Humor

Rock stars are rarely controversial for acting like rock stars. A decadent lifestyle of sex, drugs, and alcohol abuse are the expected menu. In our upside-down popular culture, rock stars create controversy only when they advocate an alternative lifestyle – when they wear purity rings and abstain from sex until marriage.

Some dream of being rock stars just for the selfish fantasy of organizing an assembly line of casual sex partners. In the minds of those with no moral brake on their sex drive, rock stars favoring abstinence are wasting a national resource, akin to monks pledging a vow of poverty while living inside a gold mine.

Last September, the Disney-boosted teen rockers known as the Jonas Brothers were a rich target for mockery at the MTV Video Music Awards for their purity rings. The emcee, a British comedian named Russell Brand, sneered that the Jonas Brothers were "a little bit ungrateful because they could have sex with any woman they want. That is like Superman deciding not to fly and go everywhere on a bus." Tee-hee, and all that.

One of the highlights of the evening last night at the 2009 Media Research Center Gala and DisHonors Awards for yours truly was radio host Mark Levin, who served as an awards presenter.

With stinging humor, Mr. Levin zinged journalists and liberal pundits left and right -- or should I say lefter? -- so I took the liberty of taking some of the best lines and editing it down to a nearly 4-minute long video.

Click the embedded video at right to enjoy. An audio version is available here.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell had already been scheduled to appear on today's "Fox & Friends" to discuss last night's MRC Gala and Media DisHonors Awards, but President Barack Obama's laid a golden egg with his joke about the Special Olympics last night on NBC's "The Tonight Show." So the latest Obama gaffe and the media's interest in it was the first topic co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade asked the NewsBusters publisher about (audio available here) this morning:

KILMEADE: Brent, that comment. How big a deal?

BOZELL: Well, in the eyes of the regular press, no big deal at all. They're just simply going to overlook it. If past is prologue, they refuse to do any serious kind of journalism work on Obama, candidate or president. But, this is the kind of thing that is beginning to percolate out there. What is becoming evident is when you turn the teleprompter off, this man is capable of making all manner of mistakes, and the more he stays in the public eye, doing this type of thing without a teleprompter, the more mistakes he's going to make.

Liberal "View" co-host Joy Behar appeared on Thursday's edition of "Good Morning America" to promote her new children's book "SheetzuCacaPoopoo," an allegory for Barack Obama's rise to power. According to Behar, the illustrated tale the book is really about the new President. She explained to GMA co-anchor Robin Roberts, "The dog- Max is in trouble. They send him to obedience school, okay? When he's in obedience school is when he becomes Barack. He becomes a community organizer."

As a somewhat incredulous Roberts watched, Behar continued, "And he organizes the big dogs around the little dogs. 'Cause at first, the big dogs, also known as the Republicans, don't like him. See?" With no spoiler alerts, Behar concluded, "And so, he finds ways, pragmatically, to help the big dogs...And so, he becomes popular. And everybody loves each other. " [audio available here]

Hillary Clinton gestures during a news conference after a Gaza aid conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, March 2, 2009. Photo Reuters/Asmaa Waguih (Egypt)

Meredith Vieira cracked up "Today" show co-hosts Ann Curry, Matt Lauer, and Al Roker today as she tried, apparently, to make a joke about micro-blogging application Twitter.

The gaffe is somewhat reminiscent to her unintentional use of double entendre in a similar segment in late January.

Video below the fold.:

 

Now in its 26th year, today the 5,000 edition of the syndicated Wheel of Fortune game show will air around the nation – which reminded me (always looking for a hook to plug our upcoming “DisHonors Awards”) -- that just under two years ago Wheel host Pat Sajak took part in our 2007 event. At the MRC’s “2007 DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2006,” the showcase of the MRC's 20th Anniversary Gala on March 29, 2007, Sajak accepted, on behalf of Rosie O'Donnell, the “I’m Not a Political Genius But I Play One on TV Award.” O'Donnell won for spouting:

As a result of the [9/11] attack and the killing of nearly 3,000 innocent people, we invaded two countries and killed innocent people in their countries....Radical Christianity is just as threatening as radical Islam in a country like America.

Video is of Herman Cain introducing Sajak and then Sajak's humorous remarks as he accepted the award in jest for O'Donnell.

