Dastardly Obama brings back standard English

Who said satire would take a holiday with President Bush's departure?

Well, someone. But there's plenty of evidence to the contrary.

Take Andy Borowitz. The humorist, blogger and movie producer has a go at Barack Obama's stubborn insistence on completing what he starts.

BorowitzReport.com delves into the president-elect's "unorthodox verbal tic" of completing his sentences. He deems the habit a "stunning break with the last eight years."

The onetime Harvard Lampoon president and creator of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (which helped launch actor Will Smith to stardom) posts his material at his own site and at the Huffington Post. Borowitz has also contributed to the L.A. Times' op-ed pages.

His tart take on politics shows no sign of abating. One recent "news" item revealed the Obama campaign's decision to devote a 30-minute infomercial to "a new breakthrough in excercise technology that will guarantee all Americans 'sexy rock-hard abs.' "

Earlier, Borowitz, 50, broke another blockbuster: "Cindy McCain Robot Gets New Head."

Borowitz said that . . .

... he has never agreed with the assessment that Bush's exit would rob satirists of material.

"I thought the 'Bush-is-an-idiot' joke had already gotten old and hacky," Borowitz wrote in an e-mail. "Generally speaking, bad times in the world mean good times for satire -- and we are defintely in the middle of some bad times (as you've probably noticed)."

--Jim Rainey

Comments

[Dominique Catherineau]

Surely the irony of feeling the need to keep Bush in office for the sole purpose of satire is a little absurd? This gratuitous humour ('humor' for those who disapprove of standard English!) is presented to us on a gold plate. Might I suggest that it is time we moved on to slightly more challenging material, thus allowing for real satire as opposed to slap-stick Bush comedy?