Obama Special Olympics Joke
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Mr. President? FAIL. Leave the comedy to the comedians and you do the running of the free world.
Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he’s gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.
He bowled a 129, the president said.
“That’s very good, Mr. President,” Leno said sarcastically.
It’s “like the Special Olympics or something,” the president said.
When asked about the remark, the White House said the president did not intend to offend.
“The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said. “He thinks the Special Olympics is a wonderful program that gives an opportunity for people with disabilities from around the world.”
54 Responses to “Obama Special Olympics Joke”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
[...] Obama Gaffes On Leno With Special Olympics Joke Click Here for the News America Now home page and the latest news [...]
Reading that joke made me feel the same way I feel about South Park: deeply ashamed for laughing out loud.
What’s especially funny is that 129 is 25 points higher than my average score.
lmfao{w/shame}
$1.29 ain’t bad as far as I’m concerned.
The Special Olympics joke was lame and offensive. A President needs to do better.
[...] Amateur hour. The thing that many voters like about Obama (that he’s sarcastic and verbal) is something that has to be suppressed when he’s in the public eye. [...]
I really hope Obama apologizes for this. His “joke” on Leno certainly did “disparage the Special Olympics.”
Ouch. So our Silver Tongued Leader is fully capable of putting his foot in his mouth, is he?
I’m sure it won’t be the last time.
It could have been worse.
If you watch the clip, Obama’s saying that Leno’s feigned praise makes him feel like he’s in the special olympics “or something.” So Obama didn’t mean-spiritedly come out and say he feels like he belongs in the special olympics because he’s a bad bowler.
Either way, it’s politically incorrect. Obama sometimes thinks he’s funnier than he is. He goes to tell a joke, then can’t think of the words. Where I’m from, if you stutter like that while telling a joke, people will stop listening and/or make fun of you. But he’s the President.
Wow.
You’re right, SFC. That poster is offensive and unfair in several different ways.
Still…Obammer flubbed this one.
He really needs to resign before the day is out. Simply unacceptable and can’t be tolerated from the commander in chief.
(see, now Jay, matt666, and the others don’t need to bother posting it!)
He wasn’t disparging the Special Olympics. He was disparging the thousands of Americans with disabilities.
Anytime you make a joke like this, replace it with
blacks, whites, caucasians, jews, poles, and if it’s offensive to them it’s offensive to all. Just shows his maturity level, immature, just like the rest of us are sometimes.
What a relief to finally have an articulate, intelligent, thoughtful, sensitive president. Such a refreshing change.
J.
We all know…If Bush were to have made that comment about “Special Olympics” it would have been a headline. I for one am extremely offended by it. I hear enough cruel jokes from kids and comedians. I never would have expected such rudeness from our president. Shame on him.
Well, Oliver, then you probably need to get rid of the cartoon here.
Not a big deal as far as I am concerned. Would we rather listen to Cheney use the F word some more?
Get over it, folks.
Curses. With the feigned outrage over Obama’s gaffe already at a boiling point, right-wing blog commenters finally have their revenge over losing a half-dozen Senate seats and the White House in November.
“The biggest single chunk of money that Palin is turning down is about $170 million for education, including money that would go for programs to help economically disadvantaged and special needs students.”
With the feigned outrage over Obama’s gaffe already at a boiling point, — August J. Pollack
Such a predictable comment from someone who gets paid to be original.
Feigned outrage is the game Obama has been playing this whole week on the AIG bonuses.
Feigned outrage is the Left’s outcry over Laura Ingraham’s comment about Meghan McCain’s plus size excluding her from the Hollywood Gen Y jet set but not the Zsa Zsa and Rachel Maddow talk circuit.
Feigned outrage is Obama and his JournoList Left’s three month obsession with Rush Limbaugh and his ‘hope he fails’ comment.
No, August, I’m afraid you guys own the entire feigned outrage market.
It’s all yours.
You want to picture what feigned outrage would really look like? Imagine if President George W. Bush had made the same unfortunate comment Obama did.
