I wonder if it was the oversize, two-screen depiction of Anthony Weiner’s tweet that was the last straw. Or, if it was the “jokes” that bothered the GOP leadership gathered in New Orleans, exactly which joke it was that pushed the conference management to pull this ‘comedian’ off the stage:
A President Obama impersonator was pulled off the stage Saturday at the Republican Leadership Conference, after telling a string of racially themed jokes about the president.
The impersonator, Reggie Brown, took the stage at the annual presidential cattle call to the Bruce Springsteen song “Born in the USA” — an apparent allusion to the birther controversy. He proceeded to tell a series of off-color jokes poking fun at Obama’s biracial heritage and a gay member of Congress.
You know you’d like a sample of the “jokes”, so here they are:
• On Black History Month: “Michelle celebrates the full month. I celebrate half.”
• “My mother loved a black man,” but “she was not a Kardashian.”
• A picture was shown of Obama and the first lady when he took office. The impersonator then showed a picture of what the Obamas will look like when the president leaves office, and it was the characters of Fred Sanford and his sister-in-law, Ethel, from the show “Sanford and Son.”
Race wasn’t the only subject where the impersonator pushed the envelope.
• Of Tim Pawlenty’s decision not to criticize Mitt Romney at Monday’s debate: “[CNN’s] John King served him up a ball softer than Barney Frank’s backside.” (Frank is a gay member of Congress from Massachusetts.)
• Of Newt Gingrich’s approval ratings: Dropping “faster than Anthony Weiner’s pants in an AOL chat room.”
• There was also one moment where the original Weiner twitpic was shown on the large screens on either side of the impersonator, with no blurring.
Oh, and — ooops!
The jokes came after speakers including Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal made pleas for Republicans to be civil in their criticism of Obama.



60 Comments

I wish I could say it was unbelieveable.
I’d love to see if anyone got any crowd reaction shots.
I’m just shaking my head. Whose bright idea was this to have that sort of “entertainment”? Gaaaaahhhhh!!
From the article:
“This weekend’s event was attended by several notable presidential candidates, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, businessman Herman Cain, former House speaker Newt Gingrich and potential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry.”
Mr Cain, were you the least bit uncomfortable with this “entertainment”?
It was OK to poke fun at Dubya, but it’s verboten regarding Barry?
First amendment anyone?
I’m with you, Phoenix Woman–it is not unbelievable, it is typical of their racist fare. But even for them this is a new low–holding a meeting in the city where Katrina made landfall, a city that is 67.25% black, and then making jokes about black people.
You missed a few that went the other way. Such as “Tim Pawlenty couldn’t be here tonight because he was having his foot removed from his mouth. But don’t worry, Obamney care will pay for it,” and “I was born in Hawaii, but the Tea Party thinks that’s Kenya.”
Methinks he was pulled because he was making the audience uncomfortable, not because of any racist innuendos which they would not have minded too much. But I wasn’t there, so I don’t know for sure. Than again, neither were you. Don’t read too much into this.
And Obama thinks he can deal with people such as this…
Sure he does. He’s one of them. Don’t let the color of his skin fool you.
Haley Barbour warned the R Party a couple of days ago that they were going too far. If someone like Barbour warns them, you know they have really gone over the top.
“Michelle celebrates the full month. I celebrate half.”
I give that a smile, not an LOL, but I’m a tough audience: my half-black stepdaughter did LOL. Thing is, to people for whom race is not a big deal that sort of joke isn’t offensive. Obama IS of mixed racial parentage and the only folks who’d be offended at a non-derogatory reference to that fact are… racists.
So: who feels offended?
He’s the first O’bama Impersonator Iv’s seen, but he’s good. A ringer too. Jokes were tame, that’s why the cut him off.
You’d have to be grade A veal pen stock to get worried about that level of jokes. No humor is harmless. No humor is not harmless. It’s about time to cut loose on the… (dog onit, I don’t even have a nick name yet) they’ve been too kind, too intimidated, couldn’t even put up any nick names for OB. that’s not really doing the pres any favors. Some day nobody will remember him by his shorter handle.
There’s W, 41, Slick, JFK, LBJ, FDR, Gipper, Ford/NotaLincoln, Truthfulpeanut, Tricky Dick, Maybe there needs to be a contest.
If O wants to get out the African American vote I hope he gots a tape of this. Were any GOP Presidential candidates at this meet?
I watched a youtube of C-SPAN’s coverage of his presentation. It cut off before he left the stage, so I haven’t been able to see that yet. Looked for it at youtube, came up with nothing.
