About (Late) Last Night: 3 ways to poke fun at Mitt Romney
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney officially announced (via Twitter, no less) on Monday what everybody knew already: He's running for president in 2012. The news hardly came as a surprise, which may be why so many late-night comedians appeared to have their Romney joke-a-tron warmed up and ready to go Tuesday night.
Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart each presented variations on the same theme -- namely, that Romney is good-looking, relatively moderate and therefore doomed to lose the Republican primary.
Let's parse the differences -- shall we?:
1. On "The Daily Show," Stewart opted to contrast Romney's centrist, business-friendly image with that of the decidedly less mainstream figures in his party. Compared with the Republican field so far, populated by characters like Donald Trump and Michele Bachmann -- or, as Stewart calls them, "crazies" -- Romney is handsome but not much fun. Here's Stewart's take on "Captain Buzzkill":
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Indecision 2012 - Mitt Romney Competes With Crazy People | ||||
|
||||
2. O'Brien took a simpler, sillier approach, true to his geeky but apolitical sense of humor. "I feel like he's trying to run on his good looks," O'Brien said before playing a heavily edited version of Romney's YouTube announcement, set to a sultry disco beat:
3. Finally, Colbert expressed concern that Romney, who "looks like the kind of bold leader you'd see on a box of Centrum Silver," has failed to nail down the nomination a mere 16 months before the 2012 Republican Convention. "Mike Huckabee is bearing down on Romney like a Tyrannosaurus rex bearing down on Adam and Eve," he said. "But Huckabee is neck and neck with one very classy candidate."
Surely, you'll never guess whom he was referring to:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Mitt Happens | ||||
|
||||
-- Meredith Blake
Mitt Romney instituted a health care plan for Mass. just like the one Obama began, and yet he wants to deny it because it'll rile the T-party...what a hypocrite! Also, didn't he drive to Canada with his family and the dog on the roof? Sounds like another brilliant candidate from the Republican Party of Doom.
Posted by: Marita | April 13, 2011 at 10:17 AM