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Monday, February 26, 2007

It Was a Joke, People

posted by on February 26 at 10:37 AM

Welcome to the stupidest Slog post I’ve ever had to write.

During last night’s Oscar ceremony, Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio appeared together onstage to announce something or other. At the start of their spiel, Leo asked Gore if there might be some sort of “huge announcement” he’d like to make in front of the millions of people watching internationally. Leo revisited this point at the end of their time onstage, once again inviting Gore to make any sort of announcement he might feel like making. This time, Gore took the bait, intoning, “My fellow Americans, I’d like to take this time to announce….” Right on cue, the orchestra swelled, cutting off Gore’s “announcement” and bringing what was obviously a meticulously scripted joke to a close.

Until this morning, when the geniuses of the Associated Foreign Press reported the whole joke scenario as politically relevant news: “Gore pulled off Oscars stage before presidential ‘announcement’”.

I look forward to the AFP’s forthcoming expose on Abbott and Costello’s inability to agree about who’s on first.

Update: As Slog commenter MoTown pointed out, I incorrectly identified the AFP as the Associated Foreign Press, when it really stands for Agence France-Presse. This partially explains things, as the French have a notoriously sketchy grasp of comedy. (See the country’s century-spanning worship of Jerry Lewis.)

RSS icon Comments

1

Yeah, it was a joke but a cruel cruel joke.....

Posted by Andrew | February 26, 2007 10:42 AM
2

"the 'murkin pepul" don't deserve al gore as president. pray for the day the EU invades, occupies, and brings democracy to 'murka.

that was a good joke.

Posted by Max Solomon | February 26, 2007 11:11 AM
3

As they say... it isn't a funny joke if you have to explain why it should be funny.

Posted by phenics | February 26, 2007 11:23 AM
4

Jebus, could the AFP be any more lame?

I thought it was so obviously timed and staged, the joke all but fell flat. I hugely admire Gore's dedication to environmental issues, and I think Leo is a much better actor than a lot of people credit him for, but neither of them are particularly skilled comedians.

Posted by SDA in SEA | February 26, 2007 11:29 AM
5
Posted by MoTown | February 26, 2007 11:29 AM
6

Um, the AFP story says in the first sentence "mock attempt".

Posted by Fnarf | February 26, 2007 11:31 AM
7

people on the right side of the coveted 'better half' of this country's population, intelligence-wise, probably don't realize the depths to which some of our stupider fellow citizens are capable of going.

i guarantee probably more than 20% of the people who watched that 'joke' actually thought he was being interrupted from saying something important by the orchestra... and his and dicaprio's laughter immediately after had no effect on this impression, i'm sure of it.

only, they didn't have much time to get disturbed by it, because they had that letter to write to Meryl Streep telling her they saw 'the devil wears prada' and that she's a real bitch.

Posted by lyle | February 26, 2007 11:34 AM
8

When will the AFP report on this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LParSBVorRI

Posted by winky | February 26, 2007 11:37 AM
9

That joke was about as funny as Gore's concession speech ("so I gotta go!") was cute.

Posted by Matt from Denver | February 26, 2007 11:44 AM
10

This is how rumors get started, isn't it? AFP DID NOT think the joke was real; they said "mock attempt" right there at the beginning of the article.

Posted by Fnarf | February 26, 2007 11:53 AM
11

dave, all i know is what's on second.

i hope that helps clear things up.

Posted by kerri harrop | February 26, 2007 11:59 AM
12

Fnarf: Yes, and the AFP put quotation marks around "announcement" in the headline. But nowhere in the piece do they acknowledge that the orchestra's "cutting off" of Gore was part of the joke, or that Gore was in on his "yanking" from the stage.

Posted by David Schmader | February 26, 2007 12:12 PM
13

We all know, now that he's got the Oscars, that he's raring to be drafted as Pres. Gore/Obama 08 ... that's what is going to happen.

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 26, 2007 2:02 PM
14

No, seriously Will, what he really wants to do now is direct...

Posted by COMTE | February 26, 2007 2:20 PM
15

Trust me, directing isn't as fun as you think.

Posted by Will in Seattle | February 26, 2007 4:03 PM

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