Review: Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion
Despite this being a piece of agitprop in favor of CFPB from prior to it's creation — and thus not very funny — it's still a great showcase of comedic talent that I want to talk about. I'm sure there are a lot of ideas about what makes a good celebrity impression. Certainly there are a lot of techniques. But if you ask me, a good impression is equal parts mocking and complimentary. It's a hyper-accurate portrayal of the person. Put another way, a good impression is neither fawning nor spiteful. Let's consider how each stacks up. We start with Armisen's Obama, which is incredibly bland. One might argue that Obama himself was bland and so the material just wasn't there. No. Playing Obama as simply dull is being gentle. A good impersonation would portray him as dull to the point of somnambulism. I'm gonna skip over Michelle b/c she's basically a prop in this scene and I'm not as familiar with Rudolph's other portrayals of her. Next, in order of...