» News
The joke’s on us: how Joe Biden became America’s favorite punch line
Among the four candidates on the top ballot line for the two major parties this year, only one man has never shifted roles, through five decades in politics: Joe Biden. The vice president has always been a punch line.
It’s the joke that keeps changing.
These days, on “Saturday Night Live,” in “The Onion,” and as @VeepJoeBiden on Twitter, Biden is represented as boneheaded and vain. A Vinny Barbarino figure. A dimwit with an eye on the mirror, squaring his jaw and checking his hairline. And nonsensically orating.
This version of Biden—let’s call him New Parody Biden—is also charming. That’s what’s most striking about it. He’s emotional and vain and likes attention, but he’s childish and thus not very scheming. He seems to be trivial and light and silly, which makes him decidedly unscary. He’s basically Dick Cheney’s opposite.
The idea that Biden is cool and dumb has occasioned a whole new set of jokes about him, ones that are actually better for the vice president’s image than previous parodies were.
Once, long ago, Parody Biden was a plagiarist. The Biden jokes of 25 years ago portrayed the presidential also-ran as a parrot.
“And so the rabbi says, ‘Goodbye, Bupkis!’ and Joe Biden says, ‘Goodbye, Bupkis!’”* (*Not a real Biden joke.)
In law school in the’60s, where he graduated near the bottom of his class, Biden indeed plagiarized a law review article for a class paper. In the ’80s, he stole other politicians’ work for political speeches. When he was caught, he played dumb about the mechanics of citation—classic plagiarist move.
Decades later, the plagiarism scandals forgotten, Biden was instead lampooned as a gaffe machine—a Tourettesy type short on self-control. Jimmy Fallon riffed on this iteration of Old Parody Biden: “Joe Biden accidentally revealed the location of the Vice President’s top secret bunker. The guy can’t help it. But he did apologize. He said: ‘I am so sorry for the mistake. The launch code is 85334. It will never happen again. It will never happen again. My Gmail password is robot23. What am I doing? The house key is under the plant near the doorstep.’”
This line of jokes came after Biden, during the beginning of his presidential campaign in 2007, unselfconsciously called Barack Obama “the first mainstream African American”—presidential candidate, presumably—“who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”
Boobie the Rocket Dog
October 11th, 2012
Hey, Joey! Shoulda bought a squirrel!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfmZSiFlgKU
Callmelennie
October 11th, 2012
Joe could never be described as an empty chair — more like a stool with a dunce cap on it
Callmelennie
October 11th, 2012
Boobie, I laughed my ass off at that clip — especially where Kathy Bates called Whoopi Goldgerg a “lovely lady”
Hillbilly Lawyers
October 11th, 2012
as in stool sample?
Boobie the Rocket Dog
October 11th, 2012
@ lennie – Yeah, the whole movie is pretty funny except for the last 15 minutes or so which is leftist agitprop. Hard to escape that.
I enjoyed Who-Pee going over the cliff immensely.
VP Debate Post » Right Thinking
October 11th, 2012
[...] But I predict the highest rated VP debate in history. How could it not be? Biden has been squirreled away for over a week, sequestered by his [...]
The Doktor
October 11th, 2012
Hussein: Don’t worry, Joe. It’s all downhill from here.
Left Coast Dan
October 11th, 2012
Biden presided over the Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas hearings as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and from what I have read was very kind and friendly to them prior to the hearings – and absolutely vicious during the hearings, very unfair. He may now be known as a pleasant buffoon, but that is not the case and never has been.
FreeMan & Sarah Voting Early & Often
October 11th, 2012
Oh – he’s a pointer
FreeMan & Sarah Voting Early & Often
October 11th, 2012
ןǝɹɹınbs
Anne
October 11th, 2012
Ya gotta admire old slow Joe’s versatility, folks;
talking out of his ass with his foot in his mouth.
Strategy: Lie about Ryan’s positions on issues,
and when Ryan refutes those lies, call him a liar.
Al Sharpton is the face of the Democatic Party.
Slimy Democrats sure love their slimy con artists.
Not to worry. Ryan will clean ol Joe’s clock.
pissedpatriot30
October 11th, 2012
@FreeMan
… how do you do that???
bitterclinger
October 11th, 2012
LCD is right. Levin went on last night about Joe being a vicious ba$tard when it came to confirmation hearings for Repubs. He told a particularly heart-rending story about a Reagan nominee who stepped down from the CA bench only to be humiliated by Slow Joe and a hyena press.
Be careful, Paul Ryan! As Levin said, “You don’t last decades in DC being a shlub.”
Carlos The Jackal
October 11th, 2012
I have this mental image of Joe’s debate prep for the last week – something like the intro to “Robot Chicken”…