In this instance, I'd like hear your thoughts on some of the very predictable jokes that have found their way into our cultural as part of the "first black president inauguration package." Let me preface these with my own reaction - LMFAO. I imagine some of these are gonna be touchy so if you feel a little uncomfortable, breathe . . . wooo-saaa . . . or picture Dave Chapelle doing it on his show and maybe you can find some humor in them.
And maybe not. Maybe none of them are funny; perhaps they're all in bad taste.
Countdown:
5. Basketball Obama
Of course all black people play basketball! Even the Ivy League lawyer types who make it to the White House. The only thing more stereotypical to highlight from his personal hobbies would be if he were caught playing spades with some friends on election night.
4. Obama's Stimulus
Bill. . . maybe not the bill you expected, but with the rising cost of food, jobs being lost and a president who never misses a chance to brand himself we all should have seen this one coming. I wonder if this gives you an extra discount on "black" foods like watermelon and chicken. (O.K., forget I said that.)
3. Obama Fried Chicken
Speaking of chicken (lol), well what do you know - seems like the president in cashing in on the community. Obama Fried Chicken, right in my neighborhood here in New York City. (Really. I couldn't make this up even if I tried.) True to Obama's diplomacy, it seems like the store offers Gyros for Greeks, Bagels for Jews, Pizza for Italians, and Halal meats for Middle Easterners.
2. The Gift of Music
I put this one high on my list of favorites because Obama actually brought this on himself. Since it seems to be well established that black people love music, Obama decided to share the love by giving the Queen of England an iPod as a gift. WHAT! LOL! It's hard to imagine how folks get along in life without some back-in-tha-day tunes but Obama won't have it. The jury is still out as to whether it was pre-loaded with some old school love jams and Motown favorites. But it did seem to include a few of his best talks. Now that's one confident man who could do that! And speaking of confidence...
1. Swagger Like Barack
Alot of people (mostly white) think Obama has a "God complex". But it's not a complex at all - it's swagger! Swagger is a subtle thing that many people who are not black don't seem to get. (Sorry.) Swagger is about one thing: respect. Rest assured, if President Obama feels disrespected, he will find himself dodging the "angry black man" bullet.John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama all die and go to heaven. God looks down from his throne and asks McCain, “Do you think you deserve to be in heaven?”
McCain takes a breath and then replies, “Well, I think so because I was a great leader and tried to follow the words in your great book.” God looks down and then says, “You can sit to my left side.”
So, McCain takes his seat and then God asks the same question to Hillary, “Do you think you deserve to be in heaven?” Hillary thinks for a second and then replies, “I think so because I have been fighting for the rights of so many people for so long.” God again looks down and this time says, “You can sit to my right side.”
Finally God turns to Barack Obama and asks, “Do you think you deserve to be in heaven?”
Obama smiled and replied, “I think you’re in my seat.”
Check out this interesting article: "Cartoonists Tread Lightly When Drawing Obama"
210 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 210 of 210I agree with the people who think jokes like this shouldn’t be offensive, in most cases anyway. Sometimes things can be taken a little too far to the point where it’s just not funny, but rather wrong. In this instance, I think it is more likely for Obama supporters to take more offense. For example, the cartoon with the chimpanzee being shot dead and the quote “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill,” is one of those jokes that I described earlier as being taken too far (if the chimpanzee was supposed to represent Obama himself). Maybe I’m just saying this as an Obama supporter, because McCain supporters on the other hand probably got a chuckle out of it. Liberals and Republicans like to make fun of their opposing parties, and sometimes it seems like we’re pretty divided rather than united. But you can’t please everyone and it’s the cartoonist’s job to try and make people laugh. I can agree that having that job it would be very hard to determine which drawings/cartoons would be considered safe ground with such a large audience. I don’t find anything wrong with caricatures and the facial deformities, I think that’s all in good fun and I wouldn’t be offended by a cartoon drawing of myself that had some specific feature standing out. Anybody that gets a caricature drawn of themself always looks silly somewhere, that’s the whole point of them. I find it funny and interesting that when you see cartoon drawings of famous people you know immediately who it is. Same idea goes along with the side profile silhouette of Obama with earphones in. Also, cartoonists tend to make fun of anyone that is currently popular or in the news and it doesn’t matter what their race or class is. It seems a lot easier for that invisible line to be crossed when picking fun at races other than white. It’s not often you see protests or controversy over a white person being made fun of. Like someone else talked about, no one seemed to make all the jokes about George Bush’s intelligence very controversial. And I definitely agree that if the majority of jokes about President Obama have to do with strictly his race, then kudos to him because that actually reinforces that people can’t find much else to poke fun about. For instance, there haven’t been any greeting cards in the stores making fun of his intelligence, which is more personal and easier to take offense by.
