The Wanda Sykes fan club thread

The segment about drinking making you feel sexy and getting older in her standup special on Comedy Central was great.

I've never seen her show.

She's hilarious in a crank yankers prank call about a tird in the backseat of her car.

"ASM PLASM-A-TASM?"

When Cosby went to collect a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Emmys, cohost Wanda Sykes asked him in all of her stereotypical finger-snapping, ghetto-girl glory how he managed to get where he did. “I spoke English,” Cosby remarked. He’s particularly irritated that the image of African-American equality he gave us on “The Cosby Show” isn’t more of a reality. Furious at the increased opposition to affirmative action, Cosby says, “There’s no admission at all at the severe lack of equality minority kids have from day one.”

and Fat Albert weren't
non-stereotypical
their own damned selves. SNAP!

It goes something like that...

It was a conversation between Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor re: Cosby.

Ironically enough, he's become a rather unfunny version of Bill Cosby himself:
Pluto Nash=Leonard Part 6?

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid66219.asp

Love this woman so much.

her voice is quite the comedy mallet

cohost Wanda Sykes asked him in all of her stereotypical finger-snapping, ghetto-girl glory how he managed to get where he did

Hands up: has Wanda Sykes ever read to you as remotely "ghetto?"

wtf

P.S. I watched several episodes of her short-lived TV show one weekend -- despite some Morbs-like fears that her voice might become a bit much after the first 30 minutes or so -- and it was pretty likable: it involves her being on a McLaughlin-style news panel show!

she reminds me more of the funny IT ladies in my girlfriend's office

btw, I love the mallet voice.

seriously boggling here

I mean, I should not be at all surprised that "affluent, non-snooty suburban black person" is going to be equated to "ghetto" in some people's minds but COME THE FUCK ON

anyone who didn't know Wanda Sykes was gay hasn't been paying attention. Saw her live nearly a yr ago and she was all "my girlfriend this", "my girlfriend that" and not in a bff gf sense.

^^^ this

or we just haven't seen her live!

(I've seen her mostly 'panelling' on the toob)

she's also been pretty gay on Ellen

ghetto Wanda

xxxxpost - That's it exactly, with the office thing -- watching her stand-up stuff, she reads like someone who'd otherwise be sitting in the back of an office bitching about her co-workers. I mean, practically everything about her persona and comedy is so middle-class-professional crotchety!

Favorite Sykes line: she was on Leno, who asked her about what she thought about that racist shit Don Imus had said. Sykes said, "I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I thought Don Imus died nine years ago."

omg I had forgotten about that "Pootie Tang" scene, hahahahahahahaha

She was such a good fit for Curb Your Enthusiasm, considering her whole trade is having the best "what the hell is wrong with you" expression in the business.

count me in the wanda sykes fanclub too

Curb Your Enthusiasm turned me into a fan

she rules

I always liked her stand-up when she was getting started, and I remember being thrilled when she popped up as a guest star on the Drew Carey Show, as embarrassing as that might be to admit. Also loved her on Inside the NFL!

i love her.

A fan since Chris Rock's talk show. Hilarious on Curb Your Enthusiasm, where she gives as good as Larry David.

I would almost maybe think about watching The New Adventures of Old Christine, that is how much I love Wanda Sykes.

nothing wrong with her on 'old christine' -- nothing wrong with the show itself either

Savvy choice, assuming she plays nice and sticks the Chief only for "long-windedness" etc.

Wanda Sykes to entertain at correspondents' dinner

By ERIN CARLSON

NEW YORK (AP) — Wanda Sykes will soon get the chance to make fun of President Barack Obama to his face.

The comic actress said Thursday that she has been selected as the entertainer at the annual White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner in Washington, slated for May 9.

Obama is expected to attend the black-tie affair at the Washington Hilton and to follow in his predecessors' tradition by putting on a comedy act of his own. The guest list of some 2,000 people will likely include the usual mix of Washington elite, White House press corps and Hollywood celebrities.

"The first thing I did when they asked me to do this gig — I made sure my taxes were paid," quipped Sykes, taking a dig at the withdrawal of former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle from Obama's cabinet due to unpaid taxes.

Sykes, who booked the gig this week, said the idea of performing for such a high-profile crowd is "scary but very exciting." The dinner has tripped up comedians before. Rich Little and Stephen Colbert both provoked criticism of their performances before the crowd.

She said it's her job to "poke fun and ridicule," and even a popular figure like Obama isn't off limits. She already has some ideas about what she could mine for laughs. For example, she noted, Obama can be "a little long-winded. So we can get him on that."

http://www.advocate.com/issue_story_ektid71760.asp

Her father was an Army colonel who worked at the Pentagon, and her mother was a banker. So, after college (Sykes studied marketing at Hampton University, a historically black college in Virginia), she did just that: She spent five years as a contracting specialist for the National Security Agency, an intelligence branch of the Defense Department. The young woman with the big mouth was stuck doing paperwork, and she was bored. “I still had the same personality -- I was funny at work -- but it got to the point of, like, I’m just wasting my time here.”

