Past Entertainment Articles.

Article for the week of 10/23/08

Couldn’t you just see the politicians dressed in wild colors and outfits standing in front of huge audiences spouting comedic lines and hilarious aperitifs? I shudder to think what it would be like. I mean it might be a good way to earn campaign money. There’s a really big emphasis on the might though.

The true question is would you want to see it? I know I wouldn’t. Politicians aren’t very funny people. Their speechwriters are mediocre at best; their humor is about as hilarious as a wet cat. You get a little chuckle then the moment is passed. It’s not that amazing really. They get a taste of the limelight and want more of it.

But it takes a LOT of lemons to make lemonade. And these folks know all about being lemons, don’t they? We’ve already got them in the political arena. We only have to listen to them one year out of every four or so. Would it really be that interesting to hear them every night on a weekly show, or once a week?

I think that a few of them, if they used their own brains, could have the potential to be truly funny, but that is a far stretch of the imagination. I mean with the hundreds of new comedians per year, very few of them that actually get anywhere. They try and try and fail each time. Do you think a politician could handle the pressure?

Yeah they go through a lot of pressure in the political rat race. But how many of them actually get perturbed by that? How many of them actually deal with the stress? How many of them actually deal with true failure? And I’m not talking their lives; none of them actually consider their life a failing. But can they really handle the booing and rotten vegetables when they don’t hit the crowd with the right punchline?

And if they had a bad night, wouldn’t they just try to pay off the crowd? Here’s and interesting thought to consider. Would they pay off the crowd anyway? Would they threaten them with actions by the ACLU? Would we end up with another Water Gate? And here’s something else to think about. Would we really want to see the White House turned into the Improv? Or the Pentagon turned into a three-ring circus? Okay, so that one isn’t such a stretch of the imagination. How about our Congress turning into a proving ground for political pun-dits?

I’m sure that the existing comedic community might have a thing or two to say about any politicians trying to get into their pool. Wouldn’t you?