Yeetle Box - This Man Walks Into The NRA...

While speaking to the NRA this past Friday, Mike Huckabee (you do remember him, right?) made an attempt at humor. Not unusual for the man who is known for his witticisms and self-deprecating ways. So what did that crazy Huckabee say this time?

While Huckabee spoke, he heard a noise offstage, which he quickly quipped was Barack Obama falling off a chair. Huckabee knew that joke did not have legs. He knew his audience. He knew what he had to do.

While the NRA audience chuckled, the quick-witted Huckabee made the comic decision to take the joke to the next level - a common comedic strategy. The first line always sets up the second line - and gets the bigger laugh.

He added, "Somebody aimed a gun at him, and he dove for the floor."

Deafening silence followed. The Huckabee they knew would have produced a much better line that that. After all, it's easy to makes jokes about black people being shot. Even black comedians do it.

So where did Huckabee go wrong?



Essentially, the problem with the joke is not so much that it spoke to the stereotypical black man getting shot, as Huckabee failed to include the details necessary to make the gun-toting audience feel comfortable about the shooting itself.

A much better line would have been, "Hillary just shot Obama." He would drawn upon an existing and identifiable conflict divorced from the NRA itself or from any stereotypes of black men being shot because the idea of Hillary Clinton shooting Barrack Obama is plausible.

Nonetheless, no-Luck-Huck later tried to make amends with this apology:

"I made an off hand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama. Admittedly, I did say he was ducking from gunfire, but that in no was meant as offensive or disparaging. Now, if I had said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, Obama 'has been shot!' That would have been offensive, but not disparaing. If I had said, 'My God, I didn't think they would really shoot Obama.' That would have been offensive, too. Disparaging would be saying something like 'Obama's now dead. Let me be the first to announce Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for president.' I think that's disparaging."

Huckabee did accomplish something, however. He reinforced the stereotype of gun owners as deranged lunatics looking for someone to shoot. A silver lining in every cloud...

The Yeetle Box