A recent piece in the New York Times lamented the lack of humorous quotables from this season’s GOP campaign trail. Sure, the candidates have been the collective butts of many a joke, but they aren’t intentionally funny, which is really what counts for Mr. Leibovich. He has a point: even The Onion lampooned frontrunner Romney’s straight-laced persona, contrasting him with candidates of charisma’s past. Of course, the current Republican contenders promise they’re funny in private—just “turn those cameras off!” said Ann Romney of her husband—but their public personas hardly suggest it.
Sadly, the state of the Oval Office is no better. President Obama, once praised for his wit, is losing his touch; his “spilled milk” joke in the State of the Union fell horrifically flat.
Yes, we’re electing a commander-in-chief, not a comedian. But past presidents have been known to employ humor effectively, both as a political tool and in comedy’s own right. Here’s a run-down of a few moments of presidential humor for the ages.
The History of our Revolution will be one continued lie from one end to the other. The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin’s electric rod smote the earth and out sprang General Washington. Then Franklin electrified him… and thence forward those two conducted all the Policy, Negotiations, Legislations, and War.
Now that’s some satire we can believe in.