April 23, 2007

President Bush and Rich Little at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

This is so unfathomably bad. It's just bizarre. Bush starts off saying he's decided not to be funny. They should all have stopped right there. I'm not sure if you should click on this. It will take 32 minutes of your life to watch, but it's much more destructive than that. You may, like me, feel that you are growing older at a rate of one year for each minute of video. A morbid fear of death may kick in at about 8:32. I had to click pause as 12:37 to avoid becoming physically ill. I keep trying to go back and stick it out so I can do a proper post. I keep saying things like maybe it will get funny out of sheer extreme unhipness, but I am afraid. I am so very afraid.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, save us Ann, so we don't have to waste 32 minutes of our lifes. What is so bad?

Revenant said...

The big surprise here, to me, is that Rich Little is still alive. I can't remember hearing about him since the Reagan administration.

Laura Reynolds said...

This is like a "village idiots convention" only not funny, in concept or actuality. I thought Canada jokes went out with the McKenzie Brothers.

Invisible Man said...

What, Yakov Smirnoff wasn't available? Red Foxx and Buttons are rolling in their graves after that.

I know that Republicans didn't like Colbert hurting Dear Leader's itty whittle feelings but this is a little much. Nixon and Carter jokes? Next year, they should just let the staff of the Weekly Standard give W a bubble bath.

George M. Spencer said...

No interest in watching Rich Little.

Nonetheless....who cares, so what, big deal.....

Uncoolness...The ultimate reason to dislike a President.

For more uncoolness, here's a link to a Jeff Foxworthy clip posted by Hewitt..

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/04/21/jeff-foxworthy-tells-it-like-it-is/

I wonder how many of the intelligensia roll their eyes at this....

Revenant said...

I know that Republicans didn't like Colbert hurting Dear Leader's itty whittle feelings but this is a little much.

Um, that's an interesting theory, but Republicans don't pick the speaker. The press association does. That would be the same press association Colbert spent most of his painfully unfunny 2006 routine bashing.

They should have gotten Cedric the Entertainer to come back (he did the 2005 dinner). Now there's a *real* comedian -- not a one-joke cliche like Little or Colbert.

AlphaLiberal said...

Nice rant.

That was a peek inside a politically sanitized zone where all the soul was sucked from the room. I watched for about three minutes and that was enough.

AllenS said...

Dubya, should have just said: "I'm not into comedy, at the present time, considering the circumstances." And, everyone would have understood. Then he should have said: "I'll leave the comedy to my shotgun weilding VP Dick Cheney."

Troy said...

Wayland Flower and Madame talking about Lawrence v. Texas would've been much funnier or perhaps the Unknown Comic or perhaps Gallagher putting an Osama face on a watermelon and smashing it. Maybe Shields and Yarnell could've reenacted the firing of U.S. Attorneys....

Sad thing is... Rich Little used to be "it". Johnny Carson loved the guy and he was A-list back in the 1970s. He even had HBO specials in the early '80s.

Revenant said...

I'll leave the comedy to my shotgun weilding VP Dick Cheney.

He's milked the Cheney jokes for about all they're worth at this point. Although I liked his joke from the correspondent's dinner a month or so back:

"A year ago my approval rating was in the 30s, my nominee for the Supreme Court had just withdrawn, and my vice president had shot someone... ah, those were the good old days."

XWL said...

Only slightly less disturbing than this video (my disturbing video discovery is only 5 minutes long, and you really have to watch it to the bitter end to get the full effect, and visit the blog that produced it)

It's so ham-handed as to seem obviously parody, yet I think this joker is completely sincere.

If it's a parody site, it has been phenomenally consistent in tone and purpose.

Unknown said...

My gosh, half his routine hadn't been updated in 10 years! I'll bet Sanjaya didn't even know who Andy Rooney was.

Unknown said...

Oh, for whoever asked: Yaakov Smirnoff is apparently a hit in Branson Missouri. He was probably the backup if Rich

Oh my I just hit 12:37.

Revenant said...

XWL,

I'm pretty sure that's a parody site. Check out the first of the "testimonies" on the right-hand side of the page.

But yeah, it is indistinguishable from an Indymedia or DU posting.

Unknown said...

Lousy GWB impression.

Unknown said...

Oh. My. God. It really does get worse.

My YouTube plugin shows time remaining. But you have to watch it, just look at the woman's face at 3:07-3:05 remaining. That will pretty much sum it up for you.

Joe said...