Oooh, I like Wandy Sykes. This could be fun.

gets a talk show!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/04/wanda-sykes-to-host-saturday-night-talk-show-on-fox.html

omg @ her 9/11 + rush + oxycontin joke

youtube?

it's from the correspondents dinner like 2/3 of the way through

she said that since rush wants the country to fail that he might've been the 20th hijacker but he was too strung out on oxycontin to catch the flight

"I can break Sean Hannity just by giving him a middle seat in coach."

LOL

That was long and occasionally uncomfortable by wow, funny.

BUT wow, I mean.

As for the dinner itself I thought Obama was fairly good for most of his talk, though I have my quibbles. I thought Wanda Sykes had some funny lines, but was generally pretty bad. Yes, I thought the Limbaugh stuff was particularly awful, not just because it was offensive, but because it was unfunny. Biting humor is fine at events like this, so long as it's humorous. Sykes' schtick was a cliche wrapped in a lefty talking point. There are funnier lines in lefty blog comment sections. Moreover, the contrast with Stephen Colbert's gig was striking. I was there for Colbert's performance, which I thought went too far the other way. But here was a guy who was immediately lionized by the left as a brave truth-teller who did what the "lapdog" media was afraid to do. Here comes Sykes who makes some harmless cutesy jokes about Obama and then delivers a spiel that could have been written by Axelrod. Recently, the worst thing in the world you could do was "question" someone's patriotism. But calling Limbaugh a traitor and a terrorist and hoping he dies is hilarious?

Jonah Goldberg, of course.

i never saw the colbert bit but the limbaugh joke was pretty ballsy and funny imo

and wrt obama, what exactly was she supposed to hammer him on? she took an early shot at geithner but there's no like... phanton wmds type screw up to obviously 'hammer' him on just yet

the mccain joke and palin joke were funny too imo

i wouldn't call the limbaugh joke "funny" exactly, but it's awesome.

As a Delawarean, I tried to get offended when she picked on Joe Biden but she was pretty right on so I just got over it.

i wouldn't call the limbaugh joke "funny" exactly, but it's awesome.

I LOLed when she said the part about "He hopes our country fails? I hope his liver fails" but I am a heartless bitch sometimes.

yeah the thing that was great about her limbaugh stuff was how icily full of rage it was.

jordan how tf hav u not seen the colbert routine - its srsly one of the most important things to hav ever happened to this country - the media and the president are in total shock as he delivers it - its amazing to watch - go watch it now

sykes and obama killd imo too

omg i'm rewatching colbert at wh correspondents. still can't really believe this happned.

yeah i was inspired to re-watch the colbert one after watching sykes, what a perf

xp!

is the obama speech on youtube?

she rules

the line about the sojourner truth bust, omg ("you better nail it down or else the next white president is gonna move it into the kitchen")

gasped for real @ that palin joke omg

i wouldn't call the limbaugh joke "funny" exactly, but it's awesome.

Some of it is shocking, sure, but nothing was shockingly funny. The put downs aren't even personalized and original (Cheney/stranger joke, Hannity is fat joke, a few others).

The Palin joke could've been funny if the punchline actually made logical sense and wasn't so lazily conceived as just an oh snap! moment. Speaking of oh snap!, I'm kinda surprised Wanda didn't talk about Obama's enormous penis (that he has because he's black). That would have been hilarious.

I never saw the Colbert one either. I'm only about a minute in right now but I'm already getting uncomfortable--and the dude's not even president anymore!

the hannity joke was more about elitism than weight, i thought

she said that since rush wants the country to fail that he might've been the 20th hijacker but he was too strung out on oxycontin to catch the flight

I mean, this is fantastic, especially because Obama is in the room.

like the joke is 100% great, tho it's 90% ballsy and 10% 'funny', if that makes sense

But then what does that make Colbert's appearance, where the routine is both ballsy and hilarious?

Better...?

I mean, is this a trick question or something?

comparing anything to the colbert routine is a set up for failure - wanda was great def

wingnut blogs and their attendant mainstream concern trolls predictably getting the vapors over this shit

http://i40.tinypic.com/qrxftc.jpg

Hannity is fat joke

Yeah, not a fat joke, more like a joke about him being pampered and accustomed to privilege. The same joke is in Annie Hall: "They'd take away your Bloomingdale's charge card and you'd tell them everything."

also hannity is not fat

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97688

jesus this shit is awful

"President Obama said he's going to take care of all Americans just like he takes care of his own family. It's comforting to know that the worst that can happen to us now is ending up homeless in Kenya."

"And I don't know about you, but I sleep better at night knowing that a White House aide can scramble F-16s without anybody else knowing about it. This way, if a war breaks out while Obama's teleprompter is unplugged, somebody can still order planes to bomb New York to appease an enemy like at the end of Fail-Safe."

zing!

gasped for real @ that palin joke omg

― You have diefied me for the last time! (Lamp), Monday, May 11, 2009 12:04 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lolling more @ 'oh shutup you're gonna be telling that one tomorrow'

the hannity joke was more about elitism than weight, i thought

Yeah, that didn't read to me as a fat joke at all.

