Eighty-two-year-old Don Rickles must have heard the deafening silence a million times before. He had gone a little too far, said something that offended the sensibility of his audience. But this time he was on Late Night With David Letterman, and the joke he made was about Barack Obama. He suggested that when faced with a crisis, the President-Elect would find it hard to turn his attention away from shooting three-pointers on the half-court at the White House. The gasps drew all the oxygen from the room.
It would not rank among Mr. Rickles' best jokes, certainly, but it has probably been a long time since he told one as important.
A lot of comedians have been fretting over how difficult it will be to needle Mr. Obama. Forget, for the moment, that he is immensely popular and has earned the respect of even some of his political enemies: that will pass. But, as an African American, he appears immune to the attention of late night comedians who are afraid of being labelled racist.
Now that we have crossed a line, life should be a little easier for everyone.
I have no doubt that Mr. Rickles, a lifelong Democrat whose Jewish background has exposed him to prejudice, was referring primarily to Mr. Obama's basketball proclivities; we know he is better with the roundball than with the bowling ball. But the stereotype, of course, is that African Americans are obsessed with the sport. At its most coarse, Mr. Rickles' steroetype is less offensive than, say, golfer Fuzzy Zoeller's famous suggestion that Tiger Woods stuffed himself on fried chicken and collard greens! Mr. Rickles knew what he was doing by drawing on a dodgy generalization that might offend some people, but it was no more offensive to me than invoking southern stereotypes to discuss Bill Clinton or drawing George W. Bush as a Texan who is a little slow on the draw. It was certainly nothing like Ralph Nader invoking the "Uncle Tom" phrase when discussing the President-Elect.
Mr. Obama will soon be the leader of the free world. I think he can withstand the suggestion that hitting treys is, somehow, in his DNA. Much worse has been said about him in anger, after all. But if an offhand remark leads to legitimately funnier things in these dark times, no harm has been done.
