“I think we’ll be fine”
America’s top comedians headed to Washington, D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Monday evening for the 11th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, given this year posthumously to George Carlin, who passed away in June.
But there was a different George that was also on everybody’s mind — President George W. Bush — who has been the target of these comedian’s arrows for the past eight years. After all, will the jokes come as easily when the commander-in-chief, in the form of Barack Obama, is a Hollywood favorite?
“I think we’ll be okay,” said “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart. “Comedians go for the lowest hanging fruit. We’re like cockroaches. We’ll be here as long as there are strippers. … As long as the country continues to dissolve as it is, comedians will be fine. … Besides, with a Democratic congress, I guarantee you there will be material.”
Adopting a more serious tone, the “Comedy Central” star said, “Comedy doesn’t necessarily have to be mean and to be bourne of angst.”
Joan Rivers dismissed the notion that Obama couldn’t be ridiculed because of racial sensitivities. “Everyone’s fair game for me,” she told a scrum of reporters on the red carpet.
“Rescue Me” star Denis Leary said that Obama could provide comedic fodder simply because of the overwhelming obstacles he faces. “It’s like a ‘Superman’ movie, when you have to wonder, ‘How are you going to fix this?’ … If he continues to avoid smoking with all of these economic problems in the world, I’d be really impressed.”
But the comedians couldn’t resist waxing poetically about their own Oba-mania.
“It was like he was half black, half Jewish,” said Garry Shandling. “That’s how happy I was. … Everyone just feels lighter now.”
“I was happy, stunned,” said Stewart, when asked to recall his reaction to Obama’s victory.
“How great does it feel to be an American now?” asked HBO’s Bill Maher. “We have a president who can speak English!”
“George Carlin would have been very excited [about Obama’s win] and very much in his corner,” said Lily Tomlin. “Maybe I could get a job with Obama…I could give up a couple of years to hang with the Obamas.”
Still, the lineup of comedians did agree that Gov. Sarah Palin was a much easier punch-line target than Obama.
“Palin is a comedian’s dream,” said Rivers. “You wait all your life to have something like that drop in your lap.”
“I wish George Carlin could have had a shot at Sarah Palin,” said Shandling.
“Sarah Palin would not have loved George Carlin because he was a true maverick,” said Maher.
Richard Belzer takes his dog on the red carpet (Photo: Carrie Devorah)
Joan Rivers takes a call on the red carpet (Photo: Carrie Devorah)
Garry Shandling (Photo: Carrie Devorah)
Lewis Black (Photo: Gene Young)
Denis Leary (Photo: Gene Young)
Lily Tomlin (Photo: Gene Young)
