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Late Night Political Humor

“Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints. They defeated my Indianapolis Colts. So all I can say is, ‘Don’t worry, Indianapolis, FEMA is on the way.'” – David Letterman

“Did everybody watch the Super Bowl? Everybody’s happy for New Orleans. In fact, FEMA announced plans to congratulate them in about two weeks.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Well, congratulations to the world champion New Orleans Saints for winning the Super Bowl. That’s the best thing to happen to New Orleans since George Bush left office.” – Jay Leno

“A lot of Republicans attended President Obama’s Super Bowl party. And I thought oh, yeah, they care about New Orleans, now!” – David Letterman

“China and the United States have been locked into a series of trade disputes. President Obama said this week that China is putting U.S. exports at a disadvantage. Well, of course, U.S. exports are at a disadvantage. You know why? All our U.S. exports are made in China.” – Jay Leno

“Anybody snowed in in the big blizzard? Like, over two feet, down there in Washington. D.C. completely ground to a halt. Absolutely nothing going on. Well, how you can tell the difference?” – David Letterman

“It was so cold in Washington that the new senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, was actually wearing pants.” – David Letterman

“You know who I am talking about? The new senator from the state of Massachusetts. Before he got into politics, he had two jobs. He was a go-go boy. And he was also a nude model. And they swore him in last week. It was a moving ceremony. He put his hand on a copy of ‘Cosmo’.” – David Letterman

“Over the weekend, Sarah Palin was speaking to a group called the Tea Party Group. And she received a hundred thousand dollars in payment. Now, of course, she was paid in pelts, but still.” – David Letterman

“And to go to this Tea Party deal, it was a 350 bucks a plate. And if you wanted a glass or a cup, well, that was more.” – David Letterman

“But 350 bucks a plate and a lot of people say, ‘Whoa! Dave, that seems a little pricey.’ Yes, but for 350, a guy will come to your table and waterboard a lobster.” – David Letterman

“On Saturday, Sarah Palin looked at notes written on her hand during a speech at the Tea Party Convention in Tennessee. Isn’t that wild? Oddly enough, she was reading, ‘Hi, I’m Sarah Palin.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“Dr. Conrad Murray charged today with the death of Michael Jackson. He is headed to jail. Could lose his medical license. So, see, there’s healthcare reform.” – Jay Leno

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How I gained respect for the Tea-baggers

I’ve long wondered how conservative tea-baggers can scream and yell about our government and socialism, while at the same time taking pretty much everything that Fox News tells them on faith, even when it is a blatant lie and goes against real conservative values. A recent survey says that 74% of Republican-leaning Americans say that they trust Fox News.

So I was shocked, shocked I tell you, when at the Constitutional Coalition conference last weekend some conservatives pointed out the hypocrisy of Fox News being the “trusted” news source for conservatives who claim to love America. After all, the owner of Fox News is Rupert Murdoch, from Australia.

But the real kicker is that the next largest shareholder in News Corp — the parent company of Fox News — is Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Speaking at the conference, Joseph Farah, the publisher of the far-right WorldNetDaily, pointed out:

There’s a flaw, a real compromise in Fox that you need to understand. And if you care about national security, you especially need to be attentive to it. And that is that Fox News parent company is News Corp has a significant ownership by a Saudi prince that many of you will be familiar with because right after 9/11 this prince very famously offered Rudolph Giuliani a big multi-million dollar check to rebuild and Giuliani told him to stick the check where the sun don’t shine because this guy was basically blaming America for what happened on 9/11. Well this guy owns a very significant percentage of the News Corp and has let the world know that he can get things taken off Fox News when he finds them objectionable and has in the past. And I really believe this is really dangerous for America.

Another speaker at the conference, conservative author Brigitte Gabriel, pointed out that when Alwaleed was interviewed on Fox News by Neil Cavuto, it was like a “darling high school reunion”. “All of the sudden, Neil Cavuto is interviewing him like a buddy-buddy because he is the boss.” During the interview, Alwaleed made his positions clear: he wants the US to remain dependent on Saudi Arabian oil and he opposes financial reforms (Alwaleed owns a $4.3 billion stake in Citigroup, which spent millions lobbying against bank reforms last year).

Since Alwaleed has bragged about getting news stories on Fox changed, it should not be a surprise to anyone that Fox News is the main cheerleader for the “Drill Baby Drill” mentality that opposes moving American away from a fossil-fuel dependent economy.

Of course, Fox News is not the only media giant that is compromised by its owners. Alwaleed also has a big stake in Disney, who own the ABC TV network.

So, will conservatives wake up to the fact that they are being used, and turn some of their anger against their oppressive (and even foreign) overlords? Not if Fox News can help it.

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A Rose By Any Other Name … Would Serve in the Military

CBS News presents a stunning statistic. If you ask Americans if “homosexuals” should be allowed to serve in the military, then 59% say they either strongly or somewhat support it. But if you change the word “homosexual” to “gay men and lesbians”, then the number rises to 70%!

The difference is even greater if you ask if they should be allowed to serve “openly”. If that question uses the word “homosexual”, then only 44% are in favor. But if you change it to “gay men and lesbians” then 58% are in favor.

I guess when it comes to the word “homosexual”, Americans are still in favor of “don’t ask, don’t tell”. But they are only against the word, not against actual gay men or lesbians.

This result also underscores the fact that in public polling, the answer can depend dramatically on how you ask the question.

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Paying Through Your Bloody Nose


© Gary Varvel

The health insurance industry is blaming rising premiums on the increased cost of health care, but for the majority of large health insurers the percentage actually spent on health care went down, while the percentage spent on administrative expenses and profits went up.

The five largest U.S. health insurance companies sailed through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression to set new industry profit records in 2009, a feat accomplished by leaving behind 2.7 million Americans who had been in private health plans. For customers who kept their benefits, the insurers raised rates and cost-sharing, and cut the share of premiums spent on medical care. Executives and shareholders of the five biggest for-profit health insurers, UnitedHealthGroup Inc., WellPoint Inc., Aetna Inc., Humana Inc., and Cigna Corp., enjoyed combined profit of $12.2 billion in 2009, up 56 percent from the previous year. It was the best year ever for Big Insurance.

I wonder how much lobbying to defeat health care reform cost them us.

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Snow Job


© Matt Davies

The science behind global warming predicts that all the extra energy in the atmosphere will stimulate more extreme weather, both hot and cold. Just because it is snowing now doesn’t mean this hasn’t been the hottest decade in thousands of years. Likewise, just because it sometimes rains in the desert doesn’t mean that deserts don’t exist and aren’t (generally) dry. Or as Colbert put it, “It is dark outside, so we can only assume that the sun has been destroyed”.

In related news, one of the scientists at the center of the “climategate” email scandal has been cleared of any wrongdoing. One of his stolen emails mentioned a “trick” used to manipulate data, and this was claimed to be evidence of scientific fraud. But the investigation concluded that “The so-called ‘trick’ was nothing more than a statistical method used to bring two or more different kinds of data sets together in a legitimate fashion by a technique that has been reviewed by a broad array of peers in the field.” There was no falsifying of data.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Well, tomorrow in Nashville, Sarah Palin will speak at the Tea Party Convention. Tickets are $550 apiece. Where are they getting this tea, Starbucks?” – Jay Leno

“But Sarah Palin said she will not benefit from the speech. See, that way she’ll have something in common with the people in the audience.” – Jay Leno

“You know anything about the new senator from the great state of Massachusetts? Senator Scott Brown. Comes out of nowhere, this guy. And he used to be, like, a go-go boy. That’s where he got his start. And then he was a nude model, and now, he’s a senator. Have you seen the guy? Terribly good-looking. He looks like one of those guys in an adult film who would describe his work as ‘tasteful.'” – David Letterman

“He looks like one of those guys at the health club that would snap you with his towel.” – David Letterman

“President Obama was busy holding two fundraisers in D.C. last night. During one of his speeches, Obama told the crowd, ‘We can’t be afraid of the future.’ Most Americans agree with him, mainly because they are so busy being afraid of the present.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Obama said, ‘We can’t be afraid of the future.’ And Biden was like, ‘What about clowns? Can we be afraid of clowns?'” – Jimmy Fallon

“President Obama also said that the key to competing with China is to improve our math and science education. Because right now our G.D.P. is about $13 trillion and China’s is $3 trillion, which means we’re still ahead by, uh — trillions.” – Jimmy Fallon

“For the second time since he became president, Barack Obama has slammed Las Vegas by saying, ‘You don’t blow bunch of cash in Vegas.’ Hey, the way government is spending money, I’d rather take the odds in Vegas. Wouldn’t you? At least you might win something!” – Jay Leno

“Actually, what the President said was, ‘If you want to gamble, drive a Toyota.'” – Jay Leno

