• May 27, 2012

Did Yo Yo Ma Make Barack Obama’s ‘Inauguration’ Illegitimate, Also?

by Jim Newell  3:08 pm January 23, 2009

Look. We all know that Barack Obama is not an American human anyway, so he’ll never *really* be president if you care about, oh we don’t know, FACTS. But the sheeple have accepted him and so we must find other “mainstream” ways to have him ousted from office, at which point Ron Paul’s reign will finally be recognized for eternity and he will give us all Gold. The “flubbed oath” thing seemed like a good angle — clearly John Roberts was trying to tell us something about this man — but then Nobama’s goons eliminated that. So here’s the latest thing we’ll try: it turns out that the “live music” performed at Inauguration by Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman was in fact recorded, because they were worried their precious fingers would freeze and they’d screw up. And now Obama’s not president!

Did you know that in the Thirteenth Amendment, right after the part that ends slavery, there’s a clause that says black presidents must be serenaded by an Asian and a Jew with “live performances?” MMHMM. Soon. Soon the sheeple shall understand.

The Frigid Fingers Were Live, but the Music Wasn’t [NYT]

{ 57 comments }

actor212 January 23, 2009 at 3:12 pm

Yo! Yo! Ma!

Dat show was fer da shitznizzle!

Cape Clod January 23, 2009 at 3:12 pm

Goddamn Chineses! Always using fake performances.

Serolf Divad January 23, 2009 at 3:13 pm

Now let me really blow your mind: That wasn’t the real Barack Obama, either. That was a hologram that was beamed in from Obama’s secret lair in the crater of an extinct volcano on an uncharted isle where he’s putting the final touches on his mechanized army of Hopebots!

ManchuCandidate January 23, 2009 at 3:14 pm

Reality Math
Expensive Wood Instruments + Cold weather = bad sound.

Wing Nut Math
B. HUSSEIN O + Fake Muzik = Prez Milli Vanilli

Jim Newell January 23, 2009 at 3:15 pm

[re=227093]Serolf Divad[/re]: EVERYONE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR SENATOR & CONGRESS

BarthexDeRosa January 23, 2009 at 3:15 pm

None of those two million people where even in DC! They were on a special soundstage built on the dark side of the moon!

BarthexDeRosa January 23, 2009 at 3:16 pm

were

Cape Clod January 23, 2009 at 3:16 pm

[re=227093]Serolf Divad[/re]: I always thought his secret lair was hidden deep within the wreck of the Andra Doria!

Sassette January 23, 2009 at 3:17 pm

[re=227097]ManchuCandidate[/re]: They said on CNN last night that they had gotten special carbon violins and cellos to use in the cold. But someone must have decided that was just too much blackness for the poor Washington whiteys to handle!

sevenrepeat January 23, 2009 at 3:17 pm

if ashlee simpson could pull it off and still be america’s sweetheart celebutard then yo yo ma can still save himself by making an appearance on snl.

you cannot be serious January 23, 2009 at 3:18 pm

Do they qualify for a Grammy category?

digibal235 January 23, 2009 at 3:19 pm

Itzhak Perlman’s had a polio flairup.

Texan Bulldoggette January 23, 2009 at 3:20 pm

My question is why was Robert Gibbs staring at his Blackberry the whole time they ‘played’? Couldn’t that dude have gotten a better seat?

Servo January 23, 2009 at 3:23 pm

[re=227110]you cannot be serious[/re]:
Shivering in B Minor?

Donkey Sauce January 23, 2009 at 3:23 pm

If the weather had been warmer, would that poem still have sucked?

WadISay January 23, 2009 at 3:23 pm

If they were just going to pipe in something he wasn’t playing anyway, couldn’t they have had Yo Yo Ma lipsynching to “We Built This City”?

Electra January 23, 2009 at 3:26 pm

I prefer Colbert’s take on the situation, that after the inauguration’s slight time delay, Yo Yo Ma is actually president.

Neon Trotsky January 23, 2009 at 3:28 pm

[re=227114]Texan Bulldoggette[/re]: LOL @ concert w/Yo yo + Itzhak…ZOMG so boring theyre liek not even rly playin!!1

Monsieur Grumpe January 23, 2009 at 3:29 pm

Jeez. Might as well have dug up Morrison, Hendrix, Garcia and Joplin and have them play.

Naked Bunny with a Whip January 23, 2009 at 3:30 pm

I keep my fingers warm in the winter by never letting go of my wiener, even when driving.

