Me, when I saw Michelle Obama at the Oscars:
The Fox News morning crew just came in their pants.
— John Cole (@Johngcole) February 25, 2013
Then this happened today:
In my best Jon Stewart falsetto: “Nailed it!”
Reader Interactions
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r€nato
trolling the right: so easy, a caveman could do it.
schrodinger's cat
Is DougJ on sabbatical and working as the chief troll in the West Wing. It is so easy to hurt the delicate fee-fees of the wingnuttia. So much outrage, so little time.
BGinCHI
No doubt Yale is bracing itself for David Brooks’s postponing of his scheduled course reading of Burke this week so that he can deconstruct the Obama takeover of the Oscars.
Working Title: The Unhumiliation of the Obamas.
Cassidy
Man, if only they’d committ mass suicide in response to this atrocity. Please, wingers, don’t drink the Drano.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
fifty internet quatloos say Stewart will be sneery and eye-rolly about this too.
Cassidy
Although, to maintain his insider cred, it’ll be about the prescence of Michelle Obama.
mdblanche
Is Jen Rubin still on the loose? I thought the bunker she and her leader were holed up in was overrun by the Kenyan Muslim Socialist Red Army last November.
BGinCHI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is one of those things Colbert will get exactly right and Stewart will get slightly wrong.
Jon has a purity streak when it comes to being too cool.
He should know: he used to front a late-night talk show wearing a black leather jacket.
The Red Pen
Typical Freeper response:
How many more things “typical of totalitarian governments” must we see before the sheeple wake up?!!!!1!!!
Cassidy
@The Red Pen: I love it when they ratchet the crazy up to eleventy after something simple and meaningless.
I was under the impression that Eva Peron is still widely loved? Did I miss something?
West of the Rockies
You know, I never thought Laura Bush was very attractive, but I never felt compelled to log in somewhere and start insulting her and calling her names. The far-right fury nowadays knows no limits. To paraphrase, “Fat, stupid and full of rage is no way to go through life.”
JGabriel
Like Fox, Iran wasn’t too pleased with Michelle Obama’s appearance at the Oscars either. Literally, her appearance.
Fars News Agency photoshopped her dress, to cover up her arms and deep U-neckline.
Another instance of Fox News agreeing with their ideological confreres in Iran.
.
Alison
@BGinCHI: Yup. It’s often made so clear how much Colbert has surpassed Stewart when they both cover the same story on the same night. Not always but most of the time, Colbert is not only funnier, but more astute in his humor as well. I still watch TDS but so many times, Stewart’s jokes just aren’t that funny, and he goes with the both-sides schtick way way too much. There are instances where he is so clearly reaching so far for an example of the “left” doing something that it’s just pathetic.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Well put, I’d only dispute the “slightly”.
@ Allison- 13 Stewart has become obsessed with both-sides-ism, and I still think he has some kind of personal grudge against Obama, but when he gets mad, like with McCain and Graham last week, he can still be really good.
Bubblegum Tate
Amusingly enough, one of my favorite wingnuts said this today, largely unprompted:
It’s like they have to work double-time on their Michelle Obama hatred in order to compensate for the fact that the vast majority of people like her.
Hill Dweller
@West of the Rockies: Check out the twitter machine after FLOTUS posts something on her official account.
They are vile people.
Tractarian
Let me get this straight:
1) You suggested that Fox News morning hosts prematurely ejaculated after seeing the first lady on the Oscars telecast.
2) The next day, some right wing hack asked why Michelle was on the Oscars telecast.
3) Therefore, you nailed it.
Huh?
Mike Lamb
@JGabriel: Why did they stop without a head scarf?
jibeaux
@The Red Pen: That’s a pretty long break from humping Reagan’s corpse, to hunt & peck all that.
Paul in KY
@BGinCHI: He has to feign objectivity to get right-wing guests. Colbert doesn’t care whether he gets them or not, as his show is much more centered around him than John’s is around John.
BGinCHI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Triumph of hope over experience.
General Stuck
They got nothing. We have the Obama’s and John Cole, terror of prescient tweets
The wingnuts should just take up crocheting until its all over.
kindness
@Tractarian: Troll bait? You get many nibbles with that?
MattF
It’s baffling how wingers manage to miss the fact that lots of people admire Ms. Obama. And that, when they complain about her, several million people say to themselves, ‘WTF’. It’s Politics 101, and they’re just failing, flat out.
jibeaux
@Cassidy: Somewhere, there was a Bush reference to Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina, but IIRC it was the elder. Still, precious few are crying for either one of those guys.
BGinCHI
@MattF: And what a coincidence they can’t even get the VAWA right.
JGabriel
@The Red Pen:
tHE LIBTARDS WIL ONLEE WAKE UP WEN IT’S TOO LATE! tHAY’LL BE SORREE THEN THAT THAY DID NOT VOTE
cONZERVA …cAWNSERFa …WITH US!.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Apparently the power of Mrs. Obama’s was so great that it knocked the power out in my office. Well, there are worse things than having the boss say at 12, “We’ll all meet back up at 2:00 and see if it’s back up.”
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Stewart build his show to be independent of both sides. Colbert has built his on making fun of Republicans by pretending to be one. Stewart still wants to be independent; Colbert would have to change completely if the way the parties act were to flip.
jibeaux
@The Red Pen: You have to admit, though, no one really wants to see Ann Romney present an Oscar. Ergo her husband = better preznint.
Jay C
@The Red Pen:
So if the Obama Administration is really a sort of domestic version of Peronism, does this mean Michelle is actually running things and Barack is just the amiable front-man?
OK, I could live with that…!
Tone in DC
@JGabriel:
Fox News morning hosts prematurely ejaculated
after seeing the first lady on the Oscars telecast.Fixt.
Alison
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Agreed! And that’s why his other shit is so maddening. When he goes after racists or homophobes he can sometimes still do really biting, witty commentary. I know he has the capability to still be great, so when he sucks, it’s so much more annoying.
Tractarian
@kindness: I’m not a troll.
Do you think Cole “nailed it” with his tweet, or not?
The Red Pen
@Tractarian: Hell yeah, he nailed it. Nostradamus is suing for trade mark infringement.
The Red Pen
@Jay C:
I think “actual control of the presidency” rests with Valerie Jarrett.
I’m not even really sure who that is, but her name is invoked a lot by Freepers demonstrating their deep knowledge of the SEEKRIT goings on at the White House (or White Hut, as they like to say, but don’t call them racist).
Cassidy
@Tractarian: Someone’s getting worked up about a blog post. The contrarian for the sake of contrarian post is a few threads back.
Flying Squirrel Girl
This is what passes for humor on the right.
NonyNony
@The Red Pen:
I thought Bill Ayers was the puppetmaster behind the crown?
Also – there’s some scary Indonesian guy named “Barry Sotero” that figures into a number of Obama conspiracy theories. I’ll bet he’s part of the Shadow Government that is secretly pulling the strings too…
(He’s probably a Reptoid and related to the Queen Mother. Because all of post-Henry the VIII history is because of the Shadow War between the Reptoids that control the English Throne and the Reptoids that control the Papacy. That’s just how it is – you have to learn to see the fnords, my friends.)
ruemara
@Paul in KY: No, sorry. There is a real personal animus towards Obama. I got no idea why, and I used to think he was just playing both sides for the guests, but there were a few things he said and did, including one appearance by Obama that made me realize that he has a some issue with Obama.
That being said, I didn’t watch and did not know Michelle Obama was on, until one of my very few rightwing friends started screeching about it on the FB. It may cause me to drop her like a rock, because I can only stand the whiny, constant victim, Orange County “But I’m in California so you can’t call me a racist” racism. Hit my limit last night when she was “disgusted”, “if it was Laura Bush, I can only imagine the hate that would be directed to her” then she found her way to my page when I posted the video of Laura Bush partaking in the Oscars to whine that I was directing that at her, blocked someone who said haters are gonna hate before she got there and said she had never had so much vitriol directed to her. It was a first class display of GOP victimhood.
Hill Dweller
@Alison: Stewart is only as good as the people around him. Consequently, he has suffered the same fate as SNL.
Stewart hasn’t been able to replace the astonishing amount of talent that has left the show(both on and off camera). So we’re left with more bad than good now, and Stewart doing the same stupid gestures and jokes every night.
Colbert is both a gifted performer and comic writer. He doesn’t depend on others nearly as much Stewart. As a result, his show has had no dips in quality.
Jay in Oregon
@jibeaux:
No shit.
Projection, thy name is Saint Ronaldus Magnus.
JPL
When the First Lady was on the Jimmy Fallon show, he asked her if she planned on watching the Oscars. She said that she hoped to catch a few minutes of it but the Governor’s Ball was that evening.
I’m surprised that Rubin didn’t whine about being a better dancer than Michelle or something.
General Stuck
OT
And from our delicate billionaire wingnut files.
Adelson went on to say motherfuckers gonna pay.
General Stuck
And from our delicate billionaire wingnut files.
Adelson went on to say motherfuckers gonna pay.
JGabriel
Mike Lamb:
I don’t know. Perhaps the Fars News Agency decided that they shouldn’t erase all evidence of America’s degeneracy for fear that the Ayatollah might think they were too protective of Michelle’s modesty.
