Getting a Good Tan
- Aug 11
- 2 min read
Recently, HBO began running a seven-part series co-created, co-written and starring Larry David, Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America. The show was a random collection tales about the "real" stories behind American history, in which David playing a range of characters, from Alexander Graham Bell to the guy sitting next to Rosa Parks on her first attempt of a Civil Rights bus ride to a heckler at George Washington's Farewell Address and much more. It has an impressive cast of supporting actors including Henry Winkler, Jon Hamm, Kaley Cuoco, Jerry Seinfeld, Vince Vaughn, Rita Wilson, Lin Manuel Miranda, Greg Kinnear, Sean Hayes, Isla Fisher, Samuel L. Jackson, Timothy Olyphant, Susie Essman, Paul Rudd, Keegan-Michael Key and many more. Notably, too, two of the executive producers of the limited series were Barack and Michelle Obama. President Obama introduced the series to open Episode One.
I thought the first two episodes were hilarious from start to finish. The next four were a mixed bag for me, though to be clear I liked all the sketches. It's just a few were inconsistent in the direction some took, even though they were still funny, and each episode had extremely funny sketches. And the final episode of the series struck me as wonderfully funny, as consistently as the first two.
What stood out in the very last sketch of the series was a piece on the Obama Administration when it was shaken by its greatest scandal. And what was that great scandal? The day that President Obama worse a tan suit to a press conference. And playing the role of President Obama in the sketch was...Barack Obama.
Here's that sketch.
And as a bonus, here's a 2-1/2-minute behind-the-scenes video of the sketch. There's a particularly wonderful quip by Mr. Obama at the 10-second mark.
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