Texan Bulldoggette January 23, 2009 at 3:32 pm

Why is no one live blogging Blago’s news conference. He’s referencing western movies & hangings–again, he comes through!

Servo January 23, 2009 at 3:33 pm

I’m just happy they didn’t hire Celine ‘Mandible’ Dion.

L Urchin January 23, 2009 at 3:34 pm

Aretha was NOT Memorex (and plenty said she sounded subpar), nor were the marching bands. That offsets the taint. But why didn’t they set up heat dishes there and in the parade viewing booth? Every outdoor restaurant in LA has them.

Theodorick Of York January 23, 2009 at 3:34 pm

[re=227093]Serolf Divad[/re]:
That was the original plan, but due to the superior cloning technology on the uncharted planet Kamino it was decided to outsouce the Hopebot contract to them which was rather convenient due to the fact that Jango Fett was already there. How much longer will we be held hostage to foreign cloning due to our adiction to Hopebots??? Approve offshore cloning NOW and bring these jobs back to Amurika…clone, baby, clone!

Min January 23, 2009 at 3:34 pm

They should have done the same thing for Aretha.

facehead January 23, 2009 at 3:37 pm

[re=227090]actor212[/re]: he should never have left Wu-Tang.

facehead January 23, 2009 at 3:40 pm

[re=227124]Electra[/re]: And Caroline Kennedy is the King of Iceland.

naha8 January 23, 2009 at 3:41 pm

I loved Yo-Yo Ma’s reasoning: “A broken string was not an option. It was wicked cold.” Exactly.

magic titty January 23, 2009 at 3:42 pm

[re=227120]Donkey Sauce[/re]: Win.

Bowdoin January 23, 2009 at 3:45 pm

[re=227093]Serolf Divad[/re]: There were any number of Saddams during his time, and plenty of them were assassinated, for practice, even. Also, didn’t that Simpson kid prove on SNL you can blame it on the rain with impunity?

actor212 January 23, 2009 at 3:46 pm

[re=227151]facehead[/re]: I’m more partial to the other dry cleaner down the block.

Rush January 23, 2009 at 3:48 pm

Yo Yo Milli Vanilli

nrkeyqueer January 23, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Aretha iz gawd. Ya’ll are haters.

Worlds End January 23, 2009 at 3:51 pm

[re=227093]Serolf Divad[/re]: Lies hes a robot like jfk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J3fxsA3C6Y

AfghanVet January 23, 2009 at 3:53 pm

Now, if only we could find out that the lame poem was pre-recorded too.

Bowdoin January 23, 2009 at 3:53 pm

I think the idea of the performance was like one of them WWII “We Are One” war movies, where every single scene of troops used like a class picture of affirmative action. Except they always had a Puerto Rican, is all.

azw88 January 23, 2009 at 3:56 pm

THey did play live, but only those right there with the musicians could here them.. the real audio was piped out.

So Yo-Yo is still President.

Bowdoin January 23, 2009 at 3:58 pm

[re=227188]nrkeyqueer[/re]: I’m tellin’ ya. She’s my very favorite teevee chef for all time. She was on Oprah, and they cooked up some banana pudding. Yum, I says. Whacha got, Queen? asked Oprah. Some banana pudding, say Queen. Whereupon she sliced open a packet of pudding mix, and laid it down in a pan. Then she opened her up a bag of vanilla wafers, and layered ‘em all about, they stuck the pan in the oven.

Accessible, that’s my kind of cooking.

Servo January 23, 2009 at 3:59 pm

[re=227188]nrkeyqueer[/re]:
Aretha had her time. It’s time for Melinda Doolittle.

irativ January 23, 2009 at 4:00 pm

Ha the Jews control the media and the Google and the rest of the intertubes were created by Al Gore and the Asians so the black can probably stay in office or something. But those of us from “Real America” know better so that when WALNUTS! drops dead of skin cancer of whatever next week Sarah Palin will so kill some moose/wolves and be president of Alaska which has tons of oil and therefore she’s president of America. Yay!

actor212 January 23, 2009 at 4:09 pm

[re=227182]Rush[/re]: Yo Yo Milli Vanilli Ice

Fixed your post.

Lascauxcaveman January 23, 2009 at 4:20 pm

Yeah, if I had a cello worth a million bucks, I’d schlep it out on stage in a cold wind so I could make noises with it that the microphones probably wouldn’t pickup very well, which would probably be a good thing, as it would be going out of tune faster than I could finish the song anyway.