Alison
@Hill Dweller: Very true. Good points.
NonyNony
@JPL:
OMG! THIS IS A SCANDAL! THE FIRST LADY LIED TO JIMMY FALLON AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!
WE MUST HAVE AN IMMEDIATE INQUIRY INTO THIS “OSCARGATE”! THE HOUSE SHOULD START IMMEDIATE HEARINGS AND START FILING THE PAPERWORK TO IMPEACH THE FIRST LADY IMMEDIATELY!
(AND YES! THIS MATTER IS SO IMPORTANT WE MUST ONLY SPEAK OF IT IN ALL CAPS!!!)
Ash Can
If by “came” you mean “deposited copious amounts of explosive diarrhea,” then yeah, nailed it.
Michelle Obama is easily as glamorous as Jackie Kennedy was, and is a brilliant Harvard lawyer on top of it. The haters are beside themselves because they don’t think she should be doing anything in the White House other than wearing a maid’s uniform and making beds and cleaning ladies’ rooms. She’s prettier, classier, and more intelligent than they or anyone they know will ever be, and is in a great position to show her attributes off, and it’s made them completely flip their shit.
JGabriel
@Tone in DC: I think you meant to direct that post to Tractarian @ 17, not me.
.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t know why they’re doing less “correspondent” stuff these days, but Jason Jones, Jessica Williams and John Oliver are as good as anybody they’ve ever had, and better than most (I never liked Steve Carrell on TDS, but thought he was fucking brilliant on The Office, never liked Ed Helms and still don’t).
Litlebritdifrnt
Little Green Footballs has done a good job of reading the RWNJ comments so you don’t have to sort of thing
littlegreenfootballs.com/
The Rubin piece now has over 4,000 comments a great many of them mocking Rubin.
Fanshawe
@Tractarian: Cole was speaking in euphemism. That is, his words did not indicate his belief that the Fox News hosts all experienced actual orgasms upon seeing Ms. Obama. Instead, Cole was suggesting that they were very excited (in this case because they could now have something to bitch about the next morning) and drawing a humorous parallel between this excitement and the excitement one feels during satisfying sexual intercourse.
He likely chose to offer this humorous take instead of a more straightforward “The Fox News hosts will make a big deal out of this,” or similar, because he wished to express his view that their outrage is insincere or illegitimate. Wordplay and other types of jokes are often employed for such purposes.
I hope this helps.
Hill Dweller
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: We’ll have to agree to disagree.
Jessica Williams might turn out to be good, but her body of work isn’t anywhere near as good as some of their better correspondents.
Jones and Oliver are good, but they rarely appear due to chasing other projects.
Larry Wilmore is great, but rarely appears.
The Daily Show’s glory years were during the time when Colbert and Carrell were correspondents, and Ben Karlin was still executive producer. Everything since has been a futile attempt to match those lofty standards.
handsmile
I have no idea whether Jon Stewart harbors a grudge or personal animus towards Obama. But I think his presidency has unmoored Stewart as a comic. During the Cheney/Bush regime, there was a clear and ever-ready target for his barbs. With a Democratic President whose policies he largely endorses (according to interviews), his now-compulsive “both sides do it” act allows him to claim some “edge” or cynical objectivity.
But I can no longer be even as charitable as some here towards Stewart, as much as I’ll always be grateful to him for providing a refuge in the dark years of 2001-08. Rarely now able to watch his entire opening sequence without flipping channels, I think he’s become little more than a hipper Jay Leno.
As for Stephen Colbert, the greatest political satirist of my lifetime, my boundless admiration is expressed and linked pretty much every week here.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Agree with this observation for the most part, though I’m a little more kindly disposed towards Helms. But don’t forget Samantha Bee!; besides Colbert, still and always my favorite among Stewart’s “correspondents.”
Ash Can
@Litlebritdifrnt: I do have to tip my hat to the hardy souls over there who actually go and read through all the fetid waste of the RW twitter feeds and comment threads. Just the ones they repeat at LGF are enough to put me off my feed for the rest of the day.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Ash Can:
The good part about it is that is makes the “And today’s visit from the Secret Service goes to” list easier to compile.
goober
@Fanshawe: I don’t think it really helps. tractarian understood that Cole was not being literal. Cole was chest-thumping (perhaps literally, who can say?) for a making what he thinks was a prescient tweet last night. But tractarian was pointing out, correctly, that Cole’s evidence did not really support his claim of prescience.
LAC
@Litlebritdifrnt: That is in line with the usual mocking that her piss and vinegar laden writing gets. A gang of feral cats in heat roaming the neighborhood are less of a nuisance than that viper tongued shrew and her “right turn” bullshit column.
