10. “Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned 28
this week. He got a watch from his girlfriend, a sweater from his parents, and
from the rest of us, all of our credit card numbers.” –Conan O’Brien

9. “Ron Paul made an announcement on Monday, saying
he’s dropping out of the race for president. This was his third race for
president. He ran in 2008 against John McCain and against Lincoln in
1860.” –Jimmy Kimmel

8. “President Obama is calling for more government
reform after JPMorgan’s $2 billion loss. Really, is that what we need — the
government stepping in? You know what’s going to happen? The government’s going
to teach them how to lose $2 billion a DAY!” –Jay Leno

7. “In an interview with ABC News on Wednesday,
President Obama said, ‘It is important for me to affirm that I think same-sex
couples should be able to get married.’ OK buddy, we get it, you’re not a
Muslim.” –Seth Meyers

6. “The average college graduate now leaves school
$27,000 in debt. But the good news is that now it means they are more than
qualified to work as financial advisers at JPMorgan.” –Jay Leno

5. “I just read about a new 24-hour day care that’s
opening in India. Yeah, it’s pretty cute, instead of playing telephone, the
kids just play tech support.” –Jimmy Fallon

4. “Mitt Romney has issued an apology for some of his
high school pranks that went a little too far. Probably the meanest prank was
the time he bought his high school and fired everyone in it.” –Conan
O’Brien

3. “Today Mitt Romney apologized for holding down Michele
Bachmann’s husband and cutting his hair.” –Jay Leno

2. “After President Obama announced his support for gay
marriage, his campaign raised a million dollars in 90 minutes. That explains
why today Mitt Romney actually supported gay marriage from noon to 1:30.”
–Jimmy Fallon

1. “Mitt Romney has jumped to a seven-point lead over
President Obama in a national poll. I think Romney’s starting to get cocky.
Today he threatened to pin down Joe Biden and pull out all of his hair
plugs.” –Jay Leno

For
our Maher fans:

“President Obama said he was evolving and then he came out for gay
marriage. Conservatives, of course, are furious – not about the gay thing,
about evolution.” –Bill Maher

“Bristol Palin accused Obama of pandering to teenagers who watch one too
many episodes of ‘Glee.’ Says the girl who got knocked up after watching one
too many episodes of ‘Teen Mom.’” –Bill Maher

“Mitt Romney said marriage should be between one man and one woman, the
way it has always been – with the exception of all of my relatives in Utah, my
dad who was born in Mexico, my great-grandfather who left the damn country to
get away from one-man, one-woman marriage. Other than that I’m a strict
conservative on the subject.” –Bill Maher

“When Mitt was in prep school he led a pack of his friends to forcibly
hold down this sensitive gay kid as he screamed and cried, and then cut off his
hair, because he had too long hair for Mitt’s tastes…I don’t know what it’s
like at your salon, but at mine, isn’t the guy cutting the hair the gay
one?” –Bill Maher

“There is something indicative about his character because it seems like
Mitt Romney was kind of a bully. This was not the only bullying thing he did.
He also took poor kids’ lunch money – oh, I’m sorry, that’s his present-day economic
policy.” –Bill Maher

Article source: http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2012/05/19/the-week-s-10-best-political-jokes-may-18-2012.aspx

The best political jokes, propaganda and political/social commentary is almost always late at night. Here’s some of the best from the past week.

Yesterday President Obama came out in favor of gay marriage because his position has evolved. Then today he flew to George Clooney’s house. So things are evolving a lot faster than we expected.
–Conan

Insiders say Obama’s pretty comfortable around actors. He should be. He has been “acting” like he was born in Hawaii for a long time.
–Craig Ferguson

Mitt Romney has jumped to a seven-point lead over President Obama in a national poll. I think Romney’s starting to get cocky. Today he threatened to pin down Joe Biden and pull out all of his hair plugs.
–Jay Leno

President Obama’s in town for a fundraiser. Forty grand a plate — because nothing says “man of the people” like demanding 40 grand for some rubbery chicken.
–Craig Ferguson

