These parodies of Ron Fournier and Washington Post’s The Fix are so good I thought they were real at first.
The poll was pretty bad for Republicans, but remember: the election is not tomorrow.
— The Fix (@TheFixPoints) October 11, 2013
What good are extra servers if the president can't lead them?
— Ron Fournimeh (@Ron_Fournimeh) October 21, 2013
The interview with the guy who writes them is good:
I think the timing was just really ripe for a Fournier parody because he’s descended into self-parody with the “leadership” trope. And then there’s the annoying self-importance that typifies all of those centrist pundits, as if they’re the only sensible voices in the press. The column he wrote the day after the debt deal passed was probably the last straw.
Morbo
He’s not the guy behind Vice_Is_hip, is he?
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Fournier is a racist asshole.
\mandatory mention
Hill Dweller
After PO gave his Obamacare remarks in the Rose Garden earlier this week, Cillizza said Bubba didn’t need to give out 1-800 numbers. Bubba didn’t need to give out 1-800 numbers, because he didn’t have a health care law to promote. The stupid, it burns.
This guy should also do a parody twitter account for Cokie Roberts.
Davis X. Machina
@Hill Dweller:
I’m guessing there is one already. By Cokie Roberts.
c u n d gulag
@Hill Dweller:
And Nick Gillespie.
mai naem
I followed the Fournier one yesterday. Fournier’s ass has got to be burning from the daily spanking. There’s just so many people who need Tweeter parodies – Halperin for a start and even though she’s not much of a tweeter, Maria Bartiromo deserves a parody.
ericblair
Fournier is gunning for the Endowed Chair of Leadery Leadership Studies at GMU. Competition is fierce, so he had to up his game.
Davis X. Machina
@efgoldman: Lt. Col. Bateman used to guest-post at Eric Alterman’s place when he was at MSNBC. He’s been guest-blogging for a decade, I’d guess.
jeffreyw
@efgoldman: Lieutenant Promises ‘Not To Screw Up’ In First Address To Wrong Platoon
BGinCHI
Fournier should start a Debarge cover band and go on the road.
Cuz he sucks at his current job.
Yatsuno
RIP Marcia Wallace. The world just got a bit less funny.
Cacti
@Hill Dweller:
Beltway group-think is rampant on the healthcare.gov reporting.
In reality, 19% of Americans still don’t own a personal computer, 15% don’t use the internet for any reason, and 34% describe it as not relevant to their lives.
Ezra Klein would never call an 800 number, ergo no one else would either.
c u n d gulag
@Yatsuno:
Now I’m depressed.
I loved her on the original Bob Newhart Show!
“Too bad they don’t make shows like that anymore!” – said the old man, impotently shaking his fist with rage at the passing clouds.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Duffleblog is funny as hell. This cracked me up but it might only be funny to people who have been in the military.
Omnes Omnibus
@jeffreyw: To be fair, they all look alike with their funny colored clothing and silly hats.*
*says the former lieutenant who never did that specific fuck-up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yatsuno: I wonder if they’ll give Mrs K a send off.
Here comes Bob and Carol
His wife Emily likes him a lot.
Mike in NC
Many of America’s most beloved comedians got their start in Washington, DC and continue to craft their art inside the Beltway: Chris Cillizza and his partner Dana Milbank, performance artist Jennifer Rubin, Chuck Todd, Mark Halperin, Joe Scarborough, and the entire payroll at FOX News, just to name a few.
Might be something in the water supply…
gogol's wife
@Hill Dweller:
The front-page story in the NYTimes said something like, “Like a TV pitchman, he gave out the 1-800 number . . .” Is he an aloof and detached professorial type, or is he Ron Popeil? We report, you decide.
Then a day or so later they had the front-page article about how Obama is aloof with his donors, unlike good ol’ touchy-feely Bill Clinton. I would like to give them a time machine to read what they had to say about the Lincoln Bedroom back in the day.
Anya
Fournier should have lost all credibility after his fan boy email to Rove. He’s a tool and should be mocked.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike in NC: Beloved?
Baud
@gogol’s wife:
It’s really going to hurt him in 2016.
thefax
I greatly admire the Fixx headline. And it works on so many levels!
Cacti
@gogol’s wife:
Some day, when Obama’s been out of office for years, they’ll all start waxing nostalgic about his statesmanship and count on their readers to forget what they really said about him while in office.
Some of us have long enough memories to remember when Bill Clinton was Arkansas white trash who didn’t deserve to be in the Villagers’ town.
