My roommate Sarah is the queen of Dad Jokes. If you were to hear her vast repertoire of snarky comments, you would immediately mistake her for a fifty-year old man. In this life, there is only one person’s Dad Jokes that I appreciate more than Sarah’s. That person is Barack Obama. Throughout his eight years in office (please don’t go!) he has had ample time to up his Dad Joke game, and he has done just that. At the Thanksgiving turkey pardoning this past year, November 2015, he shared a great one-liner, initiating giggles from his two beautiful daughters standing at his side: “It’s hard to believe this is my seventh year of pardoning a turkey. Time flies, even if turkeys don’t.”
My biggest issue with this upcoming election is that I have to say goodbye to President Barack Obama and his hilarious jokes. At his last White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Obama is quoted to have said, “In my final year…my approval ratings keep going up. The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major.”
Not only must we say goodbye to our comedian of a current president, but we must say goodbye to Joe Biden, his VP, as well – who is basically Obama’s BFF. “I tease Joe sometimes, but he has been at my side for seven years, I love that man,” Obama says of his relationship with his VP. “We’ve gotten so close in some places in Indiana, they won’t serve us pizza anymore.”
In all seriousness, I feel as though President Obama’s eight years have flown by. I remember the faux-election my seventh grade U.S. Government teacher held, when I, in a room made up majorly of Republican-raised friends, placed my vote in Obama’s shoebox. It’s crazy to think of the progress we have made under Obama’s care, and the history he has made as our first African-American president. Though I am excited to vote in my first Presidential Election (in which I hope to be making history, once again, with the initiation of our first female president) I cannot help but wish that I could be placing my vote in Obama’s shoebox ballet once again, for real this time.
President Obama may be leaving office soon, but here’s some comfort: his Dad Jokes will live on in history. Not only that, but have you seen his “Slow Jam the News” collaboration with Jimmy Fallon? If not, you’re welcome. I encourage you to go out and vote, collegiates – even if we can’t vote for Obama for a third term. “Obama Out.”