The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
President leaves pop culture legacy
WASHINGTON >> From his campaign fist bump to his theatrical mic drop at the last White House correspondents’ dinner, Barack Obama ruled as America’s pop culture president.
His two terms played out like a running chronicle of the trends of our times: slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon, reading mean tweets with Jimmy Kimmel, filling out his NCAA basketball bracket on ESPN, cruising with Jerry Seinfeld on “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”
“I’m appreciably cooler than I was two minutes ago,” Obama declared after taking the wheel of a 1963 Corvette Stingray with Seinfeld in 2015.
And, months before the end of his term, he deliveredwhat could be his withit farewell line as he ended his remarks at the correspondents’ dinner by embracing a gesture popularized by rappers and comedians.
“Obama out,” he deadpanned, as he dropped his microphone and left the lectern.
MichelleObamamatched the president on-trend moment for on-trend moment: She strapped on a seatbelt for “Carpool Karaoke” with James Corden, beat Ellen DeGeneres in a push-ups contest and rapped with a turnip. It wasn’t just frivolity. In an increasingly fragmented media world, the Obamas turned niche pop culture platforms to serious ends.
There he was in Alaska, warning about the dangers of climate change on “RunningWildwithBearGrylls.” There she was on the “Tonight Show,” pushing exercise by challenging Fallon to a sack race in the East Room.
The president turned up on “Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis” to get millennials to sign up for his health care law.
“OK, let’s get this out of the way, what did you come here to plug?” Galifianakis groused.
“I think it’s fair to say that I wouldn’t be with you here today if I didn’t have something to plug,” Obama shot back. “Have you heard of the Affordable Care Act?”
Some conservatives called that appearance undignified. But within days, it had snagged 18 million views, on par with Justin Bieber. And health care signups ticked upward.