Omnes Omnibus
Study Shows Majors More Dangerous than Second Lieutenants
Funny as hell. Probably true though. When I was in the army there was a saying that the only thing more dangerous than a 2LT with a map was a Captain with a plan.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It’s hard to pick a Worst Villager, but I wonder if Fournier might actually be The One. He dismisses his pen-pallery with Karl Rove, in which he essentially called the Iraq War a crusade– as “that old chestnut”, and seems to genuinely believe deep in his bones that McCain asked him to be his campaign press secretary precisely because he, Ron Fournier, is such a fair and even-handed non-partisan guy. He is worthy of a lifetime of Fuck Yous like the one Charlie Pierce sent him the other day
ON finding it, Charlie Pierce was fuck-youing Rich Lowry, but I think Fournier actually made the Obamacare = Katrina first, and then doubled down and compared it to the Iraq War.
Steeplejack
@Yatsuno:
“Simpsons star Marcia Wallace.” I’m so old I always think of her as “Marcia Wallace from The Bob Newhart Show.”
eemom
@gogol’s wife:
Of the many things I admire about our Prez, the fact that he is not a suck up is high on the list.
Also too his coldness toward the Press Corpse. omg, I ADORE him for that.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: We’ve lost Edna Krabappel on top of the losses of Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
That was a big blow when we lost Phil Hartman. And in such a stupid, pointless way.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I was not in the military for a day in my life, so I found this non-military one hilarious:
Obama Weighs Intervention After Secretary Hagel Crosses ‘Drunk-In-Public’ Red Line
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Take it from me, the military ones are good. Onion good.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Steeplejack: I think Hartman was the most talented performer ever on SNL
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Though I’m guessing it has an extra level of hilarity if you have been in the military since, like college freshmen, way too many young military folks go a little crazy when Mom and Dad aren’t there to tell then what to do. At least that’s what the ones stationed at Great Lakes would do.
MomSense
@eemom:
Both big plusses in my book, as well.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: I like to think that Lionel Hutz really did pull this off: “As of this moment, Lionel Hutz no longer exists. Say hello to Miguel Sanchez!”*
*I could only find it in Spanish, but that works on so many levels.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
There always seems to be at least one doesn’t there?
That was funny, mostly because it has a big ring of truth.
Jebediah, RBG
I just tried to pay my bill at T Mobile’s website, and the new beta website wouldn’t load.
ZOMG TMOBILE IS A FAILED COMPANY!!!11!!
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Damn, now I’m remembering a guy who did a hilarious cartoon/story page in the back of Air Force Times back in the day. Lots of military in-jokes and slang—e.g., a “hangar queen” was a plane that had pretty much given up the ghost but was kept around as a source of spare parts—and quite often he adapted/illustrated stories sent in by readers. Lots of hilarious but sort of chilling anecdotes from World War II veterans—definitely gallows humor, similar to Bill Mauldin’s stuff.
One that I remember, featuring the B-17 bomber, a lumbering warhorse that was legendary for being able to keep going with extensive damage:
Plane is returning to England from a bombing raid over Germany, heavily damaged. Pilot tells engineer on intercom to “feather 4” (i.e., turn off engine No. 4). Cut to a picture of a hapless Sad Sack-type engineer splaying his fingers so that he can simultaneously push the buttons to cut all four engines.
Just tried the Google and couldn’t find anything. Damn. This is the kind of thing where I know there has to be a small-press anthology floating around. Too bad I can’t remember any details.
CONGRATULATIONS!
I’ve been doing military contracting for over a decade now, so I’ve been steeped in more military culture than I ever cared to be. That being said – Duffelblog is as funny as the Onion used to be.
Don’t get me wrong, the Onion is still damned good. But it’s hard to be brilliant for years on end, and they’ve definitely lost some of their edge. Duffelblog is at that stage of their existence where they are truly brilliant, pretty much each and every time. You do have to have had some fairly serious exposure to the military to get a lot of it, though. Really their only flaw, and not one they can do anything about.
Roger Moore
@BGinCHI:
FTFY.
Central Planning
Since people are talking about planes, google Qantas flight logs and you’ll get some (supposedly) real logs from pilots to mechanics. My kids were hysterical the other night reading these:
Davis X. Machina
@efgoldman: 28, 30 at night. Some hoarfrost in the usual places at 6:45 AM or so, but haven’t taken the scraper to the windshield yet.
Got 9″ of snow last year for Halloween, so any day now the other shoe will drop.
gogol's wife
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I do too. The anal-retentive chef, and the one where he was genial, dim Reagan in public but turned into a Spanish-speaking dynamo when alone with his aides — and anything with Jan Hooks, like Frank Sinatra with Nancy Reagan.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
Me too. I’ve watched a couple episodes on a retro TV network recently. I’d forgotten how funny her character was.
SiubhanDuinne
@Hill Dweller:
Cokie Roberts is a parody twit all on her own.
SiubhanDuinne
@Yatsuno:
Loved her as Carol in the old Bob Newhart show. RIP.
lurker #23
@thefax:
Yes, definitely one of the best headlines in a while