And speaking of his race, Obama’s considered our first black President yet he is 50% white. I guess because he has darker skin than any other President we’ve had in the past his image is that he’s completely black. I think part of the rant and rage is also because so many were ready for a change like this. Not saying I don’t agree that this presidential election was a huge part of history, because it absolutely was. And I admit I always think of Obama as “the first black president,” too, rather than just “the president.”
Lastly, the fried chicken and watermelon black stereotype always sort of made me laugh because they happened to be two of my favorite foods and I’m a white person. And who doesn’t love music in this day and age? And the stereotype that black people are good at sports, especially basketball, should be a compliment. Obviously there’s a lot more racial acceptance in today’s world, but racial stereotypes are something that probably will never fade away because race will never be all together be ignored.
I would like to start off by saying that I do not qualify myself to really speak about race relations because I am from a town with very little diversity. I do have to say though that I do not really find offense to any of these jokes nor do I feel like I would find offense if they were made about white people. These jokes play on a stereotype of black people, but they could have been made about any other ethnicity besides black people. They could have made a joke about white people playing polo or horseshoes like they had Obama playing basketball. They could have talked about how Latino people eat tacos or salsa or something. People who get pissed off by jokes like these should lighten up. Everyone has at one time or another played on a stereotype of another race to get a couple of laughs. I think it is pretty comical that the president of the United States gave the queen of England an iPod. The woman can barely walk up steps, there is no way she is downloading songs off of iTunes. I cannot picture her walking around Buckingham palace with her headphones in listening to music. The stereotype that black people like music is true, but it is probably true if you talk about any ethnicity. Everyone enjoys listening to music.
The food stamps joke is pretty funny, because it is basically saying that only black people use food stamps to purchase their groceries. Over the summer, I worked for Lackawanna county cleaning up the projects. The people that lived there were living below the poverty line and many of them were receiving food stamps. From what I saw there just as many white and latino people as they were black people living in these developments. I do not know any statistics, but I would have to think that there is a good amount of white people living on food stamps. The last joke is one that I believe is pretty accurate. He does carry himself with a lot of poise and confidence. The stereotype that black people have swagger is one that I agree with also in most instances, although there are definitely cases where it is not true. The way that president Obama carries himself is not a testament to his ethnicity, but the way that he was brought up and raised. The way a person acts under pressure, which the president is normally under, is a reflection of his parents and his family. No person acts the way the act solely based on what color their skin is. President Obama, if anything, breaks the mold that most people have on black people.
First of all, I find racial jokes very funny. I believe that racists must be really interested in the other race to come up with the racial insults. I guess they love other races more than themselves to diagnose and comprehend that much about other races. I am an Asian male, and of course all the racial jokes about Asians, this and that, tag along with me wherever I go. And I usually laugh when I hear racial jokes about Asians, perhaps consider them clever when they reach the level of being “Who would ever thought of that?”
Since, current American President is Black people who are not happy with the president got the easiest opportunity to whine about the president. My knowledge of politics is very low; I am not interested and have no problem without knowing it right now. So I will just try to stay on topic of racial jokes. There are racial jokes of every ethnic group, and one shouldn’t stop something just because he/she may be made fun of. Obama is black, just because he is black it doesn’t mean that he should stop eating fried chickens and drinking grape kool-aid just because somebody may take a picture of him and he will be made fun of, as a matter of fact I do not even know if Obama actually drinks grape kool-aid.
However, I found Obama giving the Queen of England an iPod as a gift really funny, but this was taken in different way. What if Obama was Asian? He could still be made fun of giving iPod as a gift. I bet somebody will try to say “Woo, his tryna help out his family business.” or “Haha he made it for himself.” I find racial jokes very interesting because it could be taken to one race to the other. There is a Korean saying that “It’s an earring if u put it on your ear, and it’s a nose ring if you put it on your nose.” This is the truth that stereotype/racial jokes do come from somewhere, but this shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I mean people should realize that there is a boundary to not cross, but still.
Again, I am an Asian male, and I am from different country. As a foreigner’s point of view, I believe, I could be wrong but this is completely my opinion, that Americans take too serious about people’s appearance especially one’s race. When somebody does something, it is never because of that’s him or her, it is always because he/she is White, Black, Asian, Hispanic, or etc. I really hope the time when each individual will be taken by others as an individual beyond the race.
