By RICHARD ROEPER rroeper@suntimes.com April 25, 2012 6:58PM
President Barack Obama chats with Jimmy Fallon on his show Tuesday night. | Chuck Liddy~Getty Images
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Updated: April 25, 2012 9:39PM
When President Barack Obama told Jimmy Fallon one of his favorite movies is "Groundhog Day," I thought for sure someone in the GOP would respond by saying:
"Little wonder the president is such a fan of 'Groundhog Day,' given that we've been waking up to his same failed policies day after day for more than three years."
Or: "We're surprised the president's favorite movie isn't 'Reds,' given his political leanings …"
Haven't seen that yet, but there has been the predictable onslaught of huffing and puffing indignation from the right: a Washington Examiner commentator saying POTUS has "jumped the shark," a Fox News website headline calling the appearance an "embarrassment," Gretchen Carlson saying it was "nutso," Breitbart.com claiming Obama "violated campaign law."
It was a rather bizarre appearance, what with Obama "slow-jamming" with Fallon and the Roots, calling the disgraced Secret Service agents "knuckleheads" and answering a Twitter question about legalizing pot from some guy named Bobo.
And geez, did Fallon have to be in the classic talk show host position — behind a desk that's elevated so he's literally looking down on his guest? Where's the respect in that visual?
More than 40 years after Richard Nixon said, "Sock it to me!" on "Laugh-In," some 20 years after a sunglasses-wearing Bill Clinton played the sax on Arsenio Hall's show, we're long past the point of being shocked when presidents or candidates play the rodeo clown on TV. They'll do what they gotta do to get elected or stay in office.
Still. On the surface, the notion of Obama slow-jamming with Fallon might seem hip, but it came across as cheesy pandering.
Siri: Who stars in that cloying ad?
Ah, Siri. Rarely has an ad campaign featuring cool people using a cool product seemed so tone-deaf.
Perhaps you've seen the suddenly ubiquitous spots, one starring the hipster darling Zooey Deschanel and the other featuring the perpetually cool Samuel L. Jackson.
In Deschanel's spot, she's stuck inside because it's raining. We know it's raining because Zooey's iPhone 4S tells her it's raining. Also, she's standing at the window, and there's rain on the other side.
Although Zooey's wearing what appear to be trendy PJs, she apparently did her hair, makeup and lipstick before deciding she's gonna stay inside and order tomato soup, with the help of Siri, who finds a number of nearby locales that deliver. Magical!
Then Deschanel sashays to a trendy-messy room filled with stacks of papers and hey look, there's a banjo. She asks Siri to remind her tomorrow to clean up the house, because today is for dancing, so how about a little old-time rock and roll?
I'm figuring the next scene would be Zooey Deschanel saying, "Siri, tell me again how much they're paying me to star in this overly precious ad?"
Even more ridiculous is the ad with Samuel L. Jackson enlisting Siri's help to make gazpacho for a romantic dinner.
Even in the fantasy mini-universe of Commercial Land, are we really supposed to believe these well-paid, well-known actors are utterly self-sufficient individuals who would turn to their iPhone when there's a good possibility a personal assistant is sitting there just out of camera range? I mean, come on. Samuel L. Jackson uses his phone to cook dinner?
As for Ms. Deschanel, she is nothing if not charming, but there's something about that ad that makes you want to smash the banjo, tell her to put on some shoes and urge her to get out of the house and get her own damn tomato soup.
Perhaps these actors have access to a more advanced Siri than the one inside my iPhone, because at least half the time when I try to ask her a question, she tells me she can't help me right now or she's not sure what I mean — or she offers to send me to the Internet so I can click on a link, which I could have done in the first place without wasting time yapping to Siri.
