President Barack Obama’s appearance on Funny or Die’s “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis” earlier this month sent Fox News into an absolute frenzy.
While on the show, Obama joked about Galifianakis’ weight, the “Hangover” movies and made time to plug the Affordable Care Act and healthcare.gov.
The big question among political commentators was whether the stunt was a shameless plug for healthcare.gov, an attempt to pander to a younger audience or an example of the president’s empathy toward important presidential responsibilities. Of course, according to Fox News’ “The Five,” the answer is all of the above.
Fox’s 13-minute dissection of Obama’s appearance looked more like a temper tantrum.
“Perhaps you should wait until the country is in better shape before you engage in a manufactured orgy of hipster scripted awkwardness,” said Greg Gutfeld, a panelist on “The Five.”
Galifianakis’ show is not supposed to be anything more than a manufactured orgy of hipster scripted awkwardness. And as long as a Democrat is president, the country will never be in good enough shape for Gutfeld.
Eric Bolling, another panelist from “The Five,” proclaimed the video highlights Obama’s empathy and cited that he is the only sitting president to appear on such shows. This claim dropped the jaws of his own co-hosts who quickly reminded him that Bill Clinton had made appearances during his presidency.
John McCain, George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani all made appearances on daytime and nighttime programs while actively in their respective offices. Giuliani destroyed conservative ideology when he appeared on SNL dressed in drag in 1997.
The third comment in this three-ring circus of political discourse came from co-host Dana Perino, who said “celebrity and cool is just not necessarily the best thing for a president to be espousing.”
Heaven forbid that our president be popular, relatable, in-touch with Americans, visible, happy, sad, busy, relaxing, stressed, funny, a family man or anything else that resembles a human characteristic.
Anybody can go to YouTube and be reminded of the comedy show Bush put on for eight years. The dictionary couldn’t understand that man but it was a part of him that reminded us that he is human.
The Obama and Galifianakis video did everything it needed to do. The president fought for his own law in a manner that was able to come across as relatable to a younger and very influential demographic.
Perhaps Fox could take a few notes. Their audience is looking a little grey-haired.
Dewey Mullis, a junior criminal justice major from Wallburg, is an opinion writer.