Obama Impersonator Yanked from Republican Stage

Comedian Reggie Brown has made a career out of his Barack Obama impersonation—his cadence is right-on, and with a little makeup, Brown is nearly a dead ringer for the 44th president. Plus he’s pretty funny.

It’s small surprise, then, that Brown was hired to do a set, in character, at the Republican Leadership Conference held at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside this weekend.

The set started well, and it made pretty funny use of a slideshow presentation, but after about 18 minutes—and just as he was getting ready to zing Michele Bachmann!—the Obama impersonator was escorted offstage. (RLC President Charlie Davis himself did the axing—all smiles—and Brown handled the indignation very nicely.)

Gawker reports that Brown’s uncomfortably off-color, racially charged digs at the president were what arbitrated his ousting (and Charlie Davis agrees), but nearly every other media outlet is reporting that, when it comes to their own kind, ahahaha, Conservatives can’t take a joke.

In the video, you can hear the crowd turn just as soon as “Obama” makes his first joke about presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and his “first lady, second lady, uhh, third lady…” (Romney is Mormon.)

The set was absolutely brilliant because, in the end, it proved what people are perfectly comfortable laughing at, versus which pills are tough to swallow.

Some of the jokes that scored big with the GOP:

Now, I don’t want to ruffle any feathers here today, but would you all mind, uh, changing this room around according to the, uh, pre-1967 seating arrangements?

Now, when Vice President Joe Biden heard I was coming here today, he truly wanted to be here. He was so excited. He pulled me in close, he held me tight, he leaned in, just like that. And he whispered in my ear, “This is a big effing deal.” And that’s when I said, “I know. That’s why you’re staying here.”

But I love vacations. A few months back, the family and I took a nice relaxing vacation in the state of my birth: Hawaii. Or as the Tea Partiers still call it, “Kenya.”

My favorite month is February—Black History Month. You see, Michelle, she celebrates the full month and, you know, uh, I celebrate half.

My father was a black man from Kenya, and my mother was a white woman from Kansas. So yes, my mother loved a black man, and no, she was not a Kardashian.

I had my team of experts use the latest computer technology to predict what Michelle and I are gonna look like at the end of my first term. [Slide from Sanford and Son]

You’re welcome. You’re welcome for the thriving economy that I helped to create. [Slide of depression-era soup kitchen] You’re welcome for the peaceful relations in the Middle East that I helped to forge. [Slide of angry Muslim demonstrators] And you’re welcome for the gift of humility, which I’ve given to Anthony Weiner. [Slide from Rep. Weiner’s ill-fated Twitpics] That’s right! I may have given him the gift of humility, but you paid for that cute little towel.

Truth be told, I never was a fan of Weiner. That boy was always trying to one-up me. I release my long-form birth certificate; he releases his long-form Twitter photo. [Slide of Weiner’s underwear bulge]

I was criticized for joking about “shovel-ready” jobs the other day, but the truth is, we need to build tunnels and bridges. That way, people have something to live under—or jump off of.

Now, I’m proud to say that we’re …making great strides in finding non-combat solutions to finally deal with Muammar Qaddafi, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Kim Jong-il—or as we refer to them in the Situation Room, “Two and a Half Men.”

[Newt Gingrich’s] consultants are dropping faster than Anthony Weiner’s pants in an AOL chat room.

The only thing running independent of Donald Trump is his hair.

And then there were the jokes—mild, for a celebrity roast, anyway—that got the Obama impersonator axed:

[Alabama’s proposed immigration bill] states that the police have the probable cause to check anyone’s immigration status if their complexion is greater-than or equal-to that of John “the Crybaby” Boehner’s. You wanna see my impression of Speaker Boehner? Here we go. [sobs]

As you can recall, my slogan was “Yes We Can.” And, I gotta admit, I Thought We Could. But apparently, No We Can’t. So, in front of y’all here today, this afternoon, I’m unveiling my new slogan. I Killed Osama!

But the economy is frail. It’s barely moving. It’s gasping for air, desperately clinging to life. Just like Newt Gingrich’s campaign.

You’ve got your front-runner, Mitt Romney. Now, don’t get me wrong, he might make a great president, along with his first lady, uh, second lady, uhh, third lady…

It’s unfortunate that Tim Pawlenty couldn’t make it here. But cut him some slack. He’s having his foot surgically removed from his mouth. Oh, no, don’t worry—luckily for him, it’s covered under Obamneycare. So yeah. That, along with spinal transplants.

What can I say about Michele Bachmann that she hasn’t already said about herself? The other day, she called me a “one-term president.” [Sound cuts out] …One-syllable president! [The end.]

Funny? Not funny? Who should be offended? You can watch the entire debacle on YouTube.