The comedy world’s aversion to mocking President Obama is well documented. But this morning I heard a new radio ad for the local fast-food chain Jerry’s. For years, Jerry’s has run a radio campaign based on the idea that the founder, Jerry, is having little conversations with various celebrities, whose voices and tics are impersonated with Caliendo-like precision and mockery. The ads are particularly well-done, with clever writing and dead-on voice acting. A constant in the campaign has been ads mocking the president–Clinton and Bush each appeared in several ads. The tone was always mocking–the kind of gentle poking of fun that’s close enough to the edge to induce a grin, but not mean-spirited enough to provoke anger from the president’s supporters. So how does the Jerry’s campaign handle our new president? Simple: Their first ad of the Obama administration features Sarah Palin.
