Obama Slow Jams the News, Drops Mic, Walks Away
Last night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, the show’s running bit “Slow Jam the News” — in which the hard issues of today get all ’70s R&B sexified — had a special guest: Barack Obama. Really! And not to blow your puny little minds with my deeply researched and brilliantly nuanced political views or anything, but I happen to think the segment was funny and cleverly executed. Obama focused on his efforts to stop Congress from increasing the interest rates on Stafford student loans, and got to drop all kinds of hard-to-quibble-with platitudes (“Now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people,” etc.) to a youthful, screeching in-studio audience, plus all the young people watching Late Night at home.
Meanwhile, Fallon got to say stuff like “Without an affordable Stafford loan, where can a student turn? The Pell Grant is a beautiful thing but is it enough … ah, Pell no!” (Also, from Black Thought: “He’s the POTUS with the mostess.”) And when it was all done, Barack straight dropped his mic and walked away. (It’s been a pretty good week for Obama looking cool; check out his reaction to a startling yogurt attack for further proof.) I imagine it’s pretty difficult to write something for the president that lets him (a) not look silly, (b) get his point across, and (c) still be funny. So congratulations, talented writing staff of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: If Obama ever loses his mind and begins running the U.S. as a totalitarian dictatorship, you will probably manage to avoid his subterranean torture chambers.
Filed Under: Barack Obama, Jimmy Fallon, Television
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