Alex
Uncomfortable opinion: Michelle Obama shouldn’t have presented that award and is quickly becoming over-exposed. But look at how clownish the right wing is!
Anna in PDX
@Ash Can: I agree with every word of this post. Obama is very centrist from my very left wing perspective but I have nothing but love for FLOTUS. She is so classy! Such a smart person! Such a good speaker! In such great shape and such a sharp dresser! There is nothing for these weird people to hate about her. I will never understand it except that it is just pure and simple racism.
Bobby Thomson
@Tractarian: Yeah, he did. Those assholes live for moments like these.
Suffern ACE
@Alex: While I agree that because it is novel for a first lady to present the big award it seems strange, we don’t exactly elect them to be the nation’s nuns and monks. Nothing much is going on, so I don’t put this one up callousness. Its the governor’s ball she left to film this, not the funeral of child shooting victims or soldiers.
I’d rather be defending someone for presenting an oscar than defending the behavior of someone for getting a blow job from a work subordinate 30 years his junior who conicidently wasn’t the first lady at the time. I know its not either/or, but I’ll take a “scandal” like this any day.
Surly Duff
You can always rely on Jennifer Rubin to bring the unhinged outrage to the party.
Paddy
@Surly Duff: I was so angry over that this a.m. that even though I’m close to debilitated with back pain, I wrote this-
Can Someone Please Remove The Burr From WaPo Conservative Rubin’s Rear?
Found a couple of choice W & Pickles t.v. moments to remember.
The Red Pen
The pro-Rubin comments on the WaPo piece echo those on Free Republic. One interesting thing is this outrage — outrage, I say! — that Michelle Obama makes public appearances. There are long diatribes about how she can’t get enough attention from fawning liberals.
They really seem to expect the Obama’s to run out their time in the White House quietly and privately.
Jeremy
@Alex: I really don’t see an issue here. She was asked to present the award, and she is not overexposed. The lady has a 75 % likability rating so I doubt most people care about the outrage from people who hate her.
SRW1
@JGabriel:
What, no hijab! Did they at least give their viewers a warning that parental discretion may be advised in case of adolescent males being in viewing distance to any TV?
JustRuss
@handsmile:
So, can somebody please introduce Stewart to Congress?
ruemara
@The Red Pen:
They seem to think we or the Obama’s must be embarrassed to have them in the White House, so they should slink around shamedly until real (white, republican) Americans can be found. When you get that, you get everything.
Wolfdaughter
Sheesh, you’d think some (maybe most) conservatives don’t know about the 1st Amendment. The Oscars folks asked Michelle to deliver an award, which is their absolute right. She did so, which is her absolute right, and though I didn’t watch the Oscars, I gather she did so with graciousness and aplomb.
I suspect the right wing is angry (I almost typed “mad” but that can be interpreted two different ways, both appropriate for the wingers) because Laura Bush was never invited to present at the Oscars, nor would Anne Rmoney have been invited, nor would Cindy McCain have been invited.
Just further demonstration about how much those in La-La Land are shameless leftists!
dance around in your bones
This is just a stupid non-issue.
So, of course the right wing-wang seizes on it.
TS
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Most comments on Rubin mock Rubin – probably why she keeps her job – generates page hits from detractors
Another Halocene Human
@Hill Dweller: Bingo. And he leans on the execrable John Oliver way too much. To me, the show jumped the shark when Oliver came on board. Even some of the other “correspondents” disliked him (based on less than subtle bullying “jokes” that appeared in prerecorded bits), and his interviews of people of the dark hued persuasion (American born and otherwise) would have fit nicely on the shelf next to James O’Keefe’s oevre. Actually, at one point he interviewed an ACORN director and asked her if she had crack on her. I guess Comedy Central was paying better than Breitbart Media.
Oliver strikes me as a Tory like Sullivan who crosses the pond and finds out he’s not a conservative over here because what the hell is Young Earth Creationism, tell me that’s a put on? You’re all going to start laughing and said “fooled you” in a minute?
Another Halocene Human
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Jessica Williams is awesome. Jason Jones has been with the show for a while.
I actually liked Steve Carrell, always have.
Aasif Mandvi, though… practically have a man crush on that one. He made AVATAR (“Ah vuh tahr”) the best comedy film of 2010. Between him and Dev “Slumdog” Patel, I was crying with laughter. I wish John Stewart would have shown up in the water bender port city. It would have made my life complete. On second thought, Bruce Willis would have worked too. It’s not really a Shyamalan film without him.
Paul in KY
@ruemara: Give em Hell, ruemara!
Paul in KY
@handsmile: I like Asif Mandavi too. Very funny.
Paul in KY
@Another Halocene Human: I think you are taking Mr. Oliver a bit too seriously.