There’s a point where even Republicans get offended by racially-divisive jokes. That happened this week when Reggie Brown, an impersonator of President Barack Obama, appeared at a Republican Leadership Conference. The comedian started off doing a very good job, but was eventually pulled from the stage when members of the audience began to find his jokes to be offensive.
After 15 minutes, someone came onto the stage and physically escorted Brown off of it. RLC President and CEO Charlie Davis made the call to get Brown off the stage and admitted such afterward.
“I pulled him off the stage,” Davis acknowledged afterward. “I just thought he had gone too far. He was funny the first 10 or 15 minutes, but it was inappropriate, it was getting ridiculous. We’ve had a great event. Probably the only problem we’ve had was the impersonator.”
In a joke about Obama being bi-racial, Brown said, “Michelle celebrates the full month. I celebrate half.” He also said, “My mother loved a black man,” but “she was not a Kardashian.”
He even showed a picture of Fred Sanford and Aunt Esther, stating that this is what the Obamas would look like by the time they left office. He also made jokes that were offensive to the gay community. In one case, he said that during Monday’s debate that “[CNN’s] John King served him [Tim Pawlenty] up a ball softer than Barney Frank’s backside.” (Frank is a gay member of Congress from Massachusetts.)
Reggie Brown has made a ton of money impersonating the president. In spite of this most recent setback, he will probably see an increase in his income during the 2012 elections. He’s actually very good.
