The appearance of a Barack Obama impersonator named Reggie Brown at the Republican Leadership Conference caused a slight kerfuffle because -- well -- a black comedian poked fun at another black.
Then he caused a scandal by poking fun at Republicans.
Newsbusters covered some of the hyperventilation about the Obama jokes pretty well. The Washington Post called the "racially themed" and "off-color." Politico called them "racially tinged."
The video of the routine the Newsbusters article makes one scratch one's head at this. The offending jokes appeared to be the following:
"On Black History Month: 'Michelle celebrates the full month. I celebrate half.'
"My mother loved a black man," but 'he 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 , Aunt Esther, from the show 'Sanford and Son.' "
If anything the hyper-sensitive reaction from some parts of the media demonstrates that the ascent of Obama to the White House has brought a marked decline in race relations. One can only imagine what sort of vapors the Washington Post and Politico would have had if somehow Richard Pryor had been brought back from the dead and brought up to speed on the current political situation.
Pryor would have taken no prisoners, least of all President Obama. Pryor had the talent to lay bare every aspect of racism, race relations, racial anxiety and somehow make all of that funny and reveal some truth as well. These days someone like Pryor would have caused a collective swoon among the mainstream media.
By the way the media hyper-ventilated about Reggie Brown's routine one would have thought that Jackie Mason told Jewish jokes or that George Lopez tells Hispanic jokes. Lenny Bruce had to invent cussing on stage to offend people. All Brown had to do was to tell a lame joke about the president's biracial heritage. At least it was funnier than Will Ferrell impersonating George W. Bush.
The real scandal happened when Brown forgot who his audience was and started laying in on Republicans. Mind, the jokes about Mitt Romney and Mormonism would have worked at a liberal function. But that sort of thing brought groans and the hook for Brown.
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