The jokes – some were funny, some weren’t. He’s pretty good, and did tread a line that made the GOP crowd uncomfortable from time to time. If he was pulled off the stage, I’m not sure it was because he was hard on Obama or that the content was racist. We’re harder on Obama here at fdl, and I’ve never heard of a comedian pulled from the stage at a GOP event for dissing African Americans. Have you?
It’s hard to tell without hearing the inflection but Fred Sanford & Ethel… that might have been funny, as much as Obama is graying. The white house does tend to age Presidents. I don’t even understand what is funny about the Kardashian joke.
When he brought up Barney franks backside do you think he was alluding to the gay part or the fat part? he said soft…. not something else, which I wont write.
It just sounds unfunny and tasteless, so this could be manufactured outrage.
He was ripping on Republicans too. Video here. It’s funny.
Just reporting what the Versailles media had to say about the event, and the gathering, and the reaction, and the management’s response. I don’t read anything into it except a buncha white crackers sitting around laughing at a minstrel show until the bossmen realized the press was present.
I’m not the government, and neither is the WaPo from which this report is taken. You need a better understanding of the first amendment.
This was an all-white audience, except for Herman Cain and the occasional token African-American GOP. Yeah, it would be funny if Tracey Morgan told it to a black audience. But to a bunch of white people paying a black man to entertain them? Not really funny.
I don’t feel offended, but clearly the management of the GOP event was; they are the ones who pulled the comedian they had booked off the stage.
They pulled him because the jokes were tame?
That’s a good one.
The GOP loves tame jokes. It’s what goes best at the country club.
Kim Kardashian exclusively dates black men, and is now engaged to one and carrying his child (iirc). So, Obama’s mom!
You thought that was funny?
You must love Jay Leno.
Uh, racism is verboten, yeah. Did you not get the memo? It’s not 1955 anymore.
And teh queers are all over the place too, in case you were wondering. /snark
Isn’t there something missing here?
From Huffpo:
“The audience grew more uncomfortable when Brown turned to the candidates who are looking to make Obama a one-term president.
The impersonator took a shot at former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, saying Pawlenty missed the conference because “he’s having his foot surgically removed from his mouth.”
“Don’t worry: it’s covered under Obamneycare … along with spinal transplants,” Brown said.
The impersonator joked about Romney’s Mormon faith and about polygamy, and Rep. Michele Bachmann’s tea party support.
Organizers then cut off Brown’s microphone and turned on music. He was shown off the stage”.
Just sayen…
I thought it was clumsy more than funny, and some of it wasn’t funny to me, and it is obvious some of the other stuff wasn’t funny to the GOP pasty old white people crowd.
I still haven’t seen any visual proof he was actually pulled from the stage.
It was funny that he was ripping on Republicans. They’re still smarting from Stephen Colbert, and didn’t want a repeat.
Yeah? Well you must love Victoria Jackson :P
You took the words right out of my keyboard.
Was it really okay to poke fun at Dubya?
I remember a man getting arrested for wearing an anti-Bush tee shirt in a shopping mall.
A SHOPPING MALL fer Chrissakes, Bush wasn’t within 600 miles of the place, they just decided to arrest him because they didn’t like that his tee shirt was anti-Bush.
It wasn’t obscene or even vulgar. If I remember correctly it was just Bush and Cheney and “I’M WITH STUPID” written underneath them.
The backside comment was just plain offensive. In fact none of the stuff was funny, I agree with you here.
LOL probably pretty accurate if my memory of that area is right.
It’s been a few years since I’ve been around there but I doubt it has changed much, no reason for it to change is my guess!
“You’d have to be grade A veal pen stock to get worried about that level of jokes.”
You’re probably right but if you visit Haley Barbour’s lovely state you find out how quickly it can depart in a completely “other direction”.
Full video at Black & Right:
http://www.black-and-right.com/2011/06/18/reggie-brown-tells-questionable-jokes-at-rlc/
15 minutes is a respectable time for a stand-up act, and he gets “pulled” after he “turns” on the Repubs, at around 15 min. … until then the act was mostly fine.
The whole stunt could have been ‘planned’ — by Black&Right and/or the RNC; ‘any publicity is good publicity …’
Glad to see this comment.
From my understanding, it wasn’t until *after* he started on the Republicans that they cut the mike. And that clip at HuffPo only showed one or two of those.
It kinda seemed to me to be a slick way of getting paid while still making points other than what was expected in that venue.
On second thought, is it possible that the whole escorting off thing was a planned dramatic charade?
Surely someone had a copy of what the guy was going to say, ahead of time.
