Left-leaning, right-leaning or straight down the middle: No matter how you vote, chances are the Affordable Care Act gave you at least one good laugh in 2013. From Internet memes and late-night TV to well-written satire, from Sen. Ted Cruz to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to what’s covered, here are 10 of the best Obamacare jokes from 2013.
Before the rollout fiasco, adorable kittens and piglets made puns to win over potential health insurance exchange consumers. On a blog full of cute pictures, the Internet set itself up for one of the memes of the century: Obamacare + cute animals. Being cute isn’t a pre-existing condition? D’aw.
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9. Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act
In which Jimmy Kimmel shows how uninformed (yet opinionated) the American people are on healthcare reform. (Hint: They think Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act are two different things.) Hilarity ensues.
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God bless The Onion. This describes so many family political arguments.
According to reports, Seaver mounted an impressive case [in defense of Obamacare] given his severely limited knowledge of the actual law itself, bolstering his 8 percent understanding of the Affordable Care Act with his 6 percent awareness of the nation’s current economic landscape. Crawford, meanwhile, demonstrated just about the full extent of his understanding of Obamacare by claiming that its provisions could potentially kill jobs.
Sources confirmed that, if asked, neither man would actually be able to correctly define the term “HMO” or coherently explain what a health care exchange actually is and how such a thing would actually work on a regional basis. . . .
On separate occasions, sources said Seaver and Crawford both claimed to have done “a lot of research” on the subject. . . .
At press time, both men’s understanding of Obamacare had dropped to 3 percent as a result of the debate.
Read the full story here.
7. How Obamacare could have saved Breaking Bad’s Walter White
Remember before the Obamacare rollout? It was a simpler time, when high school chemistry teachers sold meth to make ends meet for mounting medical bills. In a hilarious mash-up, SNL and Aaron Paul team up to talk about how Obamacare could have saved Walter White from a life of crime.
“I have this friend who got sick – like cancer sick. But because there wasn’t Obamacare he couldn’t afford the treatments. So he was backed into a corner.”
“Keep in mind this man was a teacher with a family,” interjects the Obama character.
“So he did what any of us would have done – he started cooking meth,” he said.
But my favorite parts are the “regular folks” who speak before Paul about how the ACA will help them. “Free medicine, y’all!” Watch the video above.
6. The New Yorker: Cruz tells CNN “destroying entire planet best way to stop Obamacare”
What would an Obamacare joke list be without at least one zinger thrown Ted Cruz’s way? Check out one of the best (and shortest) satirical pieces on how Cruz set his sights on government shutdown and debt disaster all while reading us Dr. Seuss.
. . . Senator Cruz said, “Obamacare is like a parasite that needs a host to feed on. If you want to kill the parasite you kill the host, and in this case that means killing this planet. As long as there’s a planet Earth, the nightmare of Obamacare could always come screaming back to life.”
Read the rest here.
5. Jay Leno: Trick or Treatment
Just in time for Halloween, Jay Leno ripped the Obamacare rollout, focusing on the now infamous “if you like your insurance plan” quote:
You know where it’s really trick or treat time is at the White House. President Obama tricked us into thinking we’d be able to afford treatment. . . . Trick or treatment!
Watch both videos above for the whole skit, which is full of one-liners that cover the gamut, from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ testimony to how Obamacare and Medicare are really related.
4. Dave Letterman: Top 10 injuries covered by Obamacare
Hey, why pretend all comