Obama Funniest Moments as President
By ADAM HOWARD, NBC
John F. Kennedy had his fair share of glib rejoinders, and George W. Bush had his infamous verbal malapropisms, but few occupants in the White House have been praised for their comedic timing and skill as consistently as Barack Obama.
Even many of his harshest critics would likely agree that his acerbic annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner monologues are must-see TV. And in this age of viral videos and unconventional new modes of communication, Obama has mastered the art of using humor to humanize himself and advance his agenda.
This cameo was followed by a memorable appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, where Obama read some of the “meanest” tweets about him out loud.
On Stephen Colbert’s late night show, the president subjected himself to a kind of surreal faux job interview in which the costumed host chided him for not having received a promotion in eight years. “Honestly, there wasn’t a lot of room for advancement in my last job,” Obama quipped. “The only one with a powerful position was my wife.”
And Obama’s guest spots have no longer been limited to traditional shows. He delivered a droll performance opposite comedian Zach Galifianakis in the hard-to-categorize web series “Between Two Ferns.”
Self-Deprecation Is His Specialty
A recurring theme in all of these appearances is the president’s willingness to poke fun at himself. Although he is by all accounts a supremely confident person, Obama has shown a knack for mocking his own shortcomings (his perpetual lateness), controversies (“birther” jokes), and his allegedly aloof manner.
In one of his most memorable White House Correspondents’ Dinner performances, Obama sought the aide of comedian Keegan Michael-Key to recreate a popular sketch from his “Key and Peele” series in which Key plays “Luther” an “anger translator” for a fictional version of the president.
In a comic twist, Obama eventually became too volatile for even Luther’s taste.
Obama is also not above calling out his own cornball antics. To the chagrin of his daughters Malia and Sasha, his purposefully bad puns regularly took center stage during the annual Thanksgiving presidential turkey pardons.
And he can be humble, too. In 2014, for instance, he volunteered at a Washington D.C. school on September 11th and a sixth grade girl told him she’d initially wished that Beyoncé had come to visit instead. “I understand,” Obama deadpanned.
Roasting the Opposition
Still, the president may be at his best when he uses humor to disarm his most vicious critics, perhaps never more memorably than when he took on then-real estate mogul Donald Trump at the White House correspondents dinner in 2011 while the Republican was in attendance.