Researchers at Harvard say red wine can slow the aging process. They say if you drink red wine, it can help you look younger. And you can look even younger if you get the other person to drink it.
–Jay Leno

The White House admitted that Vice President Biden’s endorsement of gay marriage forced President Obama to come out in favor of it. So in a related story millions of Americans are trying to get Biden hooked on pot.
–Conan

According to Danish researchers, people who jog live six years longer than non-joggers. Aren’t you OK with dying early and missing that six years of jogging?
–Jay Leno

As I get older, I realize that my mom shaped me into who I am — a bitter, alcoholic comedian.
–Craig Ferguson

JPMorgan announced they lost $2 billion last quarter. You know who the real J.P. Morgan is, right? He’s Captain Morgan’s drunk brother who’s bad with money.
–Jay Leno

This week investors will be able to buy shares of Facebook stock for the first time ever. It’s great — now you can lose all your money in the same place you lost all your time.
–Jimmy Fallon

A janitor has graduated from Columbia University with honors as a classics major. With his new degree in classics, he’s now qualified to become a janitor.
–Conan

President Obama released his financial disclosure statement today. It turns out he is now worth over $10 million. So at least somebody is doing well in this economy.
–Jay Leno

As of Friday you’ll all be able to buy shares of Facebook. This is perfect for anyone who’s ever logged on, looked at pictures of their friend eating a sandwich, and thought, “Now there’s a sound investment.”
–Conan

A man was arrested at the JFK airport with cocaine hidden inside bottles of nail polish and sticks of deodorant. The man might have gotten away with it if he hadn’t hidden the drugs inside two other things you can’t bring through airport security.
–Jimmy Fallon

The Dalai Lama is saying that China trained a woman to assassinate him by putting poison in her hair. Luckily, the Dalai Lama had recently just stopped eating hair.
–Conan

Virgin Atlantic announced that on a select number of flights, passengers will be able to use their cellphones to make calls. I think I would honestly rather they filled the plane with killer bees than allow this.
–Jimmy Kimmel

The best-selling novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” has been banned from many libraries in Florida. Isn’t it shocking? They have libraries in Florida.
–Conan

I’m a little surprised how much everyone in show business wants a second term for Obama. An over-hyped sequel with a bloated budget — that’s not the Hollywood I know.
–Craig Ferguson

There’s a new iPhone app where users can look at awkward family photos. Of course, there’s always that other place to see awkward family photos — the cover of Time magazine.
–Jimmy Fallon

For Mother’s Day, Hooters is giving away free chicken wings to all mothers who come in. So Take your mom to Hooters. What better way to let her know she’s failed as a parent than taking her to Hooters for Mother’s Day?
–Jay Leno

Sunday is Mother’s Day. There’s a Jewish proverb that says, “God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers” — which is my favorite Jewish proverb right after “Stay thyself far away from Mel Gibson.”
–Craig Ferguson

Members of the “Geek Squad” are complaining that Best Buy is making them work off the clock. But they got revenge — today, they took a red audio cable and put it in the yellow visual input.
–Jimmy Fallon

Over the weekend Betty White endorsed Barack Obama. I think I’m going to wait and hear what Angela Lansbury has to say.
–David Letterman

We have Chef Gordon Ramsay on the show tonight. I thought he burned something when I saw smoke backstage — but then I remembered we also have Willie Nelson on the show tonight.
–Jimmy Fallon

The Octomom has finished her porn movie. The producers saved a lot of time on the credits because nobody wanted any.
–Jay Leno

Researchers are developing a stay-sober pill that will prevent you from getting drunk off of alcohol. It’s perfect for the drinker who wants all the calories of alcohol but none of the fun.
–Conan

There’s a new online reality show premiering this summer called “The Mormon Bachelor.” At the start of the show, the bachelor dates 25 contestants, and by the end he’s MARRIED 25 contestants.
–Jimmy Fallon

Yesterday NBC unveiled their new fall schedule. The biggest surprise? NBC is going to be back in the fall.
–Jay Leno

President Obama raised $1 million at a fundraiser hosted by Ricky Martin. Obama thanked Martin for his contribution to the campaign, while Joe Biden thanked him for his contribution to Menudo.
–Jimmy Fallon

by Mondo
image: DBKP file
Source: Newsmax. To see all of the week’s late night jokes–even the ones we didn’t pick, click the link!

Mondo Frazier is the author of THE SECRET LIFE OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, recently released by Threshold Editions, a division of Simon Schuster.

Back to DBKP Front Page.

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Article source: http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2012/05/late-night-joke-dump-may-20-2012/

The movie isn’t bad enough to be a career killer, the way “Guru” forced Myers into hiding.

But the latest collaboration between Cohen and director Larry Charles proves the formula they created with “Borat” and then started to milk dry with “Bruno” has finally run out of juice. Time to move on, boys.

Unlike their previous two films, which were shaped like documentaries, “The Dictator” is populated entirely by actors (there’s only one brief scene that appears to have been shot “Candid Camera”- ambush style, for old times’ sake). The script is credited to Cohen and three other writers (veterans of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” but also of “Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat”), yet still feels thin and underwritten — a collection of outrageous gags and jokes strung together by a flimsy plot no one really cares about, including the filmmakers.

Most dispiriting of all: “The Dictator” is, at heart, a romantic comedy that ends with one of those hackneyed scenes in which all the characters gather together to stand up and cheer while the musical score swells. The shock is that Cohen treats the moment perfectly straight.

The actor plays Admiral General Omar Aladeen, the mad despot of the North African country Wadiya, which is rich with oil and struggling to start a nuclear weapons program. Aladeen agrees to visit the “devil’s nest” of America with his brother (Ben Kingsley) to address the United Nations, but he’s stripped of his power and identity soon after landing in New York.

While plotting a way to regain his throne, he takes a job at an eco-friendly grocery story run by a cheerful activist (Anna Faris), who gradually falls for the unusually blunt foreigner who often speaks his mind.

Cohen is too gifted of a satirist to strike out completely with his conceits, even when they’re as shaky and obvious as the imperious Aladeen, who displays all the cultural stereotypes Westerners project on Arabs and Middle Easterners as if they were medals on his chest. There are lots of fleeting laughs in “The Dictator”: Aladeen emerges from his mother’s womb with a full beard and other bodily hair. His former head of nuclear research, Nadal (Jason Mantzoukas), has relocated to Manhattan, where he works at the Genius Bar at an Apple store. When a pair of white-bread tourists overhears the two men speaking Arabic and saying “2012 Porsche 911,” they automatically assume the worst. Like Cohen’s previous films, “The Dictator” exploits racism and xenophobia for laughs, flinging our deep-seated prejudices back in our faces for humor. But the approach isn’t nearly as effective when it’s actors reading lines instead of real people accidentally revealing their own biases. It’s funny to hear Aladeen say things like “Educated women are like monkeys on roller skates: They’re so adorable!” because the joke taps into sexist views inherent to some degree in all cultures. It’s not quite as amusing watching him play a video game in which he runs around shooting Israeli Olympic athletes at the 1972 Olympics, or listening to an FBI goon (John C. Reilly, in a cameo) rant about “Ay-rabs” and their dirty, despicable ways.

Every genuine laugh and creative gag in “The Dictator” is negated by a cheap or ugly joke — obvious jabs on stereotypes and racism that smack of self-importance, as if Cohen were preaching to us, and radiate a mean-spiritedness that “Borat” and “Bruno” avoided. “Edgy” terrorist humor alone doesn’t cut it anymore: You have to do more than push the envelope, and too much of the movie falls as flat as Cohen’s stunt of dumping ashes on Ryan Seacrest at the red carpet during the Oscars.

It’s telling that the biggest laugh in the entire film comes in the opening shot — a title card dedicating the picture to the memory of Kim Jong Il. The rest of “The Dictator,” sadly, has no clothes.