The president of the United States will always be in the middle of all the jokes. Just look at George W. Bush’s last 8 years. There are countless times where George Bush was getting bashed. There is even a movie called “W” that portrays his life as a joke. To me I think it is very humorous. Why shouldn’t we be aloud to make fun of our presidents? Who really cares? People need to step back and take a good hard look at themselves and realize that they don’t have to always be serious.
Just because Obama is half black doesn’t mean he cannot be messed with. Even though it seems like more people get offended when race comes into play. The basketball image of Obama is pretty clever because it seems as though mostly all basketball players these days are black. It made me chuckle the first time I saw it to be honest. If something so small offends people than they have some problems. The second cartoon picture was probably my favorite of the bunch because of the stereotype that mostly all black people need coupons. Obviously not all blacks need food coupons, but it is still pretty intriguing to look at and think about. The extra discount on watermelon and chicken was a good call by the blogger because it just adds to the joke. I know stereotypes such as that are bad but sometimes you have to sit back and just laugh at stuff like that even if it’s true. If you can’t laugh at yourself than you shouldn’t laugh at all. The third one “Obama’s Fried Chicken” is pretty funny too. I’m not too sure where this stereotype that “all black people eat is fried chicken” comes from but it is crazy how someone actually opened up their own restaurant just from a typical stereotype of black people. It seems like this place might be filled with different ethnic groups with the sort of food they are selling. I wonder what Obama would think about this. The music Obama picture to me shouldn’t be offending to anyone at all. What’s wrong with him giving an iPod to Queen Elizabeth. I think that this picture is actually pretty cool because I think anyone in America would know who this person in the picture is. Whether or not he preloaded the iPod with some of his favorite songs is irrelevant. I think this picture isn’t even poking fun at Obama. I am not a true Obama fan, but I will give the man one thing, he does have extraordinary swagger. I don’t think he thinks he is God or anything, I just think he relates to the young Americans really well. I could understand why most old people don’t really like Barrack because he seems to cool for school. One thing I do like about him is his confidence.
No matter how many good things Obama does for the world there will always be critics. Whether he is white or black doesn’t make a difference to me. I hope they keep making these humorous pictures about Obama so we can maybe keep his swagger in check.
I personally find these jokes to be funny. I think that people need to not take such offense to these jokes about the president and racial jokes in general because there are jokes made about all races. I don’t really think that the Obama should feel violated by these jokes either because they are not made just about him and they are not specifically made because he is black. Just as many jokes were made about President Bush and Obamas race is just a factor that people can play off of in the making of the jokes. I think its ridiculous for people to be offended by a lot of these adds because some of the stereotypes are not even negative towards the black race. For example, the first picture of President Obama as a basketball player is just playing off of the stereotype that all black people play basketball. This is not particularly negative, in fact it could possibly be positive stating that black people are good at basketball. The second picture however of Obama on the food stamp I believe, is meant to have a negative connotation. It implies that most of the people who use food stamps are of the black race. I think that some people defiantly take offense to the joke of Obama on the food stamp and that for their sake society should be aware of the jokes they are making and how they can be offensive to others but people should just not take things so personally.
The Obama’s Fried Chicken is just another example of how all people are called out by their race and made fun of by offering all the other stereotypical types of food for different types of people. I’m certainly sure that you don’t actually have to be black to go their and order fried chicken. It is simply just a joke, something that should be laughed at the way it was meant to be and not to be taken offensively. Lastly, I don’t even think that the music add is in anyway offensive, or even funny for that matter but maybe I just don’t get it. Either way adds like that are made about all kinds of different people and not offensive. Over all i think that people should not be so critical of these pictures and jokes, after all they are meant to be funny and not offensive in the first place. Jokes are made about all races, religions, groups of people and cultures. Its just a fact of life that people are going to take stereotypes and turn them into jokes. I think that people who are offended by them should just not pay attention to them if they are going to take things so personally.
In response to the blog “What’s Funny About Obama…and What’s Not” I would just like to say that yes, it can be funny to make fun of our president, however it must be tactful and empathic to the person you are satirizing. For example, the cartoon from the New York Post, which depicts police officers and a slain chimpanzee, and then the officers saying “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill,” I believe this was an error in judgment on the part of the cartoonist and the editor who allowed it to be published. Regardless of whether are not there was a story about a chimpanzee who had to be put down, I believe that the editorial staff should have taken into consideration that comparing the first half-black President of the United States to a chimpanzee would not have had a great reception, especially among the black community, considering how much racial history there is with comparing black people to primates. It just seemed like blatant ignorance and lack of empathy on the part of the editorial staff. They should have just avoided that story all together. However if the situation would have been different and the police had to shoot a dog or any other animal and they tried to compare that animal to the president, it just wouldn’t make sense.
