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A US President once gave a speech joking about assassinating the Jonas Brothers with a predator drone to protect his daughter from dating them. https://abcnews

by gowld 6y ago

A US President once gave a speech joking about assassinating the Jonas Brothers with a predator drone to protect his daughter from dating them. https://abcnews.go.com/WN/president-obama-tells-joke-jonas-brothers-draws-criticism/story?id=10548687 https://abcnews.go.com/WN/president-obama-tells-joke-jonas-b... (Not singling out that President, but the incident was shocking.)

jdhawk 6y ago
....at the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner, which is known for bad jokes?
- Hamuko 6y ago
  I don't think the issue is that it wasn't recognised as a joke. It was clearly a joke. It's more about what the topic of the joke was. Think of holocaust jokes.
sudhirj 6y ago
Yeah, not funny because Presidents can, and often do, kill people with drone strikes. It would have been funny if he pointed the joke at a hurricane or shook his fist at God while saying it. If he wanted to make a dad joke he could have said he had a shotgun or would box them or challenge them to a duel or something. That implication of superiority with balance can be funny, like Mike Tyson joking that he was going to kick your ass if dated his kids. Enough of a flex, but the balance is maintained because if you train hard enough or knew enough kung fu maybe you could take him. Joking about firing people and calling a drone strike on them are not funny if you can actually do it but they can't do it back to you.
brmgb 6y ago
It's shocking but not because it's punching down on the Jonas brothers. The part making people ill at ease is not Obama as a father talking about murdering famous boys trying to date his daughters. The actually shocking part is that the president views drone stricks, which is to say extrajudicial murders in foreign countries, so casually he thinks it's appropriate to make jokes about them.
- mywittyname 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure Obama's administration pioneered the double-tap, where a drone strike is followed up several minutes later by another one, which is intended to kill those who are providing aid to the fallen. This is considered to be a war crime. He caught flak contemporaneously for this issue, and not just by Fox News, et al. I'm generally a strong Obama supporter, but this is one area that I feel like his actions were totally indefensible. I'm not surprised by his callous attitude on the subject.
  - MagnumOpus 6y ago
    > I'm pretty sure Obama's administration pioneered the double-tap I am pretty sure it is not a new technique - it was famously featured in the 2010 children's book Mockingjay, and I am sure Suzanne Collins didn't make it up either. Double-tap bombing are a staple of the asymmetric warfare arsenals of spec-ops forces/guerilla/terrorists since at least the second world war, probably much longer. (Also, it is rather unlikely that Obama ordered the airforce to start double-tapping, or even that he knew ahead of the fact, given the amount of extrajudicial killing/assassination the US forces do every month...)
unnouinceput 6y ago
Considering who were/are them, I'd say even if it was bad joke, still was funny. As a father of a girl, I'd say same joke as well.
- tfehring 6y ago
  Even ignoring the drone strike part, that whole category of jokes needs to die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMSAcZ90QI8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMSAcZ90QI8
Mc_Big_G 6y ago
Obama: 1 bad joke 45: Infinity bad jokes Interesting who we choose which to focus on.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
  This whole "It's really interesting that ..." rhetoric that's been somehow on the rise needs to die. State your point. Since you didn't state it, I have to guess. It seems like you're suggesting that HN is overly forgiving of Trump and overly critical of Obama, which is laughable given how HN treats the current administration. But of course you didn't actually make a point, so nobody else can really address it.
  - Mc_Big_G 6y ago
    The downvotes refute your assertion. You know exactly what my point is.
    - dang 6y ago
      Please don't take HN threads into flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: would you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN? It looks like you've done it repeatedly, and it's really not what this site is for. If you'd review the guidelines and take the intended spirit more to heart here, we'd be grateful.
      - Mc_Big_G 6y ago
        How do I delete my account and all my comments?
  - dang 6y ago
    Please don't respond to one bad comment with another. The site guidelines explicitly ask you not to, for the obvious reason that it just makes the thread worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by gowld 6y ago

jdhawk 6y ago

....at the White House Correspondent's Association Dinner, which is known for bad jokes?

Hamuko 6y ago
I don't think the issue is that it wasn't recognised as a joke. It was clearly a joke. It's more about what the topic of the joke was. Think of holocaust jokes.

sudhirj 6y ago

Yeah, not funny because Presidents can, and often do, kill people with drone strikes. It would have been funny if he pointed the joke at a hurricane or shook his fist at God while saying it. If he wanted to make a dad joke he could have said he had a shotgun or would box them or challenge them to a duel or something. That implication of superiority with balance can be funny, like Mike Tyson joking that he was going to kick your ass if dated his kids. Enough of a flex, but the balance is maintained because if you train hard enough or knew enough kung fu maybe you could take him. Joking about firing people and calling a drone strike on them are not funny if you can actually do it but they can't do it back to you.

brmgb 6y ago

It's shocking but not because it's punching down on the Jonas brothers. The part making people ill at ease is not Obama as a father talking about murdering famous boys trying to date his daughters. The actually shocking part is that the president views drone stricks, which is to say extrajudicial murders in foreign countries, so casually he thinks it's appropriate to make jokes about them.

mywittyname 6y ago
I'm pretty sure Obama's administration pioneered the double-tap, where a drone strike is followed up several minutes later by another one, which is intended to kill those who are providing aid to the fallen. This is considered to be a war crime. He caught flak contemporaneously for this issue, and not just by Fox News, et al. I'm generally a strong Obama supporter, but this is one area that I feel like his actions were totally indefensible. I'm not surprised by his callous attitude on the subject.
- MagnumOpus 6y ago
  > I'm pretty sure Obama's administration pioneered the double-tap I am pretty sure it is not a new technique - it was famously featured in the 2010 children's book Mockingjay, and I am sure Suzanne Collins didn't make it up either. Double-tap bombing are a staple of the asymmetric warfare arsenals of spec-ops forces/guerilla/terrorists since at least the second world war, probably much longer. (Also, it is rather unlikely that Obama ordered the airforce to start double-tapping, or even that he knew ahead of the fact, given the amount of extrajudicial killing/assassination the US forces do every month...)

unnouinceput 6y ago

Considering who were/are them, I'd say even if it was bad joke, still was funny. As a father of a girl, I'd say same joke as well.

tfehring 6y ago
Even ignoring the drone strike part, that whole category of jokes needs to die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMSAcZ90QI8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMSAcZ90QI8

Mc_Big_G 6y ago

Obama: 1 bad joke 45: Infinity bad jokes Interesting who we choose which to focus on.

6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
This whole "It's really interesting that ..." rhetoric that's been somehow on the rise needs to die. State your point. Since you didn't state it, I have to guess. It seems like you're suggesting that HN is overly forgiving of Trump and overly critical of Obama, which is laughable given how HN treats the current administration. But of course you didn't actually make a point, so nobody else can really address it.
- Mc_Big_G 6y ago
  The downvotes refute your assertion. You know exactly what my point is.
  - dang 6y ago
    Please don't take HN threads into flamewar. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: would you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN? It looks like you've done it repeatedly, and it's really not what this site is for. If you'd review the guidelines and take the intended spirit more to heart here, we'd be grateful.
    - Mc_Big_G 6y ago
      How do I delete my account and all my comments?
- dang 6y ago
  Please don't respond to one bad comment with another. The site guidelines explicitly ask you not to, for the obvious reason that it just makes the thread worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html