THE DICTATOR

1 1/2 stars

Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley, Jason Mantzoukas.

Director: Larry Charles.

Screenwriters: Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer.

Producers: Sacha Baron Cohen, Alec Berg, David Mandel.

A Paramount Pictures release. Running time: 83 minutes.

Rated R: Vulgar language, considerable nudity, mock violence, gore, sexual situations, strong adult themes.

In a mysterious and lighthearted video posted Tuesday on his official YouTube channel, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie jokes that he’s finished with town hall meetings, in part, because he’s sick of the vice presidential questions.

The tongue-in-cheek video opens with two of his aides discussing the governor’s outreach strategy, and they agree to put Christie through more rounds of town hall meetings with constituents. But unbeknownst to them, Christie is standing near the door, listening. When he hears the plan, he shakes his head and his face grimaces.

“More town halls? Are those guy kidding me? Easy for them to say. They never even show up at the town halls,” Christie says into the camera. “I can’t take one more question about flooding. I don’t want any more questions about being vice president. And these kids, these kids with all these questions. I can’t take it anymore. So no, they’re going to have to come up with something other than town halls. They have got to come up with some better ideas than that. I could maybe come up with something even bigger than that. I’ll come up with something.”

In the final scene, Christie grabs a fire extinguisher and the video goes dark with a promise that another video is on its way.

(Via BuzzFeed and ABC News)

More popular Yahoo! News stories:

• Romney campaign ad touts steel mill boosted by Bain investment

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• Rob Portman defends Romney over Bain attacks

Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.

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Don Rickles, during “The Comedy Awards” on Comedy Central, alternately insulted and praised the likes of David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart. But Rickles, on hand to receive the Johnny Carson Award For Comedic Excellence, saved his most irreverent – and reverent words – for the late, undisputed king of late night. 

There’s no replacing Carson, who beat all comers during his reign, with only Dick Cavett and Arsenio Hall carving out modest niches. No one, not Letterman, O’Brien or Leno, has neared anything close to Carson’s dominance in the 11:30 p.m. slot.

Despite his considerable reach, wit and charm, there was something aloof and unknowable about Carson, a man let into millions of bedrooms and living rooms at the end of a long day to offer some much-needed laughs and give the vicarious revelers at his nightly party something to talk about at work in the morning. The lingering inability to pin him down two decades after he left public life and nearly 50 years after he took over “The Tonight Show” from Jack Paar remains part of Carson’s lasting allure and mystique.

Carson, who died in 2005, is an abstraction to a generation that never saw his show but has unwittingly experienced him by growing up watching shows he influenced. Those familiar – and unfamiliar – with Carson might want to view PBS’ America Masters presentation Monday of “Johnny Carson: King of Late Night,” which recalls a host who made everybody on his show – and watching at home – feel big. Check out a preview below, along with Rickles’ tribute to Carson:

Watch Johnny Carson: King of Late Night on PBS. See more from American Masters.

The 2012 Comedy Awards

Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NY City News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.

Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations

Article source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/entertainment/television/Johnnys-Still-Heeeere-151200335.html

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Dave Allocca / StarpixSacha Baron Cohen does a press conference as his latest alter ego, Admiral General Aladeen.

NEW YORK — “Welcome, devils of the Zionist media.”

Admiral General Aladeen — the fictional dictator of the fictional African nation of Wadiya — is addressing the world’s press in the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. He’s dressed in a uniform of extravagant gold epaulettes and numerous battle ribbons, standing in front of posters of himself, on a rug adorned with the shapes of people having sex in various positions.

The Admiral General is guarded by six beautiful women wearing short skirts and carrying submachine guns, part of a corps of what he calls “25 female virgin guards who protect me at all times. I know they are virgins, because I have their virginity checked every night….”

Yes, Sacha Baron Cohen is back in town.

He’s hiding in there somewhere, behind the character’s lavish beard and vaguely Middle Eastern accent. Aladeen is the hero of The Dictator, the new film from a performer — “actor” seems too limited — whose art is to dive into a provocative persona and push it to the limits of its discomfort.

Baron Cohen developed his style on the British TV program Da Ali G Show, and then took it to the movies. He has been Borat, the simple-minded racist from Kazakhstan, and Bruno, the gay fashion icon from Austria, in two ambush films that used guerrilla street theatre to expose common attitudes to exaggerated stereotypes. He provoked outrage by, say, taking a black prostitute to a dinner party given by old-fashioned white hosts in the American South, then filmed the resulting mayhem.

Now, in The Dictator, Baron Cohen is assuming a new alter ego: an anti-Semitic tyrant who believes in both rape and nuclear weapons. He comes to New York to address the United Nations and somehow winds up working in an organic health-food store in Brooklyn and falling for a left-wing lesbian do-gooder. It’s a rare scripted starring role — Baron Cohen is now too famous to delude the public with his reality-show ambushes — but he can’t let go of his obsession with impersonation.

So with no man on the street to fool, Baron Cohen is now playing to the band: it’s movie promotion as performance art. He is marketing The Dictator by appearing in character as Admiral General Aladeen on TV shows (including a stint on Saturday Night Live) and now, in front of several hundred reporters who have been recruited as part of the gag. They have been asked to submit questions for The Dictator in advance, and ask them at the news conference. There’s a teleprompter on the stage, as well.

We play along, partly because everybody wants to get into the act, but also because it’s the only way to get close enough to get the story. Baron Cohen will not do straight interviews, and so the details of his life (he’s married to actress Isla Fisher, with whom he has two daughters, and lives in Los Angeles and London) and his fascinating family (his brother Erran is a composer who wrote the music for The Dictator; his cousin Simon is the world’s foremost researcher on autism) are part of what must remain hidden behind the beard. He’s like a Method actor who won’t surface out of his role.

You learn about him from hints. Ben Kingsley, who plays Aladeen’s right-hand man, says Baron Cohen is totally different from what he is playing.

“The man he’s playing cares little for his country, less for his people, and holds most of the rest of the world in utter contempt,” Kingsley said in a more traditional news conference earlier in the day. “(He’s) the polar opposite of Sacha Baron Cohen, who has a massive humanitarian heart.”

The Dictator arrives near the end of the Arab Spring (“one of the great tragedies of our time,” the Admiral General calls it), a bit of prescience, considering that the preparation for the film began two years before the start of the democracy movement.

“He has his finger on so many pulses, historically, culturally, politically,” Kingsley said. He called it an amazing intuition of the sort that Charlie Chaplin showed in The Great Dictator, a film about a Jewish barber who is mistaken for a Hitler-like dictator named Adenoid Hynkel. The movie was made in 1940, before the U.S. entered the Second World War. Kingsley, who watched The Great Dictator in preparation for his role, called Baron Cohen “Charlie Chaplin of the 21st century.”

If so, it’s a more vulgar version, but they share the elements of satire, slapstick, and an underlying political message. Baron Cohen brought a similar combination of elements to his live event.

He began by saying, “I want to thank the United Nations for their brave inaction over Syria. Thirteen months and still no Security Council resolution. You guys are amazing. You have done next to nothing for the Syrian people, but remember, you can always do less.”

Then his jokes spun off into absurdity. He said his country has its own version of the TV show Two and a Half Men. “It used to be called Three Men, but one of them tried to steal a grapefruit.” He did political jokes (“What people call genocide in my country is called the judicial system in Texas,”) and celebrity insults.

“You are so all the time worried about everybody’s feelings,” said the Admiral General, perhaps echoing the philosophy of the man behind the accent. “You can’t ever do anything or say anything. Everything forbidden in this country.”

Not to Sacha Baron Cohen. Another actor in the film, Jason Mantzoukas, says that’s part of his comic genius.

“He is willing to go to a place that provides a sense of danger and is so surprising,” he said. “What makes a lot of it work is the surprise of it, that literally, ‘I can’t believe this is happening right now.’”

By now, Aladeen had had his fill. He left the news conference to the cheers of supporters — also part of the show — holding signs reading “Give Persecution a Chance” and “Say No to Democracy.”

He waved goodbye to the journalists. “As you write good reviews, your families will be released,” he said.

– Postmedia News

Movie preview

The Dictator

Starring Sacha Baron Cohen

Opens Wednesday

Article source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/movies/who-knows-whats-behind-baron-cohens-bushy-beard-151338065.html

Watching the White House correspondents’ dinner on television was disheartening. It wasn’t the political jokes or even that the Kardashians were invited and I wasn’t. It was the guests’ bad manners. Oh, I’m sure they put their napkins in their laps and used the correct fork for dessert. But their flag etiquette was sadly lacking.

Judging from the chattering and laughter, most guests at the Washington, D.C., media gala did not notice when the military color guard passed through the large room. Silence finally arrived after the colors were posted, during the opening bars of the National Anthem.

Perhaps their mamas didn’t teach them to honor the flag. If their mamas, or daddies, had been military spouses, that would not have been a problem.

Those of us schooled in military life know better than the media glitterati how to show due respect for the Star-Spangled Banner. We’ve had plenty of practice, even at movie theaters. This public breach of patriotic protocol made me want to shout at my television, but that would be pointless and rude.

Instead, I politely recommend Marna Krajeski’s new book, “64 Easy Answers About Etiquette for the Modern Military Spouse.” It is modern, in fact it’s an e-book, which covers everything from forks and knives to flag etiquette — for civilians, too.

When the American flag passes in a procession, military members salute and civilians should stand silently, right hands over hearts. These and other common courtesies are important to know.

“There’s an impression that etiquette is this … white glove, afternoon tea, cotillion dance thing, an antiquated notion that has no place in modern life,” said Marna, an experienced Army wife. “I think there is a big place for etiquette in modern life.”

Guidelines for appropriate behavior provide boundaries and a measure of freedom, I suggested, and Marna agreed.

“Knowing how to respond in certain social situations makes us more comfortable,” she said. “It relaxes you, and it’s not that complicated.”

The book is not complicated, either. As advertised, it gives 64 common questions and straightforward answers. It covers how to set a table with one simple diagram, for example. Other brief entries include such helpful tips as:

• To avoid using your neighbor’s glass or bread plate at a nice dinner, make an OK sign with each hand. The left hand forms a “b” for bread, and the right forms a “d” for drink. Might be a good idea to make the hand signals under the table, though.
• RSVP represents the French for “please respond,” which one should do within 48 hours of receiving an invitation. Better to respond late than not at all.
• After an event, send a thank-you note promptly, even if you presented a hostess gift. When receiving a hostess gift, however, no thank-you note is necessary.
• Don’t come early. Acceptable arrival time is up to ten minutes after the time on an invitation.
• When introducing people, start with ladies first and older people before younger. At a military function, rank takes precedence, but Marna emphasizes that the rules are less important than the introduction. Make introductions — even if you can’t remember the rules.

Unlike the doorstop-sized etiquette books of the past, Marna’s book never mentions white gloves. Those days are gone, but she does include information about appropriate attire. Informal does not mean casual, she cautions. If an invitation for an event says “informal,” men should wear a coat and tie and women a nice dress or suit.

The e-book format can be downloaded to a reader or even a smartphone. But if you need a refresher on receiving line etiquette via iPhone, don’t read up on it during dinner. Avoid texting, reading or talking on cellphones at any social function.

Show respect when our flag passes by, and if your mama taught you these important things, send her a thank-you note.

For more about this and other books by Marna Krajeski, click here.

