Joe Biden’s secret weapon: laughter

[DonViejo]

The right's trying to spin it otherwise, but the VP's amusement at Paul Ryan proved his most effective strategy

BY MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

Joe Biden doesn’t just get mad. Joe Biden gets ridiculously entertained.

Though the vice-president’s performance in Thursday’s debate with Paul Ryan wasn’t quite as meme-worthy as Paul Ryan’s aspiring juicehead pictorial that appeared earlier in the day, his sustained and undisguised amused contempt for the man across the table from him rightly proved one of the most memorable elements of a spirited evening. There was barely a moment Biden wasn’t speaking that he wasn’t smiling ruefully or flat out chortling at every word coming out of the mouth of his opponent. Sorry, I mean his “friend.” Hahahahaha.

It was a bold strategy — and make no mistake — that contemptuous, “You have got to be kidding” shtick had to have been well thought out. Predictably, a fair amount of the spin promptly painted Biden, the would-be funniest thing to come out of Scranton since “The Office,” as a man whose permanent, preternaturally white smile was “unsettling,” “inappropriate” and “a disaster.” And it’s true, the image of our country’s vice-president looking like he was having entirely more fun than many of his fellow Americans have had in the last several years was a mite disconcerting.

It was also, inevitably, a gauntlet thrown down to the Internet community, one swiftly picked up by the sudden appearance of a Laughing Joe Biden Twitter account and a spate of wildly expressive gifs.

continue reading:
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/12/joe_bidens_secret_weapon_laughter/

[FBaggins]

1. It was most effective over the first third (or so) of the debate

It clearly got across the message "can you believe the BS these guys are trying to sell you???"

It was a variation on "there you go again"

But he went to that well a little too often. They should have prepared a variety of ways to say "liar!" - since they knew they were going to need dozens of 'em.

[bushisanidiot]

2. It was effective, though I don't think he planned on laughing

but couldn't help himself when he saw lyin ryan trying to gish gallop his way to the finish line.

smokin' joe knocked him out cold on the first question and never looked back.