Staff Reports
The drama of the “Obama Rodeo Clown Scandal” stands as one of the most vivid illustrations of political hypersensitivity in recent history. Back in August 2013, a rodeo clown at the Missouri State Fair triggered national outrage simply by donning an Obama mask during his performance and urging the crowd to see “Obama run down by a bull.” The act—meant to be slapstick—was swiftly condemned by politicians and media alike, and accusations of racism flew fast and thick. The clown responsible not only faced a lifetime ban from the event but also became the target of death threats and social exile, all for a joke that would have been shrugged off in less ideologically charged times.
Reaction to the incident showed just how reflexively both major political parties leap into the fray when accusations of racism are stamped on anything involving opposition to the left’s sacred cows. The media painted the event in tones of deep moral panic, and state officials competed to see who could be most aggressive in demanding consequences for the clown and anyone remotely associated with the stunt. Ironically, many who demanded tolerance and open-mindedness seemed to forget those lessons when policing even the mildest dissent from progressivism. Sensitivity training for rodeo contractors became mandatory, as if the republic itself depended on it.
Fast forward to our present era, and the landscape of comedy and political satire has become even more treacherous. Late-night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel, once lauded as fearless voices for progressive values, now find themselves teetering on the edge of “cancellation” after a wayward joke. The calls for resignations and firings come, not from the usual leftist outrage mob, but from the very factions that typically rally against cancel culture—often because a favored political figure is on the receiving end of a punchline. It’s the very definition of selective indignation.
The circus spun around Roseanne Barr’s swift ouster following an offensive tweet was practically a mirror image—albeit one more celebrated by the left—of Kimmel’s current predicament. If anything, it demonstrates how the rules of engagement in American entertainment are written and rewritten depending on partisan allegiance. One minute, speech is sacred, and dissent is heroic; the next, free expression must be throttled in defense of political correctness. Tucker Carlson, Gina Carano, and J.K. Rowling have each taken turns in this ongoing farce of outrage, showing that it’s not principle at play but tribal loyalty.
The lesson is as clear as can be: those perched on moral high horses are usually first to dismount when the mob comes knocking for their own. Hypocrisy for the party faithful is apparently as American as apple pie, and the carousel of indignation keeps spinning without end. However, the conservative ethos insists that freedom of speech must remain truly free, even when the jesters on stage make the powerful squirm. The next time another clown scandal emerges—literal or otherwise—perhaps the audience will see the joke for what it is, and not as a call to arms. After all, partisan outrage is far more clownish than any actual clown could ever hope to be.