Which all goes to remind everyone that this year's “DisHonors Awards for the Worst Reporting of the Year” with the annual “William F. Buckley Award for Media Excellence” to be presented to Brit Hume, are just 20 days away. Every year, we sell out. So don't procrastinate on getting a ticket.

Hillary Clinton arrives at a military airport in Seongnam, near Seoul, February 19, 2009. Reuters/Jo Yong-Hak (South Korea)

 

                                          

CNN's Ed Henry filed his February 19 story from Ottawa where he had followed Barack Obama on his first foreign trip as president. The still shot shown above is from B-roll that Henry used for the opening of his "Anderson Cooper 360" report. One Canadian fan of President Obama is shown holding a sign reading "After God, it's [cut-out picture of Obama]."

h/t MRC intern Mike Sargent.

Earlier today, medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen accidentally insulted colleague Rick "I play it down the middle" Sanchez as "CNN's chief twit" for his frequent use of microblogging application Twitter.

As veteran users of the service know, "tweep" is the preferred term to refer to registered users of Twitter. Likewise, a posting to one's Twitter account is often referred to as a "tweet."

Speaking of which, you can follow NewsBusters , the Media Research Center, and yours truly on Twitter: @NewsBusters, @TheMRC, and @KenShepherd respectively.

After 41 years with ABC News, next week Sam Donaldson will retire from the network, though he will continue to appear monthly on This Week, the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported Monday. Often seen by conservatives as the embodiment of liberal media bias -- especially during the Reagan years -- Donaldson was an open-minded guy who respected conservatives and was willing to make fun of himself, so for many years he debated Bob Novak on liberal bias at CPAC and, in 2004, he appeared at the MRC's “DisHonors Awards.”

At our March 18, 2004 gala held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., as MRC President L. Brent Bozell III made closing remarks he was interrupted by Donaldson, who bound on stage in mock anger, railing at Bozell and the MRC for attacking the news media. Donaldson pledged, “I promise you that during this campaign we will treat both sides equally: the compassionate, intelligent liberals and you crazy, right wing kooks will get the same kind of treatment!”

A new conservative comic strip, “The Gentleman from Lickskillet,” was launched last month. You can see a new edition, by Allen and Tuma, posted each weekday on the ConservativeHQ Web site.

Dubbed “Doonesbury for the political right,” it's plugged as “a comic strip for everyone who can't help but laugh at the politicians in Washington.”

To read it from its January 12 start, review the archive of strips.

Check it out and share your reactions.

We couldn't resist posting this one for a good Friday laugh -- I think the video speaks for itself.

Found via SunSentinel.com

President Obama and Vice-President Obama in the Oval Office, February 3, 2009.  Photo Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg News.

Last Saturday's comedy video open thread was the most popular yet with almost 6,500 reads. Sweet.

Tonight, as we're hours away from our nation's most highly-watched sporting event, it seems appropriate to focus on comedy in sports. As Archie Bunker used to say, can you folly that?

Readers are encouraged to submit suggestions to Noel and Warner via PM or EM (nsheppard@newsbusters.org, igcolonel@hotmail.com).

Our first offering is a collection of sports bloopers:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at a press conference in support of the Democrats' stimulus proposal, January 28, 2009.   Photo AFP/Getty/Mark Wilson

NBC's Meredith Vieira, appearing with weatherman Al Roker in a "Today" show live-shot from a rain-soaked set in Tampa, cracked herself and her camera crew up by saying "we're moist."

The unintended double entendre was uttered by the morning show host during the 7 a.m. weather segment. Vieira and Roker were in the Super Bowl XLIII host city to promote NBC's televised coverage of the February 1 game to "Today" viewers.

Click on the play button in the video embed at right to watch.

In one of the more insulting comparisons seen in recent memory, Albany Times Union editorial cartoonist John de Rosier does a major disservice to the honorable men who served during the Battle of Iwo Jima, by depicting recent efforts of Democrats to pass a non-stimulating ‘economic stimulus plan' as equally heroic.

The cartoon shows Democrats in the role of the Marines featured in the Iwo Jima Memorial, a sculpture based on the famous photo by Joe Rosenthal entitled Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.  The exception to this replication lies in the flag being raised - the Dem's are trying to hoist a ‘bailout flag' as opposed to a flag of the United States.