I lasted five minutes. The last time I thought Rich Little was funny when I saw him on The Hollywood Squares when I was ten. On second thought, I didn't think he was funny then, just that he did a good job with his impersonation.

Ann Althouse said...

Rich Little really was brilliant in his time. Unfortunately, he couldn't leave it at that. But the worst thing is accepting this invitation and not writing new material. I can't BELIEVE he did the Johnny Carson material. And ending with Nixon like that... painfully surreal.

On the other hand, Shields and Yarnell... that's so trippy.

hdhouse said...

I think this was on c-span or I may have been watching a Popele pocket fisherman infomercial...so hard to tell....

it was agony. i beg you. don't watch it. please. spare yourselves.

Susan said...

Just one more thing that makes you realize how brilliant Carson was: he knew when to leave and never look back.

MadisonMan said...

24:39-24:37 time left. Priceless crowd shot.

I think I'll stop watching now.

Titus said...

I actually thought Colbert was brilliant last year. Bush as well as the MSM hated him because he bashed the media just as much as he bashed the president.

After that performance the Youtube clip of him really became huge. Many of the editorial writers both left and right went off on him.

Rich Little, on the other hand, was absolutely painful. I watched about 5 minutes of it and I had to turn it off. It was like something from another time, long long ago. But he was safe, I guess, awful and outdated, but safe.

What an intro from Bush. He didn't feel like being funny because of Virginia Tech and then turned it over to a comedian to be funny.

Could you imagine attending that thing? How awful would that of been? Everyone pretending to love each other and acting all important. That is the last place I would of wanted to be. Didn't they actually have a red carpet too? Absolutely revolting.

Kirk Parker said...

Never fear, people! I've found an antidote!

Revenant said...

Bush as well as the MSM hated him because he bashed the media just as much as he bashed the president.

I doubt that Bush "hated" him. If Bush was actually bothered when entertainers made fun of him he'd have been reduced to a fetal position by now.

The notion that Bush just Couldn't Handle Being Told the Truth was kind of a lefty talking point in the aftermath of the Colbert fiasco, but realistically speaking (a) Colbert said nothing that hadn't been said a zillion times before and (b) I kind of doubt Bush cares what Colbert thinks. I would expect, though, that both Bush and most of the others present were a bit put off by such open hostility at what is traditionally a good-natured event.

Everyone pretending to love each other and acting all important.

The whole purpose of the dinner, traditionally speaking, is to let the press feel important at the President's expense. I'd hope that most of them realize that they're of no real importance to American politics.

Daryl said...

Your reaction is weak and passive.

Mine is vigorous and life-affirming. I want to heckle the mofo!

At 3 minutes: He's the anti-Colbert and he isn't even subtle about it

At 6 minutes: I'm sick of him telling us what a great impressionist he is

At 7 minutes: his jokes are failing so he falls back on non-political jokes and sympathy for Carson

At 10 minutes: he brings up Colbert by name.

At 12 minutes: He rhymes "score" with "galore" in a stupid song number.

At 15 minutes: He repeats the goddamned stupid song.

At 17 minutes: Song repeated for the third time. He's the only one laughing during it.

At 19 minutes: he tells the hockey-hookers joke.

At 20 minutes: Song repeated for the fourth time.

At 21 minutes: makes a joke about sending Bridges to Baghdad to die

At 23 minutes: his punchline is that the word "ass," which rhymes with the singsongy thing he's impersonating Bush as saying.

At 24 minutes: song repeats x 5

At 25 minutes: the nicest thing he could possibly do for Bush: an impersonation of Nixon

At 26 minutes: The "jowl movement" joke goes over well with Bush

At 29-31 minutes: he brings up death imagery. Despite that the video is almost over, this is where it's most depressing.

"just look at the woman's face at 3:07-3:05 remaining." Yup. This is when he's laying on the death real thick.

---

The singular good moment is after he tells some abominably stupid joke, he singles out NYT people and accuses them of not getting it. That was funny because I think they were uncomfortable (and that's the best kind of comedy).

George M. Spencer said...

This is performance art, a joke played by George Bush and his White House on all the cool hipsters everywhere.

David53 said...

Ann, how could you post something like this!

Everyone knows you are just a shill for the Republican party, what is the matter with you? Were you bitten by that black widow?

Modern Otter said...

After that I REALLY miss Frank Gorshin!

rand said...

Since Bush decided that in light of the recent events at Virginia Tech that humor from the President of the USA he apparently meant that humor in general was not appropriate...

rand said...

for some reason my profile isn't coming across...
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Adam said...

Vaughn Meader is dead, and he still would have been funnier.