thought it was obvious from the very first time I saw the clip that he meant to say “forty” instead of “fifty”.
i.e.
“I’ve now been in forty seven states, I think, one left to go. One left to go. Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to…”
He was so busy trying to figure out if it was forty six or forty seven or forty eight that he didn’t realize he’d said “fifty” instead of “forty”.
(47 + the one he hadn’t been to + Alaska and Hawaii = 50)
It was so obvious to me that I was flabbergasted that I didn’t see that explanation published right away, that he didn’t correct the record, and that the whole controversy didn’t die in 24 hours. I’m still, frankly, kind of amazed. Perhaps he did say that and I’ve missed it but I haven’t seen it anywhere.
In any event, although I think he was given undue grief in this instance, it certainly was no case of him trying to be humorous. It was just a slip of the tongue.
Either way, there’s plenty of very good reasons for him never to be president and I hope that turns out to be the case.
kcom: I agree with you that it was just a slip of the tongue. It’s certainly not something I hold against him. There’s plenty of other things to hold against him.
Of course it was a slip of the tongue. And any normal adult would have chuckled, maybe made a joke about it later, and gone on.
That’s what’s so weird about Obama. He just can’t say he was wrong. He never said it, or he was misunderstood (in other words, you ignorant rubes messed up, not him), or it was a joke. But he never, ever, ever makes a mistake. He is infallible.
“How many feminists does it take to cut off a penis?”
“That’s not funny!”
“Why is Obama the most pussy-whipped of candidates?”
“That’s not funny!”
Dear Neo,
Reviewing the clip I believe that the “slip of the tongue” explanation is correct. Humor is the toughest thing for anybody to pull off. It is especially tough for somebody who seems take take everything seriously. Humor doesn’t work well when it is unexpected.
McCain and Bush have a reputation for being kidders. They can actually pull off the gaffe to joke thing as a less than successful joke because it is plausible.
Reminds me of an old Joke. Prisoner’s first day in the chow hall. One guy says “37” – everybody laughs. Another guy says “22” – everybody laughs. He asks the guy next to him about this. Guy says we all know all the jokes so we’ve just given them numbers. New guy yells out “53”. Nothing. Old prisoner: “It’s all in the way you tell it”.
Regards,
Roy
Neo: you need to go in and clean out the comments in the Estrich thread. Something went awry!
Someone said.. a prominent Republican but I can’t remember who.. that that sort of mistake he made, and the way he looks exhausted seems to him, (and he’s a doctor) that Obama is on drugs.
Neo, the comment that needs to be deleted from the Estrich thread – a repeated copy/paste of this thread and your blog page- was posted by sdfs @ 3:08 p.m.
I think that my picture is appropriate for the topic. I would love to be that kids History teacher.
I liked the second video.
As for the first, he mis-spoke, obviously…and also obvious (at least to me) is that a person who wants to be the President of these United States should at least know how many States there are.
YMMV…
For 12 hours there was a firestorm ,and then it emerged… Kerry was Telling a Joke!
Well, like the New Yorker cover, any humor (satire) you have to explain doesn’t work.
NEO, THERE ARE ADDITIONAL SABOTAGES TO THE ESTRICH COMMENT THREAD
gfdgfxdg Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
gfdgfxdg Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
gfdgfxdg Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
gfdgfxdg Says:
July 18th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Thanks Gringo, I see. Sometimes this can take a while to fix.
The attacks, by the way, are coming from Amsterdam. Small world.
I get a note on the Obama clip that says it “is no longer available.”
Investigating why that is just might be interesting. I know that the airbrush is very much in evidence on his blog, but has that now spread to YouTube?