An article in todays Guardian also poses the question....

'Just how do you joke about Obama?
For eight years, comedians and satirists have had it easy with George Bush. Now they need to find ways of mocking his successor'


.....if comedy's job is to subvert accepted wisdom, shouldn't stand-ups be bursting the Barack bubble? Well, not necessarily – comedians are human too, and deserve this moment, like everyone else, to recharge their optimism. (Most of them will be broadly supportive of Obama's politics – at least until his inevitable compromises kick in.) But that doesn't stop us speculating what the nature of the jokes will be when Obama's sheen wears off.

As if to add to comedians' frustration, Obama himself has proved no mean joker. "Contrary to the rumours you have heard, I was not born in a manger," he quipped while on the campaign trail. "I was born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the planet Earth."
Here, the joke is on Obama's supposed messiah status – and I suspect that, when the dust settles, this might be comedy's line of attack. Obama's grandiose acceptance speech last week could only have been made by a man with high self-regard.

Some comics are already in on the act, poking fun at his perceived rectitude and sense of entitlement.
"The presidential debate," reported talk-show host Jay Leno mid-campaign, "was a town-hall format, which is John McCain's favourite way to speak to crowds. As opposed to Obama's favourite way, a sermon on the mount."
The tougher the going gets as president, the more a messianic air would grate. (Remember Blair, the vicar of St Albion? With whom, praise the Lord, Obama seems otherwise to have little in common.)

And soon, of course, there will be actions to joke about, not just airy-fairy promises. Normal service will duly be resumed. In the meantime, let Obama – and the rest of us - enjoy the amnesty.'

Brian Logan comedy critic and arts writer for the Guardian