Part of what I love about the Rush/20th-hijacker joke is that it comes after years of jokes and not-jokes about Michael Moore.

luvd the pres laughing at all this

did i see a shot of glenn beck in there?

did i see a shot of glenn beck in there?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v111/starla_zero/emoboy6ez.jpg

i think it was john gibson http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:m1vzyVYEgHm_7M:http://imgsrv.whistalkradio.com/image/DbGraphic/200603/240630.jpg

Man, can I get an animated gif of Olbermann laughing at his name drop?

ha yeah he was all "did somebody say Keith Olbermann? I'M KEITH OLBERMANN!!!"

man just re-watched the 2006 WHCD w/ colbert since all the hoopla, shit really was insane. and hey remember all the talk about the MSM "burying" it. crazy, crazy times...

Sykes' okay, nothin special (which is kinda how I feel about her in general)

the Colbert takedown was one of the best pieces of American political satire ever. ILE totally missed the boat on that one.

Crazier than Colbert is the skit from a few years ago with Bush looking around the White House for the WMDs.

ILE totally missed the boat on that one

?

by not offering colbert his own board

lol

I don't know where you were Shakey, but there was a thread about the Colbert appearance and most of the posters on it were like:

Colbert and the WH Correspondents Dinner

Colbert and the WH Correspondents Dinner

(started by Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier) on board I Love Everything on Apr 30, 2006)

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (408 of them)

haha xp

that clip wasn't very funny

― someone let this mitya out! (mitya), Sunday, April 30, 2006 3:48 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark

just watched it on CSPAN Weekend.
Mostly boring. I don't see what the big deal is. I can understand sorta why the dude I met last night @ the Big Hunt still in his tuxedo said it seemed to run long.

― TOMBOT (TOMBOT), Sunday, April 30, 2006 5:02 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

He's funniest in short bursts - the character just isn't that funny for 30 minutes (night after night, it's like, yeah we get the point, Bill O'Reilly truthiness haha go away now), but was deadly for about nine here.

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, April 30, 2006 5:58 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

Three weeks after the dinner, audio of Colbert's performance went on sale at the iTunes Music Store and became the #1 album purchased, outselling new releases by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and Paul Simon. The CEO of Audible.com, which provided the recording sold at iTunes, explained its success by saying, "you had to not be there to get it."[7] It continued to be a top download at iTunes for the next five months and remains a top-selling audiobook on the service.[9]

I guess its mostly Tombot who was being a dumbass

x-post

Does Stephen Colbert ever appear to be angry, Tracer? (which is why Shakey/Gabbneb's "It's all about how he stood up and totally sonned the president in a comedy beef" stance is ludicrious as well, not to mention a spurious thing to hang on a comedian, hang on til the end of this post for more) I think you have him confused with Lewis Black, maybe, because he was very much in his "schtick," it's just that I assumed most ppl (WHY I'm not really sure) assumed he was going to tone it down, not blatantly pick at scabs the President refuses to admit even exist, so it's "shocking" or something. Someone doing the thing they do every night as their job = SHOCKING.

Unfortunately, I just didn't think it was that consistently funny (neither did a lot of ppl judging by this thread and the internets in general, so the faux naive "Unfunny to who?" seems silly!!). If he got up there and sang the Charlene song and ranted about bears for a half hour I would've peed my pants, though.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Monday, May 1, 2006 2:13 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark

^^^class act

rip ally

it's funny at times but the ass-kissing gets old

yah would have been better if it was just glenn greenwald all nite amirite

Speaking of oh snap!, I'm kinda surprised Wanda didn't talk about Obama's enormous penis (that he has because he's black). That would have been hilarious.

― Cunga, Monday, 11 May 2009 05:54 (13 hours ago)

...

I don't know which part of that post to cut and paste into this box

yah would have been better if it was just glenn greenwald all nite amirite

no you're right I lol'd so hard when she said how much everybody loved the president, it wasn't at all like the exact mirror image of creepy bushie "he's a guy you just want to have a beer with!"isms

I mean "people just like you so much, here are some comic exaggerations of how much people like you," that's quality satire right there

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090511/pl_politico/22369

see that's just the power she spoke truth to trying to hold her back

no you're right I lol'd so hard when she said how much everybody loved the president, it wasn't at all like the exact mirror image of creepy bushie "he's a guy you just want to have a beer with!"isms

I mean "people just like you so much, here are some comic exaggerations of how much people like you," that's quality satire right there

― worm? lol (J0hn D.), Monday, May 11, 2009 2:31 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah obama is just like bush!

I don't disagree w/you John but my inner pedant feels forced to note:

• you could play basketball with Obama
• you couldn't actually have a beer w/Bush since he is an AA dude (also I know you didn't come up w/that one)

Actually, no it wasn't the EXACT mirror image but is it any shocker people like praise of people they like and dislike praise of people they dislike?

again -- what is exactly is someone supposed to hit obama on this early in his term? for 15 minutes?

We can make a small list, and it's up to Wanda Sykes to make it funny.

She covered how he owns a dog.

he picked a Portugese water dog instead of a golden retriever

xpost lol

again -- what is exactly is someone supposed to hit obama on this early in his term? for 15 minutes?

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bshapiro/2009/05/11/wanda-sykes-gutless-performance/

Gay marriage, apparently (I had this argument last night with a friend of mine, not about Wanda Sykes but about how Obama is "making time to help everyone except for the gays").

Personally, I think that regardless of whatever statements she has made, expecting Wanda Sykes to lay into Obama over gay marriage shows a fundamental misunderstanding of Wanda Sykes and who she sees as the opponent in the gay marriage fight, but that may just be me.

