Forget about re-booting America. What about re-booting the nation's political comedy shows? The election of Barack Obama to be the first African American president of the United States could crush political comedy on TV. Come January 20th 2009, eagle-eyed comics and their writers will no longer have George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to kick around. Talk about lame duck sessions. Saturday Night Live is dead without Sarah Palin. True; there is no horizon to political incompetence. Congress will always be a sharpening stone for the comic axe. But these have been eight fat years for The Daily Show, Bill Marer, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan. Millions of viewers, appalled by the incompetence of the Bush White House, funneled into political comedy like lemmings. So these are dark days: Americans elected a leader who speaks in fully formed sentences without shadows cast by an inside jokester. Barack Obama moves with grace. His children are adorable. His wife photographs like his better half. Ouch! It is no wonder futures trading for political comedy shows have plunged so sharply. Or that one Wall Street rumor has John Stewart applying to Maria Bartiromo's job. In drag. And if I were to guess, that's exactly where the comic gold is to be mined these next four years. Wall Street.
No comments:
Post a Comment