If that weren't insulting enough, the cartoon also shows the Republican Party mascot, the elephant, trying desperately to pull the flag down.

In short, the Democrats are trying to save our nation by heroically raising up the Obama bailout flag, while the villainous Republicans are trying to destroy our nation by stopping their efforts.

More below the fold...

For 8 years, life was good and easy for the liberal political cartoon community--they had George W. Bush & Dick Cheney to kick around. With hardly a care in the world, they boldly spoke truth to power, at immense personal risk to themselves, and quietly stacked their Pulitzers for being so bold and courageous and funny.

Then along came Barack Obama--the cool, handsome, African-American incarnation of JFK & Abraham Lincoln (no less). What were the professional sketch satirists to do?

Politico.com reports:

"I had all my villains in place for eight years and they've been taken away," lamented Pulitzer Prize winner Pat Oliphant, one of the most widely syndicated cartoonists. "I don't know that I've ever had this experience before, of a president I maybe like. This is an antagonistic art. We're supposed to concentrate on finding things wrong. There's no point in drawing a cartoon that's favorable."

UPDATE: We're getting some of the best submissions we've seen since we began this segment months ago. Do yourself a favor and venture below the fold. You won't regret it!

Tonight's Comedy Video Open Thread will again feature your recommendations. Readers are encouraged to submit suggestions to Noel and Warner via PM or EM (nsheppard@newsbusters.org, igcolonel@hotmail.com).

Our first submission isn't a comedy video, but given the events of the week, NBer AnotherFedUpOne rightly thought we all needed some uplifting...and this certainly did it for me:

Today we have the corresponding opposite to prove the point of our favorite game, “Name That Party.” You see, today we have the case in point of the former Senate leader of New York's legislature Joseph Bruno. Mr. Bruno has been indicted on those ever lovin' federal corruption charges for "defrauding the people of New York from 1993 through at least 2006."

He's a rotten so-and-so, of course. Apparently the FBI has been after him for months and since before he retired from the state legislature. Now he faces an eight-count indictment issued by the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York.

So, from what party does this ner-do-well hail...

"Why would a show trial or witchhunt be bad?"

So asked Chris Matthews of Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy on today's edition of "Hardball." Gaffney was joined by liberal pundit David Corn of Mother Jones magazine in a segment around 5:20 p.m. ET and they were discussing the call by liberal Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) for a war crimes investigation of senior Bush administration officials and terrorist detainee interrogators.

For video of the exchange, click the play button on the embedded video.

President Obama glares at Joe Biden after the VP makes a joke at the expense of Chief Justice John Roberts at a swearing-in ceremony for senior White House staffers on January 21, 2009.

Yesterday was a historic day, for on January 20, 2009, listening to inaugural poet laureate Elizabeth Alexander's attempt at poetry, I actually missed Maya Angelou's attempt at the same 16 years earlier.

Yes, it was that bad, and if you watched the inauguration, you know it, as does every liberal journalist who heard it as well.

So while liberal comedians like Chris Rock lament that they don't know how they can mock the "cool" new president, I thought I'd share how morning talk show host Andy Parks at Washington's WMAL Radio mocked Alexander's poem by writing up and delivering a nonsensical one of his own (audio available here):

It's inauguration day which means the media Obama love-athon is going to be going on for hours today.

We can't bring some objectivity to all the reporting today but we can present a special inauguration edition of "NewsBusted," complete with several non-political jokes for those who aren't feeling especially political today.

Here’s an update on the Will Ferrell one-man Bush-bashing show. The Washington Post also promoted the upcoming show "You’re Welcome, America" in Sunday's Outlook section by interviewing Ferrell’s Bill Maheresque writing partner, Adam McKay. The Post’s Rachel Dry at least added a little skepticism to the proceeding as McKay (employing the royal "We" to associate Ferrell with his every liberal gurgle) suggested Bush had burned down America’s house and had no right to attempt self-deprecating humor:

POST: Bush himself seemed in a pretty wisecracking, self-deprecating mood these days, especially in his final news conference last week. What did you think?

McKAY: We were flabbergasted....It's not the time or place for any of it. It's sort of like if I burn down my house by falling asleep with a cigarette in bed and then I was being interviewed by the local news and was making jokes.

POST: It's not the time or place for him to be doing it, but it is the time or place for you?