Yeah esp. since she came out BCZ of prop 8!

I mean I think she knows how to play this.

i guess are people expecting her-- or whoever-- to go the correspondents dinner and dismantle the president over every issue where he doesn't line up perfectly? that sounds like a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the gig to me

There's plenty of shit to hit him on: not repealing don't ask don't tell by executive order, reinstatement of military commissions, letting Biden out of his cage without a Teleprompter, etc.

i thought he made fun of biden

and military commissions. . aren't that funny

oh come on, they're hilarious

letting Biden out of his cage without a Teleprompter

she did this and it was pretty funny

reinstatement of military commissions

really? it's a stand up comic gig at some jerk off press event. not really wanda sykes job to be delving into the nuances of these things

Wait, are you all criticizing her for NOT being zingy enough? Like 30% of that maximum was 'oh man and Michelle why are people making fun of your height it's NICE to have a tall first lady for once (I'm not naming names!)'.

okay military commissions are funny in and of themselves, but i don't know how you come up with a bunch of gags about them

OK, saw the Biden clip -- I lol'ed.

duh

It's important that we remember that there are two sides to everything, and that the job of the comedian at this gig is to take whatever side is presently in power and dismantle it. That's all Colbert was doing, just speaking out against the present power, not speaking out against a horribly corrupt president and establishment media.

You know I didn't even know this thing existed until Colbert did it.

okay military commissions are funny in and of themselves, but i don't know how you come up with a bunch of gags about them

He could have made a joke about sending The Worst of the Worst, like Dick Cheney.

they booked well-known standup comedian Dr. Morbius for next year's gig to make up for Sykes

Does everyone keep saying 'he' out of a typo, I hope?

why -- Dennis Perrin was unavailable?

(xpost)

the acts are identical

featuring hilarious presidential nicknames like Warbama and Obrahma (poking fun at the connection between obama and hollywood writer/director J.J. Abrahms' entertaining but military-fetishitistic scripts).

lol fetishistic

would lol @ Dennis Perrin saying "oh shut up, you know Dr. Morbius is going to be telling that one online tomorrow"

...

― autogucci cru (deej), Monday, May 11, 2009 7:19 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

I was being sarcastic and admittedly a bit dry about it.

Is "dry" the new euphemism for "racist"?

more for "dense" imo

fair point

jpeg of Morbs and Perrin on cereal box, plz

Two scoops of outrage

lol

Alfred, these ppl are right, anything you might wanna give O shit about is totally not funny, no humor possible in any of it. torture memos released but nobody prosecuted? just not funny. much better joke is "everybody loves this guy!"

totally shoulda made some jokes about the Armenian genocide

Shakes, I know you're up for it.

"good riddance, amirite?"

did anyone refer to that NYC photo op? That seemed ripe for exploitation.

j0hn, you're right, it's important that "anything you might wanna give O shit about" is something that this comedian ought to have given him shit about. It's important to make sure it's well known that not everybody loves this guy.

things Obama has disappointed me about:

- FISA/wiretapping
- Armenian genocide
- asserting Bush-era executive privelege arguments in court

... that's all I got. The first two are campaign promises he reneged on (or, at least, he hasn't fulfilled those promises to-date). The third is a sad but totally predictable preservation of power. To pretend like any of these are anywhere close to the level of Bushco's crimes is fucking ridiculous. And weighed up against the legislation that he's pushing through Congress on a number of fronts, the closing of Guantanamo, the timetable to leave Iraq, plus any other number of things he's tackled in the few months he's been in office that stuff looks fairly paltry.

hatersgonnahate.gif

I'd add "Doing something for gays that's more than just symbolism and photo ops like that Easter egg hunt."

Comparing Obama's first five months to Bush's two terms is unfair; there was plenty to make fun of Bush about in May 2001.

Glenn Beck was there. I wonder what we'd be talking about had he been handed alcohol and the mic.

it's wanda sykes' job to make lighthearted jokes about his popularity, not to grill him on torture memos and executive privilege - that's for the other ppl in the room

you know he was silently outraged that he didn't get mentioned in the fox news bit

wow, that ben shapiro article is like some level 30 concern trolling

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/9/files/userphoto/bshapiro.jpg

I'd add "Doing something for gays that's more than just symbolism and photo ops like that Easter egg hunt."

I think its funny that the worst things people are coming up with to throw at Obama center around things he HASN'T done. I mean it would be nice if he legalized drugs and stopped the drug war too but I don't see that happening either, for ex... I don't really give that much of a shit about gays in the military. I agree its a stupid policy and I don't understand why he hasn't suspended it (certainly its easier for him to do that than to repeal Bubba's DOMA) but I can also understand how it wouldn't be at the top of his list of things to do. I'd be more upset if he was fucking up handling the two biggest problems we've got - fighting/get out of wars and fixing the economy - and he seems to be doing pretty well on that front (although I am not down with our military's favorite tactic of indiscriminate bombing, be it in Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever)

like he HASN'T prosecuted the previous administration
he HASN'T repealed don't ask don't tell
he HASN'T called the Armenian genocide a "genocide"

etc
this is minor shit people

to keep it in perspective, with DubyaCo it was all the shitty things THEY ACTUALLY DID that made them scary

lol @ dudes who are mad this isn't the Comedy Central Roast of Barack Obama

Though they should get Norm MacDonald next year imo

"they want to murder you ... in a well. seems a bit harsh."

