Here’s a fresh
reminder of the sticky power of making a vividly specific comparison in
describing someone. (Do it for
yourself before someone else does to you.)
John F. Harris describes how Jay Leno is the “safe choice” to bring back as MC at this year's glammed-up White House Correspondents' Association dinner which the president attends. The MC is expected to respectfully roast the president who is in attendance. That role sunk to an all-time low humor when Don Imus presided and broke wind.
Harris used this comparison to stick a label on Leno: “Popular, profitable, predictable: Leno is the McDonald's of humor.”
This Leno choice
stands in sharp contrast to Stephen Colbert. He smilingly-presented, in
character, smart, sharp commentary as President George Bush sat smiling less
than twenty feet from him. Video of that roast went viral.