As far as the little cartoons are concerned in the blog, I think that they are hilarious. This is mostly due to the fact that they are smart and not something that is a result of ignorance. Also, I noticed that none of them are caricatures that depict him with exaggerated African features such as a big, wide nose, big lips or “nappy” hair. They are jokes that are aimed solely at Obama and not at the entire race. Everyone knows that Obama likes to play basketball so having a cartoon that satirizes this is perfectly okay. This is the same case with poking fun at the fact that President Obama gave the Queen of England an iPod.
However with Obama Fried Chicken and Obama Food Coupons, these are a little bit on the edge in my opinion. Since Obama Fried Chicken is an actual place that exists, and since it is an exaggerated stereotype that black people love fried chicken, the irony is too juicy to pass up…as long as this wasn’t a cartoon that someone fabricated. However, I really don’t see anyone associating George Bush and Bush’s Baked Beans...why is that? Is it because baked beans are not considered a “white” food and chicken is considered a “black” food?
With the Obama Food Coupons, it is an interesting situation because this could solely be meant to poke fun at his policies, however it is plausible to construe this as a racial joke in that the majority of beneficiaries of food stamps are black people. In conclusion, I will say that it is okay to poke fun at our president as a singular entity but as long as those jokes are not making fun of his race or his ethnic background.
Hell yeah I think the whole black people playing basketball stereotype is funny. I think it’s funny because of the absurdity behind the comment. Of course Barack Obama is going to take advantage of the opportunity to play sports. He’s the first president and probably will be the only president ever to put up a good game. You really think Bush, Clinton, or Ronal Reagan put up some hoops? Hell no! Barack Obama is a healthy young president and should take advantage of all the opportunities his age allows him to.
The stimulus bill is what it is. I was just surprised at how Obama proposed this massive stimulus bill while George Bush was so caught up over the war in the Middle East. It makes me think if either were really that necessary.
Oh the stereotypical content of the name of this restaurant… priceless! Why hate on the opportunity for such an opportune joke? Why not take advantage of the situation and get a good laugh out of the whole thing? Well look on the bright side, at least they serve food that accommodates customers of many races. Thank you Obama’s Fried Chicken. Maybe I’ll stop in for an egg roll or two one of these days.
I love Obama for this act of generosity. I’m not going to lie, I wish I knew what exactly was on that Ipod. I’m sure it had some old some old school jams along with some modern day club tunes that would want to make the Queen of England drop it like it’s hot. In all sincerity though, it’s about time that someone (Obama) treated the queen like a normal human being rather than this royal being that is above all the rest of us. I’m sure she was not only surprised but pleased by the gesture of humanity.
President Barack Obama is the man, enough said. His swagger and confidence makes him the most appealing president to observe of all time. With all of these previous yuppie presidents that presented themselves above everyone else just made them look like idiots. They attempted to be this higher being while sitting in the oval office when in the long run… they always end doing something idiotic that brought their image right back to earth. Nixon… Watergate. Clinton… Lewinsky. Bush… every single speech he gave. President Barack Obama does not put on a façade to please those around him along with the media. He knows his confidence and the way he presents himself is enough to get him what he needs in life. Let’s face the facts, out of all the presidents we’ve every had, Barack Obama is by far the coolest one we’ve ever had… no contest.
For starters, I would like to say that I do not personally think that the jokes toward Obama humorous. They are very demeaning and stereotypical. However they show how many people still follow these stereotypes and try to make them look worse than they are by using a person of higher power as their target. The fact that they exaggerated the chicken restaurant named after Obama shows how low they can aim in order to make a black person look bad. I am pretty sure that Obama is not offended by these stereotypes and neither are the African American communities. I believe that the African American communities are more proud at the fact that we finally have a “black president” instead of what people are saying. Obama has already proven that he has enough class to be the president, so using him as the image for these advertisements is non effective. I was also very surprised when they tried to portray Obama as God in the joke at the end. The joke was entertaining but none the less disrespectful. My opinion is not just based on the fact that I am African American but also because the paparazzi are always trying to put our president down instead of give him a chance. He is trying to make a change but it will not happen overnight. These changes will take time and will take the nation to help make the difference. The fact that Obama bought Queen Elizabeth an I-pod is not showing that he likes to listen to music like all black people. Everyone enjoys a little music every now and again but they make it seems like a problem when Obama does it. He is just trying to give a unique gift to someone who is royalty and who more than likely has everything. I also feel that putting Obama on an advertisement for basketball is just silly. I don’t think anyone would take offense to being able to play basketball. Think about it, everyone wants to be the next Jordan. In conclusion I would like to touch on the fact that they put Obama on a food stamp. This is where I would have took offense because they are making it seem as if he is just looking out for his people. Also they make it look like he doesn’t want to help them that much by only giving them a little bit of money and limiting what they can get. Obama wants everyone to become independent but also have the same opportunities such as health care. Obama is our president and whatever he does represents our nation so it should be to no surprise when he takes responsibility, not credit, for his teams work because he always mentions them.
