Did comedians help Obama win?

[babylonsister]

I don't think so, but wonder if I'm in the minority.

Add: Joy Behar on Larry King said that.

I'm thinking there are so many people who didn't watch Jon Stewart, Steven Collbert, Bill Maher.

But Letterman was pretty partisan, too. :D

[JI7]

1. not at all, it was Obama himself and of course the horrible state

our nation was in.

[greyl]

2. I don't see why not.

Everyone that took the time to say something positive about Obama in relation to the trainwreck of the Republican campaign had a part.

[sutz12]

3. Not really...

After all, they haven't had to do any real work writing material since Bush took office. The shit just wrote itself.

Comedians liked Bush about like al Qaeda did. Easy money for their cause.

Now I appreciate all the comedians that publicized Shrub's faults and fuckups in such an entertaining manner, so I guess they helped get the message out, so to speak. But the Repubs were the authors of their own demise.

[SidDithers]

4. Tina Fey eviscerated Sarah Palin for weeks on SNL...

and even if you didn't watch the show, you saw the highlights on news channels over and over and over and over.

IMO, her portrayal of Palin as a know-nothing beauty queen caused immeasurable damage to the McCain ticket. And I was glad to see it :)

Sid

[snot]

5. Duh. T.D.S. et al. didn't help? Given how few scarce real news was elsewhere?

[BlooInBloo]

12. I'm puzzled by the intransigence here against acknowledging that comedians on balance...

helped to some non-zero degree.

[greyl]

17. Yeah, it must be the idea that "helped" equals "totally responsible". :)

Hard to believe the same people would say great comedians don't have any affect on society, eg Lenny Bruce, Carlin, Pryor, Chris Rock.

[LiberalFighter]

6. The Republicans helped Obama win. Bush, Palin, Cheney, Palin, McCain, Palin

[johnaries]

7. Not at all. People wouldn't have laughed if they didn't already agree

with the jokes. Comedians only reflected the mood of the country, they didn't create it.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

8. We didn't need comedians to cream them

but it didn't hurt that our Republican counterparts certainly set themselves up for lambasting.

I'm cable-free and could only imagine what fun Stewart, Colbert, etc. were having. I loathe SNL and have for years, and still haven't seen much of Tina Fey's Palin (enjoyed Lisa Nova's Palin on Youtube though). My weekly comedy intake has long been MadTV, Quincy Jones' multiracial sacred-cow poker. The trouble they found with comedian Keegan Michael Key's Barack impression was that even when they tried to make him look foolish, he looked cool. The actors playing the esteemed competition didn't even have to try for laughs.

MadTV castmembers Arden Myrin and Bobby Lee as the McCains. Keegan-Michael Key as President Obama.

[BlooInBloo]

9. "Helped" doesn't mean anything remotely close to "was the sole and unique force behind Obama"...

The relevance of your comments depends entirely upon conflating the two.

Sure they *helped* - as a net balance sheet issue. Until someone specifies just *how much* they helped, absolutely nothing has been said.

[Believing Is Art]

10. Undoubtedly

Tina Fey destroyed Palin so that the Obama camp didn't have to. McCain's dis of Letterman was news for weeks. The type of people that watch The Daily Show and Colbert Report probably wouldn't vote Republican, but their coverage probably provided more motivation for the college-age voters to get to the polls.

This isn't to say Obama was not the better candidate by far or that he didn't run a superior campaign. And since his campaign was so well-run, the comedians just didn't have the kind of material that McCain/Palin gave them.

[Radical Activist]

14. It's another example of Obama having a superior campaign.

There's no doubt that the Obama campaign was aware of the influence comedians have and worked to make sure it played in Obama's favor.

[Radical Activist]

11. Of course. They always have an impact.

They do in every Presidential election. It's important to have a candidate who can get the late night talk show and comedian jokes to play in his favor.

They helped Bush win every time they joked about Bush being a hick and Kerry being elitist. Or about Gore being stiff and dishonest.

[Deep13]

13. Only to the extent that their material was based on reality. nt

[backscatter712]

15. Reality has a well-known liberal bias... n/t

[FrenchieCat]

16. They certainly didn't hurt.

The fact that they kept on asking how does one tell a joke about someone who's near perfect was actually pretty cool!

[Blue Dog Dominion]

18. I like a good laugh, but don't give these guys any credit

I hate when comedians think they are so smart and witty and yet their staff writes 90% of their material. Especially Bill Maher. His jokes were lame even BEFORE his writers joined the strike.

[sandnsea]

19. Absolutely

It's a herd out there.

[devilgrrl]

20. No. The Bush Crime Family helped by providing comedians an endless amount of material.

eom

[Elwood P Dowd]

21. Craig Ferguson is taking a pay cut

since his favorite comedy team of Bush/Cheney has left the building.

[Captain Hilts]

22. Yes, yes they did. nt

[rocktivity]

23. If you're referring to the ones in the Republican Party, yes.

Who were bigger jokes than Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin?

:rofl:
rocktivity

[dorkulon]

24. The way I see it, Obama helped Obama win.

Comedians liked him over McCain for the same reasons every other thinking person did. Same with journalists and other celebrities. These people are just people, like anyone else, except maybe a little more on the open-minded, sophisticated side. He was simply a better option, obviously smart and at least talking a good game. The luminaries were just reflecting the general consensus.