Humor is a tricky thing. Political humor, especially when practiced by a politician, doubly so. Poking fun at someone is a superb way of undercutting them, but if not done skillfully it makes the jokester seem like a bully.
One of the keys to pulling a joke off is to choose the target very carefully. Ideally, it should be someone of equal or greater stature than the jokester. Picking on those poorer, weaker, less successful, less accomplished, tends to come across as mean-spirited.
That makes it very tough for presidents. There are very few people of similar stature whom they can mock. Many just opt for self-deprecating humor. And it works — remarkably well.
Both Presidents Bush were quite good at poking fun at themselves. Bill Clinton was also good, with flashes of brilliance, in that field. Ronald Reagan was the undisputed master of the art. Part of that, though, might have been the lack of comparison — prior to him, the last respectable practitioner was Jack Kennedy (remember him introducing himself as “the man who accompanied Mrs. Kennedy to Paris?”), and 17 years is a heck of a dry spell.
A dry spell consisting of Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, and Lyndon Johnson. Of those four, only Ford even tried — and the results were less than stellar.
In the yucks department, President Obama seems to be in the mold of those four men. There was only one instance I can recall when he tried self-deprecating humor — at the Al Smith Dinner last year. And while he was pretty good (“Where are my pillars?”), John McCain — accomplished at self-deprecation — blew him out of the water.
That one night aside, Obama instead tends to target the weaker for his jibes. His poke at the Special Olympics last week is but the latest example. And it speaks poorly of his sense of compassion.
Shortly after the election, Obama was asked if he’d spoken with any former presidents. His answer?
…in terms of speaking to former presidents, I have spoken to all of them, that are still living, obviously, president Clinton… hey, I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances…
Who was the target of his joke? An elderly widow.The best part is, it wasn’t even factually correct. Nancy Reagan’s flirtation with the supernatural was with astrologers. It was Hillary Clinton who spoke of conversing with the dead — she mentioned her “chats” with Eleanor Roosevelt.
Obama, simply put, isn’t that funny. When he first appeared on Saturday Night Live, he was in a skit set at a costume party — dressed as himself. When he met “Bill and Hillary Clinton,” who were in costume, he explained that unlike some others, he has “nothing to hide.” To the extent that this is true, it means he doesn’t have much material.
A good sense of humor is essential in high-stress positions, and there can’t be a more stressful job than President of the United States.
Presidents who can laugh — especially at themselves — tend to be more successful at the job, and come out of the Oval Office a bit healthier. Those that don’t tend to get eaten alive — and we all end up paying the price for that.