McCain laughs last
Judging by this year's election humor, we're OK with jokes about the elderly.
This election season, I've discovered that it's not cool to make fun of people for their gender, race, religion or weight. Actually, I'm just guessing on the weight thing because it's not like we're going to let a fat person run for president. Which, I'm trying to point out here, is totally a bad thing.
But for some reason, it's still OK to make fun of old people. And because most comedians -- at least those who don't have a piano and a painfully long deal with PBS -- won't tackle subjects such as healthcare and foreign policy, 50% of the political humor from now to November will be about how John McCain is too old. David Letterman already has a regular monologue bit about it -- which McCain showed up to counter Tuesday night -- that goes like this: "He looks like an old guy in a coffee shop who's still complaining about the designated hitter. ... He looks like the guy at the supermarket who is confused by the automatic doors."
Bill Maher has said that McCain's pickup line is "Did you know that 150 is the new 130?" and last week suggested a video game called John McCain's Virtual Fireplace. The website Johnmccainisyourjalopy.com delivers comments at random, such as "John McCain heads to the airport four hours early" and "John McCain would remember where he put it if you would just shut up." Even the Democratic National Committee put out "Top 10 Reasons to Vote for John McCain," which included "Early-bird specials at the White House cafeteria." The Democrats have been to the White House so rarely in the last eight years, they think it has a cafeteria.
Maybe it's acceptable to make fun of old people because they can't hurt you. Or because it's rude to mock the dead, so we want to get in our shots while we still can. Or maybe because as long as our cruel jokes are delivered at a normal speaking volume, they'll never know.
I called my 87-year-old grandmother in Fort Lauderdale to find out what she thought. Before we could get to why Americans poke fun at the elderly, we had to have a pre-conversation I didn't see coming: "He's not old," said Mama Ann about McCain. "No, I don't consider him an old man." She explained that lots of older people have been president, like "that man, what's-his-name, the one after Kennedy was shot."
