This has to be seen to be believed.
What on earth is the message of this video? Vote for Obama, because Barry Manilow and George Costanza pray to him? All of the Rush Limbaugh-style jokes about the Lord Messiah Obama underestimate the ludicrous, over-the-top worshipping at the altar of the Church of Barack embodied in this laughable display of celebrity cluelessness.
Come on, folks. This is beyond vapid. “This is my American prayer?” Gobbledygook. Dave Stewart, the author of these insipid lyrics who looks vaguely like Eric Clapton throughout the video, is British, for the love of mud! Does his British prayer look anything like his American prayer? I wonder if Cyndi Lauper and Joan Baez can pray in Belgian, too.
“American Prayer” is written and performed by people who seem entirely unfamiliar with genuine prayer. The ditty uses religion childishly, like a talisman or a lucky charm, to invoke a sense of spiritual heft to a decidedly secular purpose. Amid pleas for huddled masses to finally breathe free under an Obama administration, there’s also an implicit call for lower gas prices. You know what lowers gas prices, Whoopi and Cyndi and Forrest and Macy? Drilling! Maybe you should start praying to Exxon-Mobil for that one. (Lord Obama’s only going to answer your prayers by inflating your tires.)
Every time some pile of celebrity has-beens injects themselves forcibly into the national conversation, I have to ask: Is there anyone on this planet who was waiting to see how Whoopi Goldberg was going to vote before making their decision? Was anybody wondering which way the guitarist for the Eurythmics was going to fall in 2008? Does Jason Alexander really think he can move political opinion in this country? I mean, that guy can’t even be master of his own domain, if you know what I mean.
What these guys don’t realize is that they do move public opinion – in the opposite direction. I live by the Streisand Touchstone – whatever Barbra’s for, I’m against. Babs didn’t show up for this one, though, so they had to settle for famed pundit and political analyst Pamela Anderson. I lost all respect for her when she refused to marry Borat. (Actually, I never had any respect for her, so I didn’t really lose anything.)
I hope this American Prayer goes into heavy rotation on MTV alongside this piece of crap from the fat, ugly, and/or aged McCain Girls.
Run both these unintentionally hilarious nightmare videos from now until Election Day and Jacques Cousteau is a shoe-in.