Poorly-executed, one-note rap parodies send blogger over the edge. Below is a music video parody of John McCain rapping about his controversial vice presidential choice to the tune of Snoop Dogg’s “Murder Was The Case.” I post this clip not because it’s particularly funny—it’s not—or because it offers anything more than the usual tired slew of McPalin jokes—it doesn’t—but because I think now is an ideal time to propose a moratorium on white-folks-rapping parody songs.
Seriously, people in comedy, we get it: Senator McCain is rich, white, Republican, and old, therefore it is unexpected that he would spontaneously break out into a hot sixteen. What a hoot! Amy Poehler is a short white woman from Burlington, Massachusetts, but—check it out—she’s cuffing the mike and spitting like Kanye West. Isn’t that hilarious?
Not necessarily.
Just because something is counterintuitive doesn’t automatically make it funny. Sure, several people have, in recent times, had success with this gag. But unless you’ve got adorable-ass Natalie Portman handy or an angle deeper than “Hey, a white person is rapping!” give it a friggin’ rest already.
And how counterintuitive is it, anyway? We know there are white people that rap and rap well. So why are we still trading on the old ‘white folks got no soul’ paradigm? It’d be like being expected to laugh every time a white dude picks up a basketball or a black guy gets a decent job and moves to the suburbs.

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