Obama's Cool Problem

Any comic will tell you that the easiest way to seem funny is by making the audience laugh at you, and not with you. If a crowd feels superior to the entertainment, they're more likely to enjoy the routine.

This might explain why Barack Obama has never seemed particularly hilarious. His style is to play it cool -- and not the showboating "cool" of professional athletes in the end-zone. He's more reminiscent of Michael Jordan in his heyday: good because he's talented, but cool because he doesn't make a big deal out of things. And obviously, this attitude works for Obama. While Hillary Clinton threw scripted one-liners and political jabs his way, he just complimented her sense of humor and moved on. When John McCain (a naturally funny guy) worked a crowd like a put-upon Rodney Dangerfield impersonator, Obama sat back and politely chuckled. His opponents came across as trying way too hard, simply because Obama didn't seem to be trying at all.

But last night, the President did try to be funny, and... oy. On The Tonight Show, Obama decided to make fun of his campaign-trail bowling debacle (in which he knocked down a total of 37 pins). He told Jay Leno that he's gotten better, thanks to the White House bowling alley, and recently rolled a 129... then, after Leno offered up some sarcastic praise, Obama said it was "like the Special Olympics or something."

Yikes. Maybe I'm more sensitive than most, since I long-ago dropped the word "retarded" from my everyday vocabulary, and tend to cringe when it's used in casual conversation. And I'll admit that I laugh whenever The Onion makes a Special Olympics joke -- but that's coming from a publication that thrives on being an equal-opportunity offender. The simple truth is, as much as we claim to despise political correctness, we don't want to hear these kind of lines coming from the President.

So what went wrong? Why did Obama go with such a horrible comparison? Folks are already claiming it's because he's an elitist, but for goodness sake, it's hard to imagine that he hates the disabled. I think the answer's simpler: Obama isn't good at mockery, even when the subject is himself. It's a byproduct of being cool -- when you're above it all, you tend not to trade in insult humor. So when he tried to be self-deprecating, he flopped. There's a lesson here, which I hope he learned: cool and funny do not mix.