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Original poster

that a radio program made a joke of 'shooting' Barack Obama?

42 replies

ilovemydog · 02/07/2008 21:01

Last Friday, on The Now Show (BBC Radio 4 18:30 - 19:00) was a song about Barack Obama.

For those who aren't familiar with The Now Show, it's a finger on the pulse type of current affairs/satire radio program.

Some of it was quite funny. How everyone knew that Barack would win the nomination, but the Clintons.

The end of the song, in reference to Barack Obama was that, 'we'll enjoy you until someone shoots you...'

I found this highly offensive (RFK anyone?) as an American (Democrat) but also purely as a human being. Why is this funny?

I complained to the BBC and got s standard reply: humor is subjective. ha ha.

Is it me? Is this funny?

Oh, and although I am a Democrat, I wouldn't find it funny either if the song was about Mr Mc Cain. It's a patriotic thing.

OP posts:
RubberDuck · 02/07/2008 21:02

I have to say I did have a bit of a gasp when they said it... not sure that I found it offensive enough to complain about, but was surprised and felt they'd cut it a bit fine to the line, iyswim?

RubberDuck · 02/07/2008 21:02

(am not American)

dittany · 02/07/2008 21:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

seeker · 02/07/2008 21:05

I was a bit taken aback - bet they get tons of complaints!

policywonk · 02/07/2008 21:05

I laughed out loud I'm afraid. I thought it was funny because they said out loud what a lot of people are thinking (ie that BO has a great big metaphorical target on his head, even more than the average presidential candidate).

It goes without saying that it would be utterly horrific if he were shot.

Freckle · 02/07/2008 21:15

Oh no. Just realised that he has a personal hygiene problem as initials. How will I ever get that image out of my mind??

Original poster
ilovemydog · 02/07/2008 21:17

Is that what people are thinking? That Barack Obama has a target on his head?

Why? Beacuse he's black? Because his father was from Kenya?

Really - please tell me as I honestly don't know! (No judgements - promise....)

OP posts:
policywonk · 02/07/2008 21:19

ilove - yup, basically I think people think there are some crazy rednecks/KKK types who are going to make an extra-special effort to assassinate him.

Possibly stemming from Colin Powell's decision not to stand for President because his wife was convinced he would be shot if he did (for the same reasons)?

margoandjerry · 02/07/2008 21:21

I think to be honest they are all targets and some are lucky and some are not.

Reagan was shot by a random loon afair.

I was more shocked by the discovery that Barack is a smoker

policywonk · 02/07/2008 21:33

You could well be right M&J. I'm pleased to say that I have no insight whatsoever into the minds of crazy rednecks. However, that is the perception from which the joke in question stems...

TheMagnificent7 · 02/07/2008 21:45

I think that was the point of the sketch. Not that shooting people is at all funny, though until America takes guns seriously they are all in danger all day everyday.

BO (and thanks for that image) seems like a good candidate, certainly preferable to another Clinton term, but I've thought about this recently. I can't see some of the American Aryan Nation fans not taking a shot at him. And specifically because he is black.

In my experience, America has far better integration now than the UK, and that's through years of expereince rather than anything else. Mostly, you just don't see colour as an issue in their general society (not looking for a race row here either folks, just mean day to day holiday/travel contact). Their black community act no differently to their counterparts from different races. Overall, the impression is that they are all just American, and not in need of a defining Dulux colour chart. And it took a long fight, and many years to get there.

But, I don't think the country is totally ready to accept a black president, and it's not going to take much for a right wing loon to become the most famous right wing loon on the planet. Especially as they just give guns away with comics, cereals, and special High School Musical sticker sets. It's madness out there.

nell12 · 02/07/2008 21:54

I was in the audience when the Now Show was recorded... there was much the same feeling, inital shock, but then acception that a non-white president with the middle name Hussein, in a country where the right to bear arms is strenuously upheld, is a walking target (for so many more reasons; be they ill-educated or not, than at JFKs assassination)

TBH, I thought the song was funny!!

DeeRiguer · 02/07/2008 21:57

hi pw! how you?

and agree too, think that BO being shot was mentioned on here while back sadly, it is a connection people make..

themag7 .. i dont get the impression of integrated society in usa..as a recent example, hurricane katrina anyone? treatment of inhabitants would not have been tolerated nor indeed entertained if it was good ol white folks in their farms or whatever..

my impression is of separate neighborhoods in the main and as patriotic as most usa people are it still appears divided and divisive to me am afraid
my usa sil was taken aback at our mixed varied street and community in brixton...

theyoungvisiter · 02/07/2008 22:07

It's a follow on from a previous joke on The News Quiz (same slot for those who don't listen to R4) in which Jeremy Hardy made the same point.

