When Sarah Palin returned to her Alaskan outpost earlier this month she may have taken with her the soul of American political humor. In these troubled times, not even hard drugs offered the kind of pick-me up provided by a quality Palin joke. It seemed as if large chunks of not only the American electorate, but the civilized world, relished making fun of the gun-totting hockey mom from Wasilla. There was something atavistic in the gags, they fulfilled some inner desire, they felt good for you.

Sure the odd John McCain joke was nice to hear, but laughing at his campaign efforts was like laughing at your sclerotic, partially-paralyzed grandfather trying to eat soup: fun for the first five minutes, then you wish someone would put him out of his misery. The general thrust of McCain jokes are that he is old, and there is nothing particularly dangerous – or satisfying – about geriatric humor.

Palin jokes, on the other hand, were characterized both by their sheer quantity and vitriol. During the heady days of the campaign, she was pilloried by the incendiary late-night talk shows in the US. According to the Centre for Media and Public Affairs, she was the butt of 283 television jokes in September alone, almost 40 more than her running mate. Barack Obama was the punch line only 58 times during the same time. At 27 jokes, the talk shows barely took notice of Palin’s counter-part, Joe Biden. [http://www.cmpa.com/studies_humor_host.htm]

Palin’s team worked hard to spin an image of the candidate as down-home politician who could be trusted with reins of power. That image was almost singlehandedly undone by Tina Fey’s Saturday Night Live appearances. Palin’s now infamous claim to foreign policy experience based on Alaskan geo-politics became “I can see Russia from my house!” in Fey’s rendering. Palin found little sympathy elsewhere. Cable host Bill Maher attacked her convoluted speaking style by referencing an ethics investigation into her conduct as governor of Alaska. The report found her offences didn’t merit prison time, which Maher said was a pity “because it would have been the first time she was ever involved in a complete sentence.” David Letterman observed of Palin’s debate performance: “She kept reaching out to Joe Six-pack. That’s because her answers make more sense after six beers.”

On the surface these jabs seem like an extension of George W. Bush humor, itself a rich and varied field. But Bush humor has been for the most part cathartic; temporary relief from the disastrous incompetence of his administration. Typical of the Bush gag, Letterman noted during the Iraq War that the president had promised to establish elections in the country and rebuild its infrastructure. “He said if it works there, he’ll try it here.”

But Palin jokes were different. Where the jabs at Bush contained a certain resignation to the character of his presidency, Palin was ridiculed with a sense of urgency; something precious was at stake. Palin had managed to hit a nerve among that amorphous group she dubbed the “elites.” In speeches to those pro-America small towns she liked best, she said regular folk had a place in the corridors of power and were just plain better suited to the job of governing. But her populism was so aggressive it ended up attacking not just intellectuals, but anyone with an education. It shredded the idea that qualifications should come to bear when applying for such positions as, say, the vice-president of the United States. With their very being threatened, America’s elites couldn’t settle for quaint one-liners. Instead, they mounted a full-scale counter attack on the right to an IQ.

The charge was led by Fey and writers like George Saunders, who managed to sharpen the other edge of Palin’s sword. “I hate Élites,” Saunders wrote in that pantheon to the elite, the New Yorker magazine [http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2008/09/22/080922sh_shouts_saunders]. “Which is why, whenever I am having brain surgery, or eye surgery… I always hire some random Regular guy, with shaking hands if possible, who is also a drunk, scared of the sight of blood, and harbors a secret dislike for me.”

Granted much Palin humor originated amongst those on the opposite side of the political spectrum. But the criticism latent in their jokes was echoed amongst many prominent conservative commentators as well. They saw in her narrative of America a strategic liability for the Republicans. David Brooks, who boasts some of the most respected conservative credentials in the country, said Palin helped transform the traditional Republican disdain for liberal intellectuals into a “disdain for the educated class as a whole.” This particular brand of social class warfare cost the party support of lawyers, doctors and investment bankers. As Brooks pointed out, “It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.”

It is difficult to judge to what extent the jokes at Palin’s expense were a factor in Obama’s victory. After all if you were laughing at her, she wasn’t likely to win your vote. But if those elite jokesters did help win the day, a humorless future is now a very real possibility. Whatever your feelings about Obama’s rhetoric of hope, it is decidedly unfunny. American political comedy may be unnerved by the prospect of injecting cynicism back into the discourse after the nation overwhelmingly endorsed Obama’s Yes We Can mantra. The satiric news outlet The Onion made an attempt the day after the election, reporting Obama’s army of volunteers “woke up to the realization that they have nothing to fill their pathetically empty lives.” [http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_causes_obsessive]. Cute but hardly a decisive swipe. The next four years could prove nauseatingly sycophantic.

American political humor enjoyed a resurgence during the Bush years. The culmination of this return to relevance was marked by Stephen Colbert’s address to the White House Correspondents’ Association Diner in 2006. On his cable TV show, Colbert plays a caricature of the ubiquitous right-wing political pundits. He took his act to Washington that year, delivering an ironic ode to President Bush, who sat uncomfortably several feet away. “We’re no brainiacs on the nerd patrol,” Colbert says at one of the milder points. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879 His performance, now a YouTube classic, heralded the return of the court jester.

It is tough to imagine Obama being subjected to similar treatment. It wouldn’t be a surprise to many if he strolled across the Potomac River on his way to the inauguration. Obama may have earned the adulation. He has after all managed to restore faith in the political process. But the sooner America begins laughing at Obama the better. Political humor feeds mostly off the sins of those in power. It humanizes politicians by rendering them farcical. Obama seems far from human right now. Until we start laughing at him, it’s too easy to think he can do no wrong. And that’s a dangerous attitude for a democracy.