Trying to explain why young people should buy health insurance, President Obama said his health care plan would cost consumers no more than their cellphone bills. His host, Zach Galifianakis, looked bored. “Is this what they mean by drones?”
When Mr. Obama appeared on the popular online comedy show “
Between Two Ferns” on Tuesday, the question wasn’t whether the president could hold his own — he has already proved that he can keep up with pop culture.
Fans of “
Between Two Ferns,” a mock celebrity interview show on the comedy website
Funny or Die.com, mostly wanted to see if the show’s star, Mr. Galifianakis, would treat the president as rudely as he treats his other guests.
He did.
With a straight face, Mr. Galifianakis asked Mr. Obama whether “Ambassador Rodman” had gone to North Korea on his behalf, and if he would now send Hulk Hogan to Syria — or, he asked, “is that more of a job for Tonya Harding?”
Mr. Obama played along, muttering, “Zach, he’s not our ambassador.”
“Between Two Ferns” is a sendup of public-access shows, with tinny music and misspelled captions, and the humor is webcam deadpan: Mr. Galifianakis solemnly asks inane or cringingly rude questions that guests deflect with varying degrees of awkward silence. (He once asked
a stone-faced Natalie Portman: “You shaved your head for ‘V for Vendetta.’ Did you also shave your V for vagina?”)
More than any other president, Mr. Obama surfs the media, looking for new ways to reach viewers who don’t watch the news or even television. The president doesn’t seem worried about tarnishing the dignity of his office. As his tenure nears its end, he seems more intent on being the salesman in chief.
Mr. Galifianakis seemed most intent on not giving his special guest special treatment. It wasn’t until the end that Mr. Obama finally got what he had gone on the show for, a nonsatirical plug for
healthcare.gov. That web address was flashed after the credits for “Between Two Ferns” had rolled, as if to maintain some distance: Comedians, it seems, take their integrity more seriously than presidents.
But Mr. Obama is competitive, and he certainly has
comedy show experience. He has “slow-jammed” the news with Jimmy Fallon, traded barbs with Stephen Colbert and answered questions from the basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.
Mr. Obama fell out of character only once. Mr. Galifianakis didn’t answer his question about the annual turkey pardon and instead stared back at him so balefully that Mr. Obama cracked a smile.
Mostly, the president tried to keep up with his host by putting him down — for example, making fun of his flop sequel, “Hangover 3” — and that was not quite as funny as his silences.
When Mr. Galifianakis suggested that if Mr. Obama had a son, he would probably be a nerd like his father, Mr. Obama took mock umbrage that sounded like a “Tonight” show joke, not web satire. “Do you think a woman like Michelle Obama would marry a nerd?” he asked indignantly. His host asked if he could speak to the first lady and Mr. Obama replied, “I’m not going to let her near you.”
Still, it took confidence to take his message to such an unwelcoming arena. The caption under his name described him as “community organizer.” His host asked if he would put his presidential library in Hawaii or his “home country of Kenya.”
When it came time for Mr. Obama to discuss health care, Mr. Galifianakis sighed wearily. “Here we go, O.K., let’s get this out of the way, what did you come here to plug?” When Mr. Obama asked him if he had heard of affordable health care, Mr. Galifianakis replied, “That’s the thing that doesn’t work?”
The show dutifully flashed on screen the 800 number that callers can use to sign up for health care, only the number was spelled out: “one eight hundred three one eight two five nine six.”
At the opening, Mr. Galifianakis shuffled his notes and while pretending to be speaking to the president before the show officially began, mumbled, “Sorry I had to cancel a few times.”
(By midday, the six-and-a-half-minute video had been seen 1.9 million times, according to the site.)
The interview looked as if it had been filmed in the “Between Two Ferns” no-frills studio. At the end, Mr. Obama pushed a button, and the black backdrop fell, revealing that the interview had actually been recorded in the White House. Even those intimidating surroundings didn’t daunt Mr. Galifianakis. He asked Mr. Obama, “What is it like to be the last black president?”
Mr. Obama countered: “Seriously? What’s it like for this to be the last time you ever talk to a president?” But that’s not likely.
Mr. Obama set a precedent, but so did his host.