It's not a racist joke - it's a comment that there are a lot of racist nutters out there who are sadly unlikely to tolerate a black president.

Jeremy Hardy's joke made a comparison between Obama and JFK iirc.

Neither joke was a call to arms or a suggestion that assassinating people is right or proper...

policywonk · 02/07/2008 22:09
policywonk · 02/07/2008 22:09

News Quiz followed by Now Show... things don't get much better than that, do they?

Spidermama · 02/07/2008 22:13

Yes I agree with policywonk. I think it tapped into a thought, a terrible premonition, that many of us have had about Barrack Obama.

theyoungvisiter · 02/07/2008 22:13

ahhhh... sorry walked away from my post half way through and now notice that lots of other people made the same point!

Moral: Never get distracted from mumsnet.

edamdepompadour · 02/07/2008 22:14

If only ds would shut up pipe down long enough for me to actually hear the punchlines on the News Quiz. Or Just a Minute. Or ISIHAC repeats. Or the Now Show...

It was near the knuckle - that's what made it so funny. Hardy and the News Quiz were merely pointing out something that is true - Obama is even more of a target than other presidents/candidates.

DeeRiguer · 02/07/2008 22:14

ah pw
ex of brixton now after mightly long time there..its norf lundun these days, needs must n all, i guess
ah brockwell park twas good i loved secret walled garden
i so miss the deli though
there are some good spaces here though

Original poster
ilovemydog · 02/07/2008 22:17

I was really really upset on Friday, first that people were laughing at the joke of Barack Obama being shot (nell12, not sure if you heard it, but it was a sort of nervous laugh).

Whether the US is ready to accept a black president will be clear in November, but I really hope that people vote based on issues rather than on color.

Free speech is fine - until you joke about the (hopefully future) President being assassinated and then it really isn't funny anymore.

OP posts:
DeeRiguer · 02/07/2008 22:25

ilovemydog
everything will be fair game for a joke, by someone or other though
we have to laugh or we'd cry sometimes is that not it? it is for me, alot in fact

policywonk · 02/07/2008 22:43

Agree with Dee. Maybe it's a fundamental difference between UK humour and US humour? There are a few things that are completely off-limits as far as UK comedians are concerned, but not many. (I can quite imagine the Now Show doing a joke about Gordon Brown or the Queen being shot, for instance, given the right circumstances.) I get the impression that mainstream US comedians have many more boundaries in terms of things they are prepared to joke about. A cultural difference I think.

Also, the joke isn't really 'about' BO being shot; it's 'about' the UK perception that the USA has a lot of hardcore, Montana-dwelling, backwoodsmen weirdos who are armed to the teeth. Those people are the subject of the joke really, not BO.

I do apoloise for this BO business but can't be bothered to type it out in full.

edamdepompadour · 02/07/2008 22:57

Bill Bryson reckons humour is much more an essential part of everyday life in the UK. He said in the US, it's nice but not necessary while in this country, you can't so much as take a taxi or buy something from a shop without the driver/shopkeeper making an amusing remark (are you free? No, I charge just like everyone else...).

So presumably there are more limits in the US - places people won't go for fear of causing offence. While we are prepared to trade something else in favour of a punch line.

TheMagnificent7 · 02/07/2008 22:58

Ahem. It's much more widespread. Everywhere you go there are guns openly available on sale. It's terrifying. The women are so proud of their collections and they have these things in their houses round their kids.

Nobody is laughing about BO being shot, it's the fact that American society lends itself to that sort of thing. You have a constitutional right to bear arms. Yes, and a constitutional right to get shot right along with it.

I spent a while in St Louis last year, and hunting for books in the antique districct was just ridiculous. I had conversations with several people, as happens when you have an English accent, and discussing guns with some of the women was like discussing prize marrows for the fete. You had to have a nicer cannon than Marge next door. And they thought I was stupid for not seeing how important guns were...to protect yourself from the people with guns. They've just passed a law that makes it legal to carry concealed weapons now, as long as they are licenced. HELLO! My American friend thought it was quaint taking a picture of the 'No Guns Please' sign on the shopping mall door. Was so quaint when the nutter went mental in the mall a few weeks later and took out 8 innocent people.

You're right about the humour thing, you can't see how funny it is, a nation legally armed to the teeth, not expecting to get shot when they are arguably the most contencious candidate of all time.

DeeRig, not ignoring you, just don't want the race thing on here. In my experience (real), rather than any perceived experience (media). Forgive me if you were there after Katrina, I was. I sdee some, not all, but some in a very different light. The issue here is whether it's funny or not to take the mickey about something the whole world sees as inevitable.