It occurred to me that the Republicans would let the thing go on for a bit…and then make a big deal of saying ‘Hey. We’re not offensive bigots after all.’
Maybe I am reading too much into this.
Planned stunt. My thoughts, now that I am awake.
Protesting too much comes to mind.
Until I read about this hillarious bit,I thought that the republicans only laughed at car wrecks caused by TV lawyers running into each other at accident scenes. Relax folks,the guy was a scream. I get moderated off here all the time for writing how this guy talks.If I was Obama I would invite him to the White House for a head cutting match with Don Imus.I also enjoyed trying to reason out the blogs about this. I think you were mostly schocked that you thought his stic was funny. Nothing is funny to a true progressive. Zenostoa
Cannot understand your “moderated off” comment, but the beginning of wisdom is to recognize that some things just aren’t funny.
Some writers axe me off the instant I post something.I could put up the day`s weather report and Mrs Rhodes would moderate [?]me. I made some off hand remarks that peace was more important than choice or that certain minority groups in America were the most privildged human beings since creation and these points turned out to be stoning offences. I watched his stic again and most of it wasn`t very funny. Even his Weiner lines and Barney Frank jokes were far more lamer than scatological. His audience was lamer than he was and were so full of hate soaked partisinship that his jokes flew over their heads. Dave Chappelle would have done a better job.Zenostoa
“This was an all-white audience, except for…”
Now, that one got an LOL. Yeah, I bet it was an all-white audience (except for the ones who aren’t white) and all-male audience (except for the ones who aren’t male), and an all-christian audience, etc…
“Not really funny”
That’s a matter of opinion: you’re entitled to yours and I won’t argue, but is your diary about whether Reggie Brown is funny or whether the act was offensive and racist?
Sorry, but it’s not “clear” the management of the GOP event was offended, let alone what they were offended by. They could have just been smart enough to realize that people with an axe to grind would be happy to make a mountain out of a molehill, if you’ll pardon the mixed metaphor.
“the beginning of wisdom is to recognize that some things just aren’t funny.”
Pretty small beginning. I prefer, “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.”
The whole thing sounds staged. He got the racial jokes in and then got pulled when he started on the Repub candidates? Hmmmm. Could they be doing this to suggest, “We police our own”……
And Vitter still serves, and Ensign didn’t resign til hours before he was going to face charges. Oh, well…….
From the few audience shots I could see – some of the people looked a little uncomfortable. But there were plenty of loud guffaws as well. A very sad and soon to be outdated bunch of haters for the most part.
When did the U.S. PTB get so coarse.
I thought the first two were funny.
this reminds me of the cover band that was booked to play the 2008 R convention named “Hookers & Blow”. Stay Classy.
About as classy as W looking for Iraq’s WMDs under his desk.
Probably started when Bill Clinton went on the Arsenio Hall show to play the saxophone. The transformation of the public servant into the “celebrity.”
The audience that night, made up mostly of pampered and privileged corporate journalists, howled and squealed their pleasure to show their fealty to the MOTU.
Good point. An even better point to pick is when Clinton answered the boxers or briefs Q.
“Maybe I am reading too much into this.”
IMO: probably. If the intent was to prove a lack of bigotry why blow it by cutting him off?
Just a little grade school humor….
re. course: I thought it had to start with Nixon but could not come up with a specific…beyond the out of control sweats…Hijacking at the Watergate comes pretty close.
Have been re-reading some classic Hunter S (Great Shark Hunt Vol.1) and it’s amazing the similarities to the dubya administration, right down to the personnel. I guess crooks are crooks no matter what their time period.
Swopa up. http://firedoglake.com/2011/06/19/sarah-palins-cognitive-dissonance/
Wish I had spelled coarse correctly…ugh.
Funny, but I did much better stand-up comedy re: W Bush.
Another Ivy League, pro-Wall Street president, Obama, deserves satire and denunciation.
As an FDR progressive–not a TR progressive–I cannot help but see Obama as a sick joke–on the blind spot of American liberals.
FDR fought fascism.
Obama embraces its tenets–in the most politically correct, green, bailout the speculators kind of way–but that’s OK–his long-lost father was from Africa–and liberal Dem donors like to feel both guilt–and ownership.
Oh, Lord what fools these mortals be.
There was an FDR biographer on book-tv yesterday. Only caught the end while channel surfing. Made me cry.
I was under the impression that the tipping point was when he started making fun of the republican candidates, particularly Bachmann.
Maybe the point was to give the base an image of “Obama” being ushered off under quasi-arrest. That’ll be all some rememeber from the skit, I’ll wager.
The New Christian Minstrels.