Liberals made a bigger deal of Linsday Lohan’s use of the word ‘retarded’. Now the typical liberal reaction is it’s no biggie really, and let’s mock the right for acting shocked over it.
Imagine if President George W. Bush had made the same unfortunate comment Obama did.
Oh, perish the thought. I have no doubt in my mind Bush would never have insulted a mentally handicapped person.
He just executes them.
I just love you conservatives sometimes. Seriously.
“Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.”
Meh.
“You should only get AIDS and die, you pig.”
What’s the big deal?
“It’s like the Special Olympics or something.”
Outrage!
That said, dumb joke. He should have said his daughters could beat him or something.
Now the typical liberal reaction is it’s no biggie really, and let’s mock the right for acting shocked over it.
The only place you even exist is on the blog of a liberal, and you just left this comment in a thread written by a liberal criticizing the president. Free advice, champ: when you just pretend that you know a fact about something because you hope it’s true so it makes the point you want to make, the easy discovery of it not being true makes you look even stupider than usual.
I agree with Mark. Not a big deal. I am hard-pressed to find the horror and shame.
Even Oliver is sounding prissy to call this a “fail.”
I had a hard time hearing the remark over the audience laughter, anyway.
Bulletin: Obama is human. His stock in trade is verbal communicaation. There will be other gaffes, equally harmless.
He just executes them. –Pollack
Wow, more originality.
You should fire that little nugget off to Ted Rall, August. He’d be proud of you.
Better yet, maybe you could employ it in one of your thought-provoking cartoons.
This is fucked up.
You should fire that little nugget off to Ted Rall, August. He’d be proud of you.
….Thanks?
Parthy-
I haven’t witnessed outrage over this comment. Mainly the same reaction as Oliver- a dumb, unfortunate comment from someone who you would think would know better. Something you’d expect more from a Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. And if it had been muttered by one of them on Leno’s show, something the tabloids would be all over for their insensitivity and stupidity. The mocking by the right is more along the lines of this is the guy his supporters call the greatest speaker of all time, and this is how he is without his telepromPter telling him what to say.
As to the ‘take that bone out of your nose’ comment, if he said it, it was wrong and hateful, even if it was 40 years ago when it was alleged to have taken place. It’s just not on tape and not verified, but anecdotal. You’re better than that for treating it as being the gospel truth. You should leave that to the knuckle draggers here, Parthy.
The only place you even exist is on the blog of a liberal…. — August J. Pollack
I could finish the NY Times crossword puzzle faster and with far less difficulty than I could decipher that little piffle of a comeback, Guster.
Well, Oliver, then you probably need to get rid of the cartoon here.
The difference being I’m not the president of the United States. I know he and I are easily confused…
(Sigh) shoot me an e-mail if you need it spelled out for you. Your little run of insult attempts are derailing Oliver’s thread enough as it is.
I just wonder what should happen next. I mean, what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot?
I know what we could do!
We could ask Don Imus!
There is no excuse for what President Obama said. It was a dumb thing to say, and the President should be held to a higher standard. But if we’re honest with ourselves, I think almost everyone has used some form of wording to imply mental or physical handicap in such a way.
“Retard” (pronounced ree-tard) has been used forever until it became politically incorrect, but I occasionally still hear some older people and comedians use it. I remember using it in the playground as a kid and all through high school. It was another version of “dumbass” as far as I was concerned until you peel away what it really implies. “Duh” evolved from the same place when you exaggerate its pronunciation. And EVERYONE uses “duh.”
Ultimately, Obama’s “Special Olympics” comment wasn’t said in a malicious way and he was making fun of himself, so yes, the faux outrage is a bit much. I mean it wasn’t as if he was flailing his arms about making fun of people afflicted with Parkinson’s disease or anything.
If we’re honest with ourselves, in an unguarded moment, anyone could have said it.
The difference being I’m not the president of the United States. I know he and I are easily confused…
Boy, ain’t that the truth! All anyone has to do to accomplish the task is ask either one of you to think.