When I read this blog it was the first time that I had seen the electronic image of the poster with the head shots of the United States Presidents. I was very drawn back when I saw the way that our first black president, Barack Obama, was depicted in the way he was. I immediately found it nothing but offensive and I frankly did not really understand it. Was it a direct shot at Barack Obama himself, or was it directed to his supported more? I don’t really understand how any American could find any humor in this twisted image. The creator of this image could be said to be nothing but racist, there is no way of getting around it. I think the fact that Barack Obama is the president of America can serve as a slap in the face as the creator of the image. When Barack Obama was elected the president of the United States of America it showed that racism in American had been beat to some extent, and how much America has progressed over the centuries. Whether the creator of the offensive image of the presidents likes it or not, Barack Obama is still president, and still African American.
I think the second issue, regarding Captain Justin Barrett and the “banana eating jungle monkey” incident is almost humorous to me. The fact that Captain Justin Barrett thought he could say that about the first lady, Michelle Obama, and not get heat for it is ridiculous. Captain Justin Barrett is someone that is in the public a lot, he should have known that saying something like that would create an uproar and automatically create a label of a racist for himself. Someone of his status in the public eye should know better than to make “jokes” towards other races at any time. Jokes should not be made in such public situations at any time by someone like Captain Justin Barrett, at best any jokes should stay between friends and family. Claiming that he is not racist and it was supposed to be a joke just put him in deeper, he should have just apologized from the get go. When incidents like this occur in the media it just exemplifies to the rest of the country that racism does exist, and it does not help us move forward to eliminating racism from our country all together.
I think things like both of these situations happen a lot in our society today and I think racism is something that can not be avoided. When people see this in the media they will start to believe that this is the norm and that racist actions or words are things that can not be avoided, which should not be the way of thinking in America today.
Since Barack Obama has become president I have heard so many race jokes targeting him it’s ridiculous. I think most of them are pretty funny and as a black woman, I have yet to get really offended by any of the stereotypical “black” jokes. I think it’s all in good fun and people shouldn’t be so uptight about things like this. I don’t even think Obama would get offended hearing jokes about himself. Becoming president of the United States I’m sure Obama knew people would criticize and make jokes about any and every thing, so I’m pretty sure he was prepared for it, it just comes with the job. George Bush got made fun of too many times to count because everyone thought he was a dumbass and made stupid decisions. I don’t know about everyone else, but I rather have people make stereotypical jokes about my race, than the entire nation making fun of me because they think I’m not intelligent and suck at my job.
To me, if the jokes are somewhat true it makes it even funnier. For example, the “Obama Got Next” drawing was funny; everyone knows a lot of black people love and play basketball. In a way I feel Obama had that one coming. He did play basketball in college, the man even changed the tennis court in the White House to a basketball court which made me laugh when I first heard that. I thought the stimulus one was kinda messed up because it makes others think that all black people need food assistance. I feel contributes to the idea that blacks are less than whites because we can’t afford to buy food, which isn’t true. The Obama fried chicken picture wasn’t offensive, but it just wasn’t that funny to me. I was more surprised that someone would actually name their store Obama Fried Chicken it’s actually a good way to make money it calls a lot of attention to the store. The Gift of Music picture wasn’t that funny to me either because everyone listens to music it doesn’t matter what your race is. I did think it was hilarious that Obama gave the queen an ipod as a gift I would think he would give her something more upscale since the she is the queen. I can’t even see my grandmother using an ipod yet alone the queen. Swagger like Barack was a good one, I didn’t think anything about it was offensive.
I think these jokes aren’t made to offend people. It’s only because he’s black why everyone has so much to say. If we had an another white president people wouldn’t be making white jokes, and if they did I think the white population would be offended but I could be completely wrong.
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