Never Forget a Rodeo Clown Was Fired Over an Obama Mask but Pics of Trump Being Killed Are Apparently Fine
Do you remember the rodeo clown who got fired for wearing a mask of Barack Obama?
Yes, it wasn’t too long ago that showing arrant disrespect to the president of the United States was a fireable offense.
Oh, how times have changed.
Now you can suggest that the president be killed and nothing will happen.
It’s worth beginning back in 2013.
The clown, who dressed in a Barack Obama mask, was banned for life from the Missouri State Fair for the stunt.
According to CNN, the clown was introduced at the event in Sedalia, Missouri, as a special guest — “President Obama.”
Another voice said, “We’re going to stomp Obama now.”
“As soon as this bull comes out, Obama, don’t you move,” the voice said. “He’s going to getcha, getcha getcha, getcha.”
“Hey, I know I’m a clown,” the voice added. “He’s just running around acting like one. Doesn’t know he is one.”
The performance got the clown banned for life, according to US News and World Report.
“It’s an extreme response but not a surprising one. For those who came in late the unwritten rules are simple: It’s okay to wear a Nixon, Reagan or George W. Bush mask. A Barack Obama mask? No [sic] so much,” Peter Roff, then a contributing editor for the publication, wrote at the time.
“In days past, making fun of the president, not just his policies but the man himself, was no big deal,” he said. “Some, like FDR, Kennedy and Reagan, appeared to take it in stride and were able to give as good as they got. Others, like Nixon, found little to laugh at.”
“Obama is different. People are all too sensitive about what passes for funny where he is concerned, lest it displace him from the pedestal on which his supporters have placed him.”
Not only that, but some people claimed any sort of pointed criticism directed at Obama was racial in nature.
“It wasn’t clean; it wasn’t fun. It was awful; it was sickening,” Perry Beam, who attended the 2013 event, told CNN. “It was racist.”
“Beam likened the atmosphere to a Klan rally,” CNN reported.
Gosh, that sounds pretty bad.
It’s a good thing we don’t have that kind of environment these days.
— Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) October 19, 2019
We have some big news to share with you. pic.twitter.com/VTcm8AoW5I
— DHVANI (@DhvaniWear) October 15, 2019
A different way of reading this Tom Arnold tweet is “Don’t get too cocky traitor. They showed up (tonight) for JFK(jr) too” pic.twitter.com/LnA6HzpNuD
— Cary Kembla (@CaryKembla) October 18, 2019
To be fair, Twitter did eventually delete Tom Arnold’s reminder that when JFK was in Dallas, someone showed up for him just like they might show up for Trump, too.
Arnold still has his account, though, while — nearest we can tell — the rodeo clown remains banned from the Missouri State Fair.
It’s not like this rodeo clown wore blackface. He didn’t do anything but don the mask of a president. That was seen as terminally improper.
The clown in question has more or less faded into oblivion since he donned the Obama mask at the 2013 Missouri State Fair.
I have no idea what kind of effect this had on his life.
I imagine it basically meant he couldn’t go to the Missouri State Fair. Worse things have happened, but the hypocrisy is still staggering
All the guy did, as far I know, was impersonate Obama in a mask.
He didn’t call for his death.
He didn’t share a cartoon that showed his metaphorical death.
He didn’t take out an advertisement that showed him being hog-tied.
All of this has now become acceptable — and not just because the president is Donald Trump.
The president is a Republican, which means this is all OK.
Once the president is a Democrat, no matter who it is, watch how quickly this changes.
I guarantee it’ll give you whiplash.
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