Stephen Colbert channels pundit outrage over Obama’s viral video

President Obama’s appearance on the Funny or Die sketch series “Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis” on Tuesday has become a viral sensation, with over 14 million views already. But not everyone is laughing, especially Stephen Colbert.

On Wednesday night’s “The Colbert Report,” Colbert rounded up those who had a real beef with the leader of the free world doing a comedy sketch to drum up registration on the Healthcare.gov website. Not surprisingly, those pundits mostly existed on Fox News and “later in the day on Fox News,” according to Colbert.

So what was their take on Obama’s comedy turn? Unimpressed, disappointed and mostly feeling that the sketch diminished the office of the president.

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On “Fox and Friends,” Elisabeth Hasselbeck said, “Some would argue it’s inappropriate.” While co-host Brian Kilmeade called it “tragic.”

But no one had a more widely seen dissent than the Fox News “underminer in chief” Bill O’Reilly. Colbert’s “Papa Bear” compared Obama’s move to Abraham Lincoln and informed viewers, “All I can tell ya is, Abe Lincoln would not have done it.”

“It’s true,” Colbert told viewers. “You can’t fight that logic. Abe Lincoln would never have done a viral web video.”

Lincoln is not alone. Other former presidents who would not have done a viral web video include George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

While George W. Bush never willingly appeared in any viral videos, Bill Clinton appeared in a spoof of “The Sopranos” final scene in 2008 to help Hillary’s presidential campaign.

The worst part, Colbert said, was that the president’s appearance seems to have worked, with a boost in traffic to the healthcare.gov website which the administration hopes will turn into more sign-ups ahead of the March 31 enrollment deadline.

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