- asserting Bush-era executive privelege arguments in court

...is a sad but totally predictable preservation of power.

― High in Openness (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, May 11, 2009 5:59 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

now i know this is a fav bitch topic for a lot of people but itd be fair to at least include the caveat that the obama admin has said repeatedly that this doesnt reflect their policy but rather the fact that they had a couple of court dates before their policy was ready - they claim theyre going to once all their terrorist ducks are in row roll back all these bush era abuses - not saying u should take their word for it but completely ignoring their claims doesnt make for good stand up either

or u could go all glen greenwald an extrapolate every move out until all the bloggers are jailed

I'll let Morbz and J0hn handle that end of things

I laughed more toward the beginning. She has a great delivery. I thought the basketball/secret service stuff was funny, as well as: "You're over there pattin' the queen on the back like she just slid into home plate".

I felt it sort of lost steam when she started going off on lame TV and radio personalities. The Limbaugh as 9/11 hi-jacker line made me chuckle, but not the kidney failure thing. Just don't find kidney failure funny.

I was kinda only addressing the k-lame "what could Sykes have possibly gone with comedically? Obama is too awesome for words!" sentiment expressed upthread by for example J0rdan S., but really should know better than to say anything other than "fucking wow, what an awesome President" on ilx, lest deep political thinkers shame me utterly by comparing me to the insane Dr. Morbius and his heretical schemes

cue Shakey: YOU'RE SAYING HE'S AS BAD AS BUSH OMG no I'm not & nobody is, but "people are blaming him for what he hasn't done" (all restateable as positives btw) is some level-50 Icon Worship

cant believe u and morbs r schisming now when ilx need u most of all

we have agreed to work together for the good of the lols

(also, to be clear, "the insane and heretical Dr. Morbius" was a jab at how lame the lame "you know who you sound like? this guy we don't like!!" tactic, v. popular on message board ilx)

what are barack obama's flaws? is ----->

fighting/get out of wars and fixing the economy - and he seems to be doing pretty well on that front

RRRRRRRRRRRREALLY

wtf are you smoking, Shakey, and are Geithner and Gates yr dealers

"people are blaming him for what he hasn't done" (all restateable as positives btw) is some level-50 Icon Worship

50??? what kind of scale is this

the absolute scale of random shit I just made up

morbius/darnelle absolute random shit scale

not repealing don't ask don't tell by executive order

Not to get all political up in here, but I'm pretty sure he can't actually do this. Congress has the Constitutional power "to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces," not the President.

oh I think if he asked a Democratic congress to get to work on it, they'd act fast

but really, we shouldn't ask so much of the guy - asking for anything at all is demanding perfection, nobody's perfect

naw thats a commander in chief thing - he can end it w/a stroke of teh pen

I really hope the entree at the thing wasn't as limp as this SOP prez

this thread is the first fun I have had all day because I am v. depressed so thank you to the Obama Will Never Do Wrong squad for letting me do my John D. Enjoys Bein' A Dick routine

bein serious btw, <3 to everybody

naw thats a commander in chief thing - he can end it w/a stroke of teh pen

no, I think you can enact it (as Clinton did) but it takes Congress to repeal it - isn't that right?

Obama can suspend don't ask don't tell, he doesn't need congress to do anything.

oh well in that case he's a fuckin' asshole

but "people are blaming him for what he hasn't done" (all restateable as positives btw)

O RLY

u werent v dickish john sry - the only flaw i really see in yr and the sykes is a sycophant crowds argument is the assumption that she has a duty to criticize the president

as far as dont ask dont tell the obama admin could be working on it making sure the transition goes as smooth as possible - there are def logistical and institutional hurdles there - or they could just be feeling like its not worth their time and political capital right now - or it could be something else - im certainly curious to know

RRRRRRRRRRRREALLY

wtf are you smoking, Shakey, and are Geithner and Gates yr dealers

market rebound, federal money flowing into the public sector, etc. I can tell you from a personal standpoint around December a lot of projects were in limbo because states/public institutions were out of money and the credit market was frozen. Now people are lining up to fight for stimulus dollars and people are committing to projects again.

I mean things aren't all hunky dory by any means but Obama hasn't exactly fucked up on the economy just yet.

ALL my projects are in limbo.

the Colbert takedown was one of the best pieces of American political satire ever.

And like all satire, changed nothing.

Haven't watched the Sykes thing, don't plan to but damn, where was her "you dropped more shit on Afghanistan last month than Bush ever did" riff...

my feeling is the only real political danger to ending dadt is within the military which tends to be more conservative than the rest of the population and obv cares more abt military issues - the general public is ready for this imo - the obomber should get it done and soon

the Colbert takedown was one of the best pieces of American political satire ever.

And like all satire, changed nothing.

I... guess? Nothing changes anything Morbz.

Haven't watched the Sykes thing, don't plan to but damn, where was her "you dropped more shit on Afghanistan last month than Bush ever did" riff...