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Article source: http://www.stripes.com/blogs/spouse-calls/spouse-calls-1.9571/lose-the-white-gloves-1.177235

But recently, across the western world, this syndrome has been flipped on its head. Instead of the politicians acting like a bunch of comedians (cf any radio phone-in), a handful of satirists and comics have put themselves up for election and found a disillusioned public willing to go along with the gag. In the past week, the Italian comedian Beppe Grillo has had a significant impact in Italy’s local elections and indicated that he’ll stand in next year’s national poll. The green, anti-euro campaigner is a sort of cross between Michael Moore and Eddie from Little and Large. He has gained enormous support through his satirical protests about the corrupt nature of the Italian government, which he is now translating into actual votes. Critics say he hasn’t explained what he would actually do as an alternative but, to be fair, Silvio Berlusconi never warned anyone about some of the things he was going to get up to either.

The current mayor of Reykjavik is a stand-up comic whose Best Party won 34% of the vote. Jon Gnarr declared that he would not go into coalition with any party whose members had not watched all five seasons of The Wire. Surely Britain would be a better country today if Nick Clegg had set the same condition? After a list of election promises, Gnarr also promised to break all his promises once in power, which for a logical paradox has a refreshing honesty about it.

This comic-as-politician syndrome seems to have two major variants. There is the “Vote for me as a hilarious protest” candidacy, which is all very well for making a satirical point on election day, but doesn’t help to hammer out that difficult budgetary allocation six months down the line. Then there is the satirist who is genuinely angry about injustice and the state of the government, but is prepared to put in the work doing all the boring stuff that change actually demands.

Saturday Night Live veteran Al Franken won a seat in the US senate in 2008 and has served his office diligently ever since, making the greatest sacrifice a comedian can make, which is to be serious most of the time. It’s because I could never trust myself to be that hardworking, sombre and appropriate that I resisted suggestions I should go for a winnable Labour seat after I stood in true blue Maidenhead. Sure I’d love the attention and the chance to make jokes in the House of Commons. But I have observed the job of a politician close up and it is no joke.This is the problem I have with Britain’s most successful comedian-cum-politician, Boris Johnson. He thinks being mayor of London is a bit of a laugh, a part-time job that gives him plenty of opportunity to star as the lovable mop-haired toff who was such a hit on Have I Got News For You. When Londoners re-elected him against the anti-Tory trend, they were choosing form over content, character over narrative. And Tory over Labour, dammit.

But voters across the western world are fed up with the hypocrisy and deceit they associate with on-message party dullards, so who can blame them for being drawn to the disarming honesty and apparent humanity of big characters who make them laugh? Comedy is about communication and honesty, and so a few satirists re-engaging a bored electorate is surely to be welcomed. But we also need full-time politicians who take the job seriously, be they former comedians, Telegraph columnists or Big Brother contestants. So I’m all in favour of political jokes. I just don’t care for the ones who seem to get elected.

Twitter: @mrjohnofarrell

Article source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/13/rise-political-elect-comedian?newsfeed=true

So after the Lakers’ 96-87 Game 7 victory Saturday over the Denver Nuggets, Kobe Bryant didn’t just approach Denver’s coach to rub it in that the purple and gold were advancing. He also questioned why the Nuggets double-teamed him, leading him to focus less on scoring (17 points on seven-of-16 shooting) and more on facilitating (eight assists).

“All I said to him is, ‘You don’t have to double-team me that much,’ ” Bryant said. “I’m too old. I can’t score the ball anymore.”

Of course, that’s hardly the case. The Nuggets often sent him single coverage early in the season so they could throw their resources at Andrew Bynum. Bryant’s 43 points nearly proved enough to bring the Lakers back to win Game 5; they lost by three.

Despite nursing intestinal flu symptoms in Game 6, Bryant provided more effort than his teammates by dropping 31 points. And Bryant finished second behind only Kevin Durant in scoring during the regular season, despite his numerous injuries (wrist, nose, neck, shin), high odometer rating (42,377 career minutes) and, of course, age (33 in his 16th season).

That’s why Bryant couldn’t help but feel amused by Karl’s reaction.

“He said he wasn’t falling for that,” Bryant said with a smile.

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