“Well, more bad news for Toyota. According to CNN, Toyota has known about this brake problem in its Prius cars for some time, but didn’t mention it to people who bought them. What?! Car salesmen lying? I am stunned!” – Jay Leno

“It’s tough out there. Even the Obama store in Washington, D.C., is closing. That’s where they sell T-shirts, hats, and calendars with Obama’s face on them. You can tell they’re Obama calendars. They only go up to 2012.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Well, we’ve got another one of those videotapes from Osama bin Laden. I mean, they’re coming like once a month now. It’s like you’re in a club. You sign up, you get the whole collection. Time-Life: Osama bin Laden.” – David Letterman

“And in this one, he’s blaming the United States for global warming. Says the United States caused global warming, and by gosh, they better stop global warming. Sounds to me like somebody’s looking for a Nobel Prize, doesn’t it?” – David Letterman

“He’s very ecologically minded. Like, last year, it was documented by the C.I.A. that Osama bin Laden switched to a hybrid camel.” – David Letterman

“Scientists in Australia announced that within five years they will be able to successfully carry out pig-to-human lung transplants. People could be part human, part pig. We have that already. I think it’s called John Edwards.” – Jay Leno

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Republicans feel your pain, all the way from Hawaii

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: How hypocritical is it when you’re hypocritical about your own hypocrisy? Watch the Republicans at the annual Republican National Committee strategy meeting put their core American values on display and get in touch with American’s pain — in Hawaii:

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Hypocrimus Stimulus

Why bother to flip-flop when you can simply simultaneously condemn the economic stimulus while praising the results it is having in your home district? This is a must-watch video, especially the last minute or so:

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Mature Political Movement


© Joel Pett

Actually, I think the Tea Party movement has been taken over by Republican political operatives. You know things are crazy when Ron Paul — the person who held the first modern “tea party” and more than any politician represents the ideals of small government and fiscal responsibility — has three “tea party” candidates running against him in the Republican primary.

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Republicans don’t want to gut Medicare, they want to kill it

A few days ago, I reported on a hypocritical Republican policy initiative that would gut Medicare. The Republican “budget roadmap” proposes severe cuts, rationing, and — who knows — maybe even death panels.

But to some Republicans, the problem with the new policy initiative to gut Medicare is that it doesn’t go far enough. Republican Michele Bachmann says that we have to kill Medicare by weaning everyone off of it:

And wean everybody off because we have to take those unfunded net liabilities off our bank sheet, we can’t do it. So we just have to be straight with people. So basically, whoever our nominee is, is going to have to have a Glenn Beck chalkboard and explain to everybody this is the way it is.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are trying to force a House vote on the Republican budget proposals, so that Republicans will either have to vote in favor of cutting Medicare, or vote against balancing the budget. This is reminiscent of how the GOP forced Democrats to take stands on wedge issues back when the Democrats were in the minority.

Nationally, GOP leaders would prefer not to talk about their plans to kill Medicare. So far, they have been able to get away with talking tough about balancing the federal budget (to fire up their base), while at the same time hypocritically promising to preserve Medicare. I guess they still think we are stupid.

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Late Night Political Humor

“Have you heard the new slogan? ‘Toyota, just try and stop us.'” – Jay Leno

“A couple of days ago, there was the annual race, people come from all over the world, and they race up the stairs of the Empire State Building. Wait a minute. You want to get your heart racing, you really want to get it pump pumping? Do what I do. Drive to work in a Toyota.” – David Letterman

“Toyota recalling 2.3 million cars because of two problems — unintended acceleration and possible brake problems. Things are not looking good for Toyota. In fact, today, two crash test dummies refused to get in the car.” – Jay Leno

“You guys hear about what’s going on with Toyota? This is crazy. It’s like, their job is to make cars, right? Well, they had a problem with gas pedals getting stuck — now, they’re recalling the Prius because the brakes don’t work. And because of this, sales of Ford cars and trucks rose 25 percent in the past month. But Ford says it’s because of its new ad slogan, ‘Ford, because Toyota is trying to kill you.'” – Jimmy Fallon

“You know about this big Toyota recall? And things are dangerous, and I’m coming to work in my car. Here’s how scary it is. The navigation lady was actually praying.” – David Letterman

“This morning, President Obama spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Obama told the crowd that no one should go broke when they get sick in the richest nation on earth, which, I think, is his way of saying we’re going to start exporting sick people to China.” – Jimmy Fallon

“And just two weeks before he is scheduled to go to Nevada to campaign for Harry Reid, President Obama said Las Vegas is a place of excess that people should not visit during hard times. I guess the president feels if you want to see people cavorting with prostitutes and wasting your money, go to Washington.” – Jay Leno

“President Obama has decided to skip the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I think he’s still mad they stiffed him in Chicago. But they said it would be very expensive to arrange proper security for Obama, so they’re sending Vice President Joe Biden in his place. Because, you know, who cares?” – Jimmy Kimmel

“The president won’t be at the Super Bowl either. In fact, in a show of some sort of spirit of cooperation, I guess, he’s invited a group of top Republicans to watch the game with him at the White House on Sunday. That should be a lot of fun. Going to need a two-thirds vote before they pass him the Doritos.” – Jimmy Kimmel

“You folks excited about the Super Bowl coming up Sunday? And the New Orleans Saints’ fans, I’m telling you, they have waited a long, long time for their team to get into the Super Bowl. Not as long as they waited for FEMA, but still, it’s been a very long, long time.” – David Letterman

“President Obama is having a big Super Bowl party. And you know what he is doing? This guy is shrewd, very savvy politically. He has invited a bunch of senators to come to the White House for the Super Bowl party. What could be more fun than watching a four-hour football game with Joe Lieberman? There you go. Talk about rock ‘n’ roll.” – David Letterman

“Listen to this. On the ‘Today’ show, this morning, Michelle Obama said she likes having her mother live at the White House because she helps take care of Sasha and Malia. And Barack Obama said he likes having his mother-in-law living at the White House because he has to say that.” – Jimmy Fallon

“Here’s something pretty unbelievable. The only living World War I veteran, a man named Frank Buckles, just turned 109 years old. What’s even more amazing, he just finished his fourth tour in Afghanistan.” – Jay Leno

“And a number of high-ranking officials in the military have come forward to say they feel gays should be allowed to serve in the armed forces. I think gay people should be allowed to serve. I mean, think about it. What are we defending here in America? Lady Gaga, ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ ‘American Idol,’ the TV show ‘Glee.’ Hello, look around, people.” – Jay Leno

“The wife of Gov. Mark Sanford — you know the guy who snuck off to Argentina to see his mistress? You know this moron, this idiot? Well, now the wife says in the book, when they got married, Mark Sanford insisted on taking the part about being faithful out of the wedding vows. Now, I’m no marriage counselor, but ladies, isn’t that a red flag?” – Jay Leno

“And then when he went on the honeymoon with someone else, that should have told her!” – Jay Leno

“There’s a new Osama bin Laden video. Gosh, I mean, this guy, what is he doing, working at Blockbuster?” – David Letterman

“There is always a new Osama bin Laden video. And in this one, he’s worried about global warming. And he’s blaming the United States for global warming. And I just thought to myself, wait a minute, this guy thinks it’s warm now, wait till he gets to hell.” – David Letterman

“And in Japan, they’ve developed a new green machine that turns regular paper into toilet paper. You know, kind of what Wall Street did with the dollar. It’s the same thing.” – Jay Leno

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Colbert explains the proper use of the word “retard”

UPDATE: It’s Satire!

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How things get done in DC

Washington DC has had a huge snow storm but for some reason hasn’t gotten around to plowing the streets. That prompted this humorous piece in Facebook:

Obama announces that he wants to get the snow plowed, but that he wants bipartisan consensus and compromise instead of unilateral action, and that instead of him pushing a particular bill, he wants Congress to work out the details. The Republicans, seeing that Obama is for cleaning up the snow, decide that they must be against it, and they negotiate the plan down to clearing half the snow and doing it very slowly. Then they still refuse to support it. Joe Lieberman expresses his intention to join Republicans in filibustering the bill if it comes to that.

Eventually, the Republicans have whittled it down to a ceremonial resolution expressing support for the idea of somebody plowing the snow at some point in the future, and the Democrats have thrown in some tax cuts to appease them. It finally passes, still getting zero Republican votes despite all that (other than Olympia Snowe, since it reminds her of her name). Republicans attribute this to the Democrats’ hyper-partisanship and unwillingness to negotiate. At this point, it is July.

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Goodnight, and Good Luck


© Ruben Bolling

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Global Warming – Weather to Worry

I love political comics that are subtle enough that you might not be able to figure out which side of an issue they are on. In fact, without the very last line (“Next Week”) I’m not sure if I could have figured this one out. It is getting to the point where reality is so bizarre that it is hard to make fun of it.

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