Afghanistan is messed up (as I already noted upthread). Obama at least seems aware that a purely military victory in Afghanistan is not possible. I imagine that last month had something to do with him switching commanders today.

I'd like some acknowledgment on the policy level that just bombing people doesn't work as a military strategy in Afghanistan, and will just end up in wasted lives and money. best thing we could do in Afghanistan is build a bunch of railroads and electrical infrastructure.

imo we should not give a safe haven to terrorist trains or electricity

the only flaw i really see in yr and the sykes is a sycophant crowds argument is the assumption that she has a duty to criticize the president

it's this somewhat (I do think comedians have a duty to hit as low as they can) but mainly what's got me is that the lols at the whole feel v. similar to the sort of forced laughter you hear if you're at the women's studies conference & ppl start getting out their anti-patriarchy "jokes" - it's like, if yr a feminist, the content of the joke is right on, but the shit just isn't really v. funny & it's a little embarrassing to see ppl pretending it's funnier than it is just because it's right on

you can search-and-replace communist party meetings, socialist workers party meetings, etc & have basically the same complaint

y'know?

also, I am so being a dick, I'm always being a dick about this stuff, it is my job

oh come on nobody's gonna pay you for this routine

needs more laffs amirite

that tendency J0hn mentions also reminds me of Steve Martin saying he started doing his conceptual "dumb" absurdist stage act in ther early '70s cuz comics were getting laughs just doing "fuck Nixon" lines.

to the contrary Shakes! some of the incomprehensible stuff on yr paycheck every month goes directly into my pocket - more on months when I am a total dick

like, check like 9 - see the JBAD Contri. (see:SB1019) line? that's my money

btw, I wonder how many of you Dems have wanted Joe Lieberman's kidneys to fail since the day in 2000 when you voted for him.

dude those dems would have voted for a Gore/Worm?Lol ticket, they didn't exactly "vote for Lieberman"

save it for Yahoo Answers

the insane Dr. Morbius and his heretical schemes

john ty 4 this btw

the content of the joke is right on, but the shit just isn't really v. funny & it's a little embarrassing to see ppl pretending it's funnier than it is just because it's right on

isn't this basically what you guys are saying she should have done?

she made funny jokes about basketball, but some people wanted her to get self-righteous about don't ask don't tell and bombing afghanistan. wow, that would have been hilarious.

btw, I wonder how many of you Dems have wanted Joe Lieberman's kidneys to fail since the day in 2000 when you voted for him.

I have never voted for Joe Lieberman

dude wanda sykes staring silently into the camera for five minutes would have been funnier than "Nobody’s going to give the president a hard foul with the Secret Service right there." LOL RITE BECAUSE THEY WILL TOTALLY GET IN TROUBLE IF THEY FOUL THE PRESIDENT! LOL!

And like all satire, changed nothing.

Most satire takes aim at confidence. When enough confidence in something has been eroded it paves the way for change.

Obama can suspend don't ask don't tell, he doesn't need congress to do anything.

No, I don't think he can. DADT was enacted by statute, and it takes a statute to change it. The President cannot just rescind statutes by executive order, not even statutes relating to the conduct of the military. And Obama appears to agree with me, as noted on lol Wikipedia: Obama advisers announced that his plans to repeal the policy may be delayed until as late as 2010, because Obama "first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus, and then present legislation to Congress."

I hope the cook doesn't serve bad food at the white house! he will get fired if he does, his boss is the president! of the united states!

well he probably would get fired tbh

WHite House chef is a woman, you sexists!

"chefette", you mean

Cookiatrix

just because obama wants to present legislation to congress doesnt mean he has to - everything ive read abt this says he can do it on his own - tho i could certainly see from a political standpoint why hed want congress with him

well he probably would get fired tbh

this has now made me lol 3x and I thank you

do you even like stand-up comedy, dude? earlier you say comedians have a "duty", and now you're like, wow she told a predictable joke. I could pull apart jokes from any comedian on earth the way you just did and make it seem unfunny.

The funny thing about that (any?) joke was the context and the delivery. It wasn't just about, "oh no, they'll get in trouble for fouling the president!", it was "I bet you think you're at the top of your game right now," and the visual imagery of how it would go down. God, you sound like an angry joyless fucker.

if he liked comedians he would have spelled it "doody"

Absolutely determined that a good time would be had by all, and equally determined to bring down the house, Richard Nixon appeared as the final act. The curtain pulled back to reveal the president and Vice President Spiro Agnew seated at two modest black pianos (Dwight Chapin at the White House had requested grand pianos or at least baby grands but the Statler Hilton could only manage uprights). This was the first time a chief executive had appeared on the Gridiron stage, and Nixon opened by asking: "What about this 'southern strategy' we hear so often?" "Yes suh, Mr. President," Agnew replied, "Ah agree with you completely on yoah southern strategy." The dialect, as Wilkins observed, got the biggest boffo.

