I must say that the New Yorker magazine cover just was NOT funny and I have a great sense of humor.

The Jib Jab cartoon that is out now is HILARIOUS and that makes fun of Obama as well as others.

So it isn't because the New Yorker magazine cover is supposedly making fun of Obama thus I can't take it.  

The problem with the cover is that Obama is trying to deal with these rumors that have been swirling around the internet for months.  There was even this woman on TV last night who said that she is a life long Democrat and she won't vote for Obama because he is a Muslim.

Now if the joke was about his supposed flip flopping or his hope & change message than that would be funny but not joking about something that Obama is really having a hard time dealing with.

Even Gordon Liddy said today that that New Yorker pic was perfect because it showed the real Obama. It could even be used in attack ads. Now you see that that is not funny.

ummm  okaaaaaaay

if it was Mad magazine I can understand but its the New yorker  and for the record Obama know where they were going with that WE GET IT ITS SATIRE but it was in bad taste and anyone who reads the new yorker on a daily basis would understand  but he understands to that the narrow minded people that would walk past the news stand would actually believe that picture would be a accurate representation of mr and mrs Obama. but I still largely agree with you ...but to expect Obama to just laugh it off get real . If it were to happen to you I would doubt  you would laugh it off  

My first response to seeing the cover was to laugh my ass off, and I have yet to understand how anybody who has been following this campaign could have a different reaction.

The bad taste was putting it on the cover instead of inside the magazine at the appropriate article.

For whatever reason and whatever result, they wanted to capitalize on the muslim extremist rumors.  That's fine; they just shouldn't expect to avoid criticism for it.

(1) The cover was satire and not worth getting worked up about.

(2) The cover was not particularly good or funny satire.

I think that there are really two issues here: 1) the New Yorker's intent, and 2) popular perception of the cover.  I don't have any problem with the "comedy" of the cartoon per se (I've never found New Yorker cartoons funny), but there is a segment of the population that will view it as confirmation of their prejudices against Obama.  Much like that Saturday Night Live cartoon portraying the media as fawning over Obama in the debates, some will take it as a joke with a certain measure of "truth."  It's unfortunate that the nation's snark meter is seriously mis-calibrated, but that's what we have to work with.

Anyway, I doubt that they're really that offended about the cartoon itself.  They're probably more concerned about issue #2 and need to push back in some way in order to mitigate that concern.

Throwing in sexist language doesn't exactly help your argument.

...Of the book of words you can't use unless you want to be classified as a homophobe, woman-hater, or anything in between.

While I know what the New Yorker cover was trying to do I think they missed.

However, I do agree, that I think many of us either because of the last 7.5 years or the Primary Wars seem to have misplaced our sense of humor.

I think we have all become a bit too politically correct unable to take a joke or laugh at ourselves.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

The problem is that very seldomly is the mainstream view of liberals done in a good way. Because liberals are actually usually earnest and on the side of decency and tolerance. It's hard to really swing that as anything except phony or wimp.

i agree with this diary.

You took one sentence out of the King interview.  Why was that?  You failed to mention that Sen Obama also said. "It's a cartoon."  He thought most Americans have more important concerns.  He pretty much said the same thing as Jon Stewart did on his show, but he said it in the language of a Presidential candidate.

His comment about the insult to Muslim Americans was a plea for religious tolerance.  Or did you miss that part?

I respect the sentiment of this diary (if not the phrasing), but I generally disagree with the "you need to lighten up" crowd. Good humor is it's own defense. It needs no excuses. The stuff Eddie Murphy used to be able to get away with was astounding, because it was funny to a lot of people, not just very funny to some.

I used to love Benny Hill and Monty Python. I didn't get "Life of Brian" at all. It's not my fault I didn't get the movie, it just wasn't funny to me.

This is one of those issues that resonates with me as a parent. It's absolutely amazing the amount of mean shit kids will do to each other with the sole defense being, "I was just joking". From very young, kids learn that they can successfully express agression and anger - as long as it makes someone laugh. America's Funniest Videos (AKA People Falling Down) just reinforces this weird positive/negative  humor dichotomy.