The New York Daily News warned Barack Obama's humor "may be turning blue," the Guardian called it "double entendregate," and Rush Limbaugh says the mainstream media is working quickly to hide what the president said.
All over a brief comment last night at a fundraiser for LGBT supporters where Obama made a speech.
During that speech, he said while thanking lesbian personality Ellen DeGeneres for an introduction, that, "I wanna thank, uhhh, my, uh, wonderful friend, uh, who, uh, accepts a little bit of teasing about Michelle beating her in pushups …. but I think she claims Michelle didn't go all the way down."
Politico immediately reported that it was a line that Obama "let hang, naughtily, provoking laughter from the crowd."
The Guardian asked, "Did President Obama make a blowjob joke?"
GotchaMedia proclaimed "Obama's Blow Job Joke at LGBT Fundraiser."
At the San Francisco Chronicle Carla Marinucci reported, "At glitzy LGBT gala in LA, did Obama really tell an 'off-color' lesbian joke?"
The New York Daily News trumpeted "President Obama's possibly risqué comment about wife's pushups provokes laughter at fund-raiser."
The Business Insider said "Gay Donors Went Nuts Over Obama's Joke About Ellen DeGeneres And The First Lady."
GotchaMedia reported the foundation for the joke: an appearance by Michelle Obama on the DeGeneres show back in February. The first lady's campaign has been for health and fitness, and the two had a pushup contest.
Limbaugh posted a transcript, and said, "Clearly the crowd thought he was making a joke. … Now, he may be talking about pushups with Ellen deGeneres, but he had the proper comedic pause. He didn't sound embarrassed. They're claiming he is. The media is trying to cover it up. The first report: 'Obama's Double Entrendre.' Then they realized, 'Wait a minute, it's not gonna look good if we report that.'"
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The Insider said it was White House pool reporter Todd Gillam, of the Dallas Morning News, who said Obama let the line "hang naughtily, provoking laughter from the crowd."
The pool report from the event actually stated, "Obama started at about 7 p.m. with an off-color joke about Ellen DeGeneres and his wife, who recently beat the comedian in a pushup contest on her talk show. He said DeGeneres had complained 'that Michelle didn't go all the way down.'"
The Guardian's Oliver Burkeman defended the president, saying America is "one of the most prudish nations on earth" so Obama simply wouldn't make such a joke.
"It seems incredibly obvious what really happens here…" he wrote. "Obama makes an innocuous remark; the audience sees the potential for it to be interpreted in an off-color way; they laugh; Obama realizes the problem, and then heavy-handedly goes on about push-ups for a couple more sentences in an effort to reinforce the point that that's what he meant."
Limbaugh said that was stretching too far.
"The comedic pause was in there and the reaction was in there. And the excuses they're offering? He didn't know what was on the teleprompter? He doesn't pre-read his speeches? They're asking us to believe an awful lot here about the guy."