At least Yo Yo and the boys tried to make it look real, not like those music videos where you have the girl singer ‘playing’ guitar and it’s painfully obvious she’s never held a musical instrument in her life.

(Obviously I’m not talking about the Bonnie Raitt or Susan Tedeschi types here.)

kinginyellow January 23, 2009 at 4:30 pm

No hay banda. Il n’y a pas d’orchestre. There is no band. It is all a recording!

Mr Blifil January 23, 2009 at 4:45 pm

Yo Yo Ma rarely makes mistakes, but I’m sure outdoor in frigid temperatures his tone would sound like shit. They don’t call it “warm” for no reason. I’m just wondering if Rick Warren realized Yo Yo was his name and not some kind of Obama street slang greeting.

Deepthroat January 23, 2009 at 4:51 pm

As a fellow cellist, i totes understand the reasoning behind this. I kept telling everyone around me obnoxiously how PERFECT it sounded despite the wood-splitting, string-ripping, frostbite-inducing cold of the day. I was a bit disappointed at first, but clearly, it’s a legit reason. I am done being serious now. Also.

lawrenceofthedesert January 23, 2009 at 5:14 pm

Even sadder, the John Williams composition went over some of the same territory — the Shaker hymn/dance piece “Simple Gifts” by Elder Joseph Brackett — that Aaron Copeland had covered splendidly in 1944. Made-for-t.v. Copeland being faked by four gifted players — not a great inaugural moment. Why not announce that due to the inclement weather, they had recorded the piece and here it is, instead of giving in to the networks’ “American Bandstand” mentality?

(Hey, that was really Pete Seeger with Bruce Springsteen, right, and not an animatronic? Whew…)

Dean Booth January 23, 2009 at 5:26 pm

Obama and Roberts should have lipsynced the oath dealie.

Lazy Media January 23, 2009 at 6:21 pm

Meanwhile, the U.S. Marine Corps band and the Army herald trumpets played live in the 30-degree weather, because they have lips and balls of steel.

Pop Socket January 23, 2009 at 6:40 pm

[re=227182]Rush[/re]: Joel, is that you?

p-Sludge January 23, 2009 at 6:57 pm

If you play the tape backwards, it says “John Roberts buried Paul”.

Scandalabra January 23, 2009 at 7:19 pm

My mama tole me if I ever married a man called Yo Yo Ma, she would tell my Yo Yo Da to disown me.

Jukesgrrl January 23, 2009 at 8:11 pm

[re=227418]lawrenceofthedesert[/re]: “(Hey, that was really Pete Seeger with Bruce Springsteen, right, and not an animatronic? Whew…)” Yes, that WAS really Pete and Silent Bruce, and that’s when they got the idea to pre-record.

[re=227273]Lascauxcaveman[/re]: “(Obviously I’m not talking about the Bonnie Raitt or Susan Tedeschi types here.)” No, you’re talking about that girl who was on Sat. Night Live last week.

DangerousLiberal January 23, 2009 at 8:12 pm

Geez, the coverage this nonstory is getting is definitely going to undermine the very sinews of our republic, much like Woodward and Bernstein back there in the 1970s, during the Harding administration or whatever.

Seriously…are tee vee news actors really gettting this stupid? Do they not have editors? I have a six and four year old who need constant adult supervision. These assklowns could benefit from the same.

Notjustdirt January 24, 2009 at 11:26 am

I think President Obama just did an about face. William Lynn is a recent former defense contract lobbyist for Ratheon Corporation in Massachusetts. Obama said specifically there are rules for lobbyists to engage his administration as well as have some buffer to remove conflict of interest. Within 48 hours of his executive decree, Obama issues an executive “waiver” against his own decree for William to take the post of Deputy Secretary of Defense. Check it out at http://notjustdirt.wordpress.com

sanantonerose January 24, 2009 at 3:03 pm

Wow. As a musician, I must say that this was worth it just for the Perlman and Ma jokes! Extremely rare.

NebraskashireGentry January 24, 2009 at 9:04 pm

so, if this is anything like the Chinese girl who lip-synced as an uglier, talented version of herself sang at the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, where is the media-fueled outrage incited by competing news outlets unable to cover the event?

eve murphy January 25, 2009 at 11:08 am

All ‘real’ musicians knew, watching this, that they could NOT possibly have been playing the music live because it was simply too freekin’ cold! I could also tell by the look on Yo-Yo Ma’s face…he was smirking in a funny way at Perleman as if to say “ha!…this is silly”…I found the piece they played well-chosen for the venue and what a nice change from the Bushy Era!

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