The Special Olympics Administration.
It was a dumb thing to say, and the President should be held to a higher standard.
We just spent the last eight years with the lowest fucking standard you can get.
Yeah, okay, he let that slip. Dumb thing to say on national TV. But I’d still rather he MAKE jokes about being a retard than actually BEING one.
Can we all agree, however, that Carlos Mencia is not funny?
I mean it wasn’t as if he was flailing his arms about making fun of people afflicted with Parkinson’s disease or anything.
HAW!
“Retard” (pronounced ree-tard)
Duh (pronounced D-uh)
I know he and I are easily confused…
Not his fault, OW. You people do all look alike, you know.
“Retard” (pronounced ree-tard)
Duh (pronounced D-uh)
Correct, as opposed to ri-tahrd
as opposed to ri-tahrd
Elitist.
“What a relief to finally have an articulate, intelligent, thoughtful, sensitive president. Such a refreshing change.
J.”
Yeah. Kinda makes you yearn for the old days when
Connecticut born and educated alcoholicsplain folk used to joke about WMD’s.Obama called the head of the Special Olympics to apologize before the show even aired. That is, he had awareness that he’d fucked up before the media and the blogs even had the chance to take him to task for it. (And he did, yes, fuck up.)
Compare this with the past eight years, when a gaffe made by any Republican was (a) ignored until pointed out by the media, (b), defended as being either a remark out of context or something that didn’t need defending in the first place, and finally, (c), answered with one of those oh-so-sincere I’m sorry you felt offended apologies.
Dumb statement by the POTUS. Still an improvement in the office.
Dumb statement by the POTUS. Still an improvement in the office. SpiderJ
That one only got the dumber award yesterday, Spider Man.
The AIG suicide bomber quip got the dumbest.
Why is the AIG suicide bomber thing such a big deal? The metaphor is apt, especially as you follow the whole text. Is it because Obama was ohmygod comparing an American company to those vicious bastards killing people in Iraq?
That interpretation of the metaphor doesn’t actually work. You can’t actually talk those bombers off the trigger. They don’t usually let you know they have a bomb until they detonate it.
The interpretation that does work is the one we’ve seen in countless bank heist movies, where the villain actually makes demands and in which the rogue cop walks right in and convinces him that he doesn’t really want to hurt all these people.
You do all look alike to me.*
*That was sarcasm CSS.
No wonder Obama doesn’t speak without a TelePrompTer.
fafaroo said: as opposed to ri-tahrd
Elitist.
Douchebag.
When I heard Obama’s comment I thought he was using the term “Special Olympics” as an analogy in the sense of a Special Olympics for bad bowlers like himself. I did not for a moment think that he was making fun of the Special Olympics held for the developmentally disabled. It was a bit of self-deprecating humor that sailed right over a lot of folks heads.
ironically, obama’s gaffe may have done more to create awareness than the special olympics efforts at it. by gaffing and then inviting the special olympians to the whitehouse, i think the special olympics probably in the back of their minds kind of don’t mind the publicity and stir that obama has created becuase it brings their cause to the forefront.
Broadway Carl says:
March 20, 2009 at 3:17 pm
fafaroo said: as opposed to ri-tahrd
Elitist.
Douchebag.
Settle down, Beavis.
Man, this comment thread is like the special olympics for right wing humor.
I love how Neo Cons piss and moan about political correctness until someone they don’t like says something.
Bunch of fucking children.
A guy draws a cartoon of a chimpanzee being shot by police the day after police shoot a chimpanzee and somehow that’s a cartoon about President Obama and it necessitates mobilizing protests in front of the NY Post and editorials across the country. Yeah. The “Neo Cons” are the children when it comes to over-reaction to perceived slights.
The people Obama insulted have been more than capable of defending themselves. It’s a shame that people with physical and developmental disabilites are able to take critcism better than the professional PC crowd.
Why do people assume that the only ones offended by this are neo-cons? Maybe because it was a genuinely offensive statement to anyone with a brain.