After more banter with the "darky" Agnew, Nixon opened the piano duet with Franklin Roosevelt's favorite song ("Home on the Range"), then Harry Truman's ("Missouri Waltz"), then Lyndon Johnson's ("The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You"). Agnew, drowned him out a few bars into each with a manic Dixie on his piano, and the Gridiron crew got louder and louder. "The crowd ate" it up," Wilkins observed. "They roared."

rockapads do u like valium because you need some

"you didn't like jokes that sound like boilerplate Tonight Show monologue stuff, you FUNHATER"

That's what she does, isn't it? I mean, it's an unflattering (if not completely elitist) way of putting it, but she's a mainstream comic. I just want to know why you are on this Wanda Sykes fan club thread, acting like you're disappointed by how she ignored her Duty as a Comedian by not tearing Obama a new asshole, if you don't like her style in the first place?

I'm too lazy to look up how Truman's executive order desegregated the armed forces.

J0hn is right, comedians have a duty to bust the president's balls so that we don't have to, and so when our jokes suck we can say, "fuck it, comedians got my back". This is called "division of labor".

Was Laura Bush at the same function where Colbert delivered the zingers you all found so funny -- the one in which she and Lynne Cheney had the entire American press corps in stitches over "Desperate Housewives" jokes at George's expense?

That's what we need, more executive orders and less relying on legislative deliberation. In fact I think we need a unitary executive to get these things right.

In this case, Euler, the country is a lot closer to accepting fags and dikes in a locker room than it was in accepting blacks in the army in 1947 or '48. Jeez, even my red meat die-hard Cuban mafia congressional rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen vocally supports the rescinding of DADT.

ok, but then let's let Congress legislate it.

why you are on this Wanda Sykes fan club thread

I don't know if you heard but Wanda Sykes made the news recently

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/11/christopher-hitchens-rips_n_201845.html

I retract my critique of Sykes's boring routine so as not to be lumped in w/Hitch, I will now listen to routines about how husbands won't do dishes or something as penance

that christopher hitchens is a class act

J0hn, you ugly dike.

Hitch is jus jellus.

beginning to understand why Dutch guys keep trying to put their thumbs in me

xpost, God DAMN it.

Wait, is this Christopher "Why Women Aren't Funny" Hitchens? Will read.

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/79629/thumbs/s-CHRISTOPHER-HITCHENS-WANDA-SYKES-large.jpg

lol sooo wasted

He's turned into Anakin Skywalker after they take the helmet off.

Not much to read, I found out.

I didn't really know how to react to the Sykes routine. Like yeah part of me thought a lot of this was real pedestrian stand up and I was wonderin like 'uhh so when is she gonna bring up his dog'. But a lot of it felt like casual dinner table 'lol busted u r right I do brag about my game to my wife', and a good deal just felt casual and cute. Like when she asked who had the idea to give the queen an ipod, Michelle's big grin and point at her husband was kinda priceless.

But I guess that I thought the first lady had funnier moments in Wanda Sykes' routine than Wanda Sykes is kinda saying somethin.

Overall I gotta say in spite of some awkwardness I had some genuine lols and overall I'm a Sykes fan, I was just a little disappointed by this one.

You may remember the evening of Sept. 29, 2001. On that evening, Rudy Giuliani appeared on Saturday Night Live. It was 18 days after the September 11 attacks. This appearance of the mayor of New York — who had spent almost three weeks comforting a shaken nation, mourning with families of the murdered, and leading — was widely considered a signal: We could laugh again. We needed to laugh. Heaven knows, Giuliani must have needed it as much as anyone.

Laughter can be a beautiful thing, a great gift in difficult times. A way to reach those who might not otherwise respond to you or your message. Laughter can also be something vicious, coming from a very dark place.

The latter is what enveloped our nation’s capital at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night. Jokes about our former president and vice president. Jokes about interrogation. Jokes about gay marriage. Jokes about abstinence. Jokes about terrorism. Jokes about addiction. Jokes about abortion and embryo destruction. And the president of the United States was the headliner, responsible for some but not all of the shamefulness of the night.

The last time I was at the Naval Observatory was in December, at the then vice president’s Christmas party. Toward the back of the room was a screen displaying photos. There was humor in them — Dick Cheney wearing a Darth Vader mask — but they also documented what was overwhelmingly present in the eight years of the Bush presidency: We are at war. We are in a war not of our choosing. And the responsibility to protect and defend America weighed heavily on our elected leaders each day.

Cheney is on the sidelines now, and there is a new party in town. The new president, insulting the administration before him, told us in his inaugural that he was going to put away childish things.

But even the children were not left out of the jokes. President Obama used his daughters to make light of Air Force One’s Lower Manhattan flyover. Before Saturday night, there was no better visual symbol of this administration’s September 10 policy blindness. Air Force One might as well have been flying a banner that read “We Don’t Get It.” Obama’s joke about the incident could be considered the banner.

Following the president, Wanda Sykes said:

Mr. President . . . you’ve had your fair share of critics. . . . Rush Limbaugh, one of your big critics, boy — Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails. So you’re saying, “I hope America fails.” You’re like, “I don’t care about people losing their homes, their jobs, or our soldiers in Iraq.” He just wants our country to fail.

To me, that’s treason. He’s not saying anything differently than Osama bin Laden is saying. You know you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight.

Too much?

You’re laughing inside, I know you’re laughing.

Rush Limbaugh: “I hope the country fails.” I hope his kidneys fail, how about that?

He needs a waterboarding, that’s what he needs.

And some of the most prominent luminaries in Washington politics, media, and popular culture laughed. You don’t have to be a “dittohead” to know that is shameful (and it would be just as shameful if the rant were about a left-wing host, at a right-wing gala).

But Sykes wasn’t the core problem, as tasteless and awful as her jokes were. I keep going back to Sasha and Malia. The president used his daughters, two days after he let one of his staff take the fall for his administration’s use of everyone in Lower Manhattan and along the Hudson River on a clear morning as a prop in the Obama show. Nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered on a day not unlike that one, and his administration needlessly freaked out those who witnessed it. And he’s laughing.

Of course, that was his job Saturday night. To go to the Reagan Hilton and entertain the media and Hollywood audience. Presumably the crowd likes him (he joked about this too) and hates Rush. He knew what the crowd wanted and ran with it. It was unpresidential when Bush did that (remember looking for weapons of mass destruction at the Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner?) and it’s unpresidential when Obama does it. And it’s downright shameful when done with the meanspiritedness that was on display Saturday night.

Somehow Dick Cheney, who continues to stand athwart unseriousness yelling “Stop,” is the enemy. Somehow Rush Limbaugh, conservative stalwart, the embodiment of capitalist success, a man who has struggled with adversity with an inspiring humility, is someone we’re to disdain so much as to laugh at the prospect of his kidneys’ failing. Somehow we are supposed to be pining for one of the nastiest men on television to do something that everyone laughing at the joke presumably considers torture to Sean Hannity, who, agree with him or not, is the happiest of warriors compared with Keith Olbermann.

The reviews of the president Saturday night were good, I keep hearing. But what happened Saturday night was not right. The same liberal elite that has brought us hate-crimes laws and speech codes spewed real venom. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is below the president, whoever he is (I thought this when Bush was president and I think it even more today). But that dinner Saturday night —in the jokes the president of the United States of America was willing to make and to laugh at — was beneath America.

— Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.

ick @ "stand athwart unseriousness"

I'm trying to remember, was it Rush or some other conservative voice who was center to that whole "Barack The Magic Negro" thing?

nm, it was Rush.

basically, the Colbert event shifted the paradigm for this thing, but just for a year. Now it's back to a safe, clubby, backscratching circle jerk for The Elites (Wanda included).

any circle jerk including Wanda Sykes is a circle jerk I'd be glad to participate in

maybe I should rephrase that

So on Slate today Christopher Hitchens refers to her twice as a "Sable Sapphist," which possibly he thinks is clever but is actually one of the creepiest things I've ever seen from him.

Also he has a poor imagination:

...it's near-impossible to imagine our Sable Sapphist lampooning a black equivalent of Limbaugh for an addiction to, say, crack.

Cuz these days I actually find it really, really easy to imagine Wanda Sykes whipping out some Marion Barry jokes

"Limbaugh's dependence, like Bush's dyslexia, is actually a disability. Can you easily picture any jokes from the Sable Sapphist that would in any other way breach the protocols of the Americans With Disabilities Act? Any other person of whom she would dare say, "I hope his kidneys fail"? Any other context in which torture would be funny enough for her to yell, "He needs a water-boarding, that's what he needs"? Reality and comedy check here: Would she even say this about Osama Bin Laden?"

Hitchens referred to Obama as a mulatto Dukakis during the campaign. I think the Obama era is pretty tough on him.

Of course, Hitchens is not exactly a fan of female comedians in general.

not a mulatto dukakis, a "dusky dukakis"

Wait, drug addiction is covered under the ADA? Is that why House M.D. still has a job?

yeah, I knew mulatto wasn't quite right. man just can't resist some good alliteration.

send him a nametag reading "Dipsomaniacal Dipshit"

peach-skinned problem drinker

sallow sot

ivory inebriate

Beirut Brawler

In both cases Hitch is also resurrecting racial language that's positively antiquated and thus more racist-sounding. I'm surprised he didn't call her a Negress in passing.

Results 1 - 10 of about 3,020 for nubile negress

Results 1 - 10 of about 581 for "nubile negress"

lol good correction PP -- these scientific results are meaningless if we dont search as a phrase

Limbaugh's dependence, like Bush's dyslexia, is actually a disability

I guess all of the drunk comments have hit a nerve.

monomaniacal mongoloid

Man, these advertisements for the new Wanda Sykes show are getting me really excited!!!

http://blogs.ajc.com/radio-tv-talk/files/2009/07/wanda_sykes-1-evan_almighty.jpg

"Do we REALLY need another study about how overweight Americans are? I mean, can't we just look in the mirror?"

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh GOD DAMN Wanda Sykes, I can't believe you went there, holy SHIT

her stand up special was pretty great

Did Larry David write it?

ba dum dum

dumb dumb

you are racist, btw

wtf

jk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS0GVOQPs0

yeah those wanda promos are super funny

syke!

can someone summarize the 300 posts that happened in the past year? what the hell was there to talk about?

white house correspondents' dinner

ohh right

saw the first half -- kind of a mess! No interviews in the first 30 mins either, wtf?

And she shouldn't try to be Jon Stewart, and really REALLY needs to get off Obama's dick.

She isn't trying to be Jon Stewart as much as she's being Chelsea Handler, which is kind of.... uh.

Unlike Jimmy Fallon, I'll watch her show again, but this didn't really inspire much confidence.