"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." - Sir Donald Wolfit

The New York Times is reporting that humor is having a difficult time gaining traction with Barack Obama. On the heels of the New Yorker flap (covered by David Knowles here, and by me here and here), the Times examined the political humor landscape, and found it curiously Obama-free.

Why? The reason cited by most of those involved in the shows is that a fundamental factor is so far missing in Mr. Obama: There is no comedic "take" on him, nothing easy to turn to for an easy laugh, like allegations of Bill Clinton's womanizing, or President Bush's goofy bumbling or Al Gore's robotic persona.

"The thing is, he's not buffoonish in any way," said Mike Barry, who started writing political jokes for Johnny Carson's monologues in the waning days of the Johnson administration and has lambasted every presidential candidate since, most recently for Mr. Letterman. "He's not a comical figure," Mr. Barry said.

Humor is sort of a hobby of mine, so my first reaction was, "C'mon, these guys are just lazy. You can make a joke out of anything."

I did a quickie Google of Barack Obama Humor, to see what was out there. What I found will amaze you...

David Knowles reported earlier that the Obama campaign was not amused by The New Yorker's satirical cover, saying:

The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.

The McCain campaign thought so, too. I say, grow a pair!

The New Yorker is known for its edgy, satirical covers. In fact, I don't think this one went far enough. Why not have Hillary Clinton, dressed in a French maid outfit, dusting the china? Why aren't the Obamas flanked by Nation of Islam bodyguards? And I knew they were wussing out when they didn't put Obama in Eldridge Cleaver pants and a giant, purple fedora to match the Soul Plane parked out back as a replacement for Air Force One.