the buzz log
Humor Deficit at the White House?
Add another gloomy outlook to America's short-term future: The online appetite for poking fun at President-elect Barack Obama has fallen more than 61% in the past week.
The precipitous drop follows an all-time Search high for "obama jokes" in the days immediately after the election. Given that America has seen enough negative numbers these days, do these figures portend a moody humor forecast?
Entertainment Weekly wistfully asked last week, "Is it safe to make Obama jokes yet?" The Huffington Post deconstructed comedian anxiety in its entry, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House—Not." Days after, another Post writer rounded up articles that fretted over a "Crisis of Comedy" and "Where's the funny in Barack Obama?"
EW argued that the low supply of yuks isn't as much comics afraid to trample through delicate race issues, but that incoming jefe is, well, kind of a straight man. His unflappable calm and the fact that he "hasn't done anything yet" don't provide much punchline fodder.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a study—yes, a real academic one—counted late-night jokes on politicians and came out with these numbers: Sarah Palin (283), John McCain (245), President George W. Bush (141), while Obama punchlines were an anemic 58.
Black comedic hosts though are going where their white counterparts fear to tread in the Obama humor deficit. David Alan Grier, D.L. Hughley and Larry Wilmore have assembled task forces to probe the subject, and the Chronicle sums up some of their policy positions so far.
The groundwork being laid out now should should stymie any need for a humor bailout package. Now more than ever, during this current state of Obama exultation, America's confidence needs to be restored in its ability to laugh at its No. 1. And if not, as many point out with relief, there's always No. 2.
Filed under: Politics, Comedians, Humor, Presidents, Barack Obama
The SNL Is Back
Maybe the "Saturday Night Live" writers should go on strike more often. After weeks of being off the air, the show resumed its 33rd season in fine fettle, skewering everything from political media coverage to drug commercials.
The SNL return registered a high TV rating surge and prompted an 824% spike in searches for "saturday night live skits," as well as a walk down memory lane for its best classics.
Among the latest skits, it was host Tina Fey's return to her old Weekend Update anchor desk that set the buzz afire. She took up the cause of Hillary Clinton and unleashed an inappropriate-for-family-media slogan, in effect "(Being a Formidable Woman) is the New Black." Her in-your-face defense catapulted Fey into the top 3,000 searches, got her video embedded in blogs across the nation, and garnered the "30 Rock" star more searches than the current SNL cast combined.
Amy Poehler, who portrayed the presidential candidate, did impress enough to make her the top-searched SNL player. Contrast that with Fred Armisen, the Barack Obama stand-in whose color-blind casting has failed to excite either critical opinion or Web attention. Instead, it prompted some searchers to seek out the real thing's Halloween appearance.
So, has Fey and Poehler's messaging helped the Clinton cause? Maybe, at least in addressing the reported gender gap between the Democratic contender and male voters: Men conducted 75% of those "tina fey" searchers. Bump for Clinton herself? Not so much.
Mike Huckabee's live appearance is another story. The burr in John McCain's backside registered a palpable 30% rise in lookups, plus another slew of queries like "huckabee snl." Looks like Clinton may want some new plans for Saturday night. If she does do a cameo, at least she'll know to wear black for the occasion.
Filed under: TV, Humor, Hillary Clinton, Saturday Night Live, Elections
America's Funniest Searches
We all need a little laughter in our lives. And judging by the volume of "funny" searches surging in Buzz each day, some of us need it a lot. In the interests of global peace and humor, we present this week's top 20 requests. You're bound to find a giggle somewhere within...
A few notes...
–Cats can't get no respect. Not only are felines the only creature from the animal kingdom to be singled out on this list, but they actually appear twice: "funny cats" and "funny cat pictures" both crack the top 20. LOL, this!
–Oh, the pressure to be clever in the age of MySpace. The friend-making juggernaut sucks up three slots in the list—and two of them are desperately seeking witty rejoinders.
–No humor list passes muster these days without some nod to Will Ferrell. The comedian and his pals recently launched a video-sharing site called "Funny or Die." It's sitting pretty at #10.
Filed under: Humor
In UR Search Box Stealing UR Buzz
If you haven't heard of the LOLcats, it's only a matter of time. Also known as meme cats, kittahs or kittehs, and cat macros, these fuzzy fumblers are the latest in nine-lives worth of unstoppable Internet memes to hit message boards, blogs, and Search.
Somewhere, someone with way too much time on his or her hands posted funny pictures of cats doing funny feline things. Napping on a laptop. Interacting with the invisible world. Asking for a cheeseburger. The humor just purrs thanks to messages in a unique kitty pidgin of chat-speak, particularly the phrase, "I'm in UR." Thus the LOLcats were born and they've scratched their way into the Buzz.
Is this just the beginning of the LOLcats? Will kittehs go mainstream? Perhaps this silly trend will run out of lives to stand on. Or more likely they'll spread to the awesome repository of ridiculous celebrity images available online. Can LOLohans and Britnehs be that far away?
Jokes and Pranks, Oh My
The best time to play a prank on a friend or enemy is when they least expect it. With April Fool's Day falling on a weekend, office hijinks will be different this year. Whether the punchline hits early or results in a belated bellylaugh, it's the time of year to be on guard.
If you need an idea to pull off a perfect prank, there's no better place to turn than Buzz. We pulled the finger of Search to unearth our top 10 pranks...
If you're not gonna play a prank, you can celebrate the spirit of April Fool's with a joke. Rather than tell you the one about the priest walking into the bar with a monkey, we'll offer up the top 10 joke searches. Laugh along with us...
To figure who is the biggest fool, we turned to the data one final time. Here are your top 5 April Fool's searches...
- April Fool's Day Gags
- April Fool's Day Pranks
- April Fool's Day Jokes
- April Fool's Day Tricks
- April Fool's Day Party
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ford 400 | Breakout! |
| 2 | Indonesia Ferry | Breakout! |
| 3 | Jordan Chandler | 3481% |
| 4 | Evan Chandler | 2322% |
| 5 | American Music Awards | 1841% |
| 6 | John F. Kennedy | 1529% |
| 7 | Turkey Stuffing Recipes | 1361% |
| 8 | Liam Hemsworth | 1172% |
| 9 | Lou Dobbs | 1142% |
| 10 | Hendrick Motorsports | 888% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Black Friday | +340 | 1290 |
| 2 | NFL | +489 | 670 |
| 3 | Jennifer Lopez | +451 | 515 |
| 4 | New Moon | -67 | 250 |
| 5 | American Music Awards | +236 | 249 |
| 6 | UFC | -36 | 239 |
| 7 | Miley Cyrus | +66 | 169 |
| 8 | Hulu | -11 | 154 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
For more detailed information, visit our FAQ.