Last Updated Tue, 14 Feb 2006 15:34:57 EST
CBC Arts
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting trip last weekend has provided plenty of game for U.S. comics.
Cheney accidentally shot a hunting companion, lawyer Harry Whittington, in the face with shotgun pellets while attempting to shoot quail. Whittington was back in intensive care Tuesday after suffering a heart attack, brought on by a pellet close to the heart, doctors said.
But on Monday, late-night television couldn't get enough of the story.
"Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a man during a quail hunt... making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, [was] shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honour, integrity and political manoeuvring. Whittington? Mistaken for a bird," Jon Stewart said on his news parody show The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Stewart also used the occasion to make fun of Cheney's relations with prominent lobbyists.
"Moms, dads, if you're watching right now, I can't emphasize this enough: do not let your kids go on hunting trips with the vice president. I don't care what kind of lucrative contracts they're trying to land, or energy regulations they're trying to get lifted — it's just not worth it."
David Letterman, Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson also took pokes at the vice president, but there was another surprising entry from a Hollywood star who's not known as a comedian.
George Clooney, a prominent liberal who has been an outspoken opponent of many of Cheney's policies, made a quip about the vice president at a luncheon for Oscar nominees on Monday. He told a press conference Cheney would come with him as his date to the Oscar ceremony.
"I am bringing Dick Cheney as my date. He was so nice. He called me and invited me to go hunting," Clooney said.
Letterman aimed some of his famous one-liners at Cheney.
"Good news, ladies and gentlemen, we have finally located weapons of mass destruction: it's Dick Cheney," he said on the Late Show with David Letterman.
"But here is the sad part — before the trip Donald Rumsfeld had denied the guy's request for body armour."
And in reference to the inability of the Bush administration to catch the architect of the war on terror, Letterman said, "We can't get [Osama] bin Laden, but we nailed a 78-year-old attorney."
Over on NBC, Leno referred to it as the big story of the weekend.
"Dick Cheney accidentally shot a fellow hunter, a 78-year-old lawyer. In fact, when people found out he shot a lawyer, his popularity is now at 92 per cent," he said on The Tonight Show.
"Dick Cheney is capitalizing on this for Valentine's Day. It's the new Dick Cheney cologne. It's called Duck!" he added.
"I think Cheney is starting to lose it. After he shot the guy he screamed, 'Anyone else want to call domestic wire tapping illegal?'"
Ferguson on the Late Late Show on CBS also picked up the thread of Whittington being a lawyer.
"He is a lawyer and he got shot in the face. But he's a lawyer, he can use his other face. He'll be all right," he said.
"You can understand why this lawyer fellow let his guard down, because if you're out hunting with a politician, you think, 'If I'm going to get it, it's going to be in the back.'"
And in reference to prominent leaks from the vice president's office, Ferguson quipped.
"The big scandal apparently is that they didn't release the news for 18 hours. I don't think that's a scandal at all. I'm quite pleased about that. Finally there's a secret the vice president's office can keep."
"Apparently the reason they didn't release the information right away is they said we had to get the facts right. That's never stopped them in the past."
No comments:
Post a Comment