Presidential Humor

As we read the Lyndon Johnson piece in class, I started to wonder about the entire concept of presidential humor. I think that it is only natural, at least in modern times, to make jokes at the expense of those in higher power. Since government is always the subject of scrutiny, it would only make sense that the head of the government would receive his fair share of flak. I am not sure if president jokes have extended back into the history of America, but they have certainly been a part of popular culture for the past fifty years (at least since Saturday Night Live has existed). 

It has been easy for comedians to find humor in the past few decades. They have had a president who resigned due to a criminal scandal, one who was impeached because of an extramarital "affair" and a cowboy with poor speaking skills. Humorists have probably been having a blast whenever any of those presidents spoke on national television. Also, it seems that recently, with criticism of George W. Bush, comedians have given off-handed comments about their personal political preferences (liberal in social and economic matters).

This makes it very difficult with the election of Barack Obama. First of all, he stands for many of the things and issues that several of these comedians criticized Bush for not having. Second, he is black. Can these comedians and late night hosts(who are mostly white, i.e. Leno, Conan, Letterman, Ferguson, Kimmel) come us with any sort of material to make their time-honored pokes at the president. He hasn't made many blunders yet, at least not compared to Bush, and any jokes about his race would be borderline offensive. I am sure it could be pulled off tastefully but I don't think many white comedians are willing to take the risk.

I do not know how to circumvent this "humor problem". My best advice would be for comedians to hammer down their best Obama impressions (Fred Armisen has already nailed an immaculate one on SNL). That would definitely provide laughs. Other than that, I guess this people are just going to have to wait for the president to screw up, for better or for worse.