Fred Armisen's Obama still isn't funny

It just isn't funny. Fred is afraid to poke fun at Obama, and the entire show supports him in that. Take a look at every one of Fred's other characters or even Kristen's characters. They are all satires. Except Obama. Because Fred plays Obama straight, they look at situational skits to put him in, like Nasim and Will asking Obama to have sex with him...


Cold Opening China Press Conference

Fred Armisen ... Barack Obama
Will Forte ... Hu Jintao
Nasim Pedrad ... translator




That's funny, but it's because Will and Nasim are funny. Fred isn't funny. He's playing it straight as a "straight man," which means they have to keep trying to put him in situations that are funny and that he can react to as a "straight man." The problem with that is that they can't keep coming up with funny situations every week. They need the character to be funny and not the situations.

Every single president (and vice president) candidate in the history of SNL was lampooned (except for Obama). It started with Chevy Chase taking pratfalls to make fun of Gerald Ford. (And Ford later tripped Chase on a stage to get back at him.)



Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman nailed many candidates. Even last season, Amy Poehler nailed Hilary Clinton, Darrell Hammond nailed Bill Clinton and McCain, Tina Fey nailed Palin, and Will Ferrell came back to nail George W. Bush yet again. Observe:



But Armisen is too scared to nail Obama. He's fine nailing Joy on The View, Patterson, and many, many more (and he does a hilarious job with those). But he plays Obama straight.

Right now, the best Obama impression is on YouTube from AlphaCat. AlphaCat also doesn't make fun of Obama much, but at least he plays him confident and cocky, which is much more interesting than Armisen's boring attempts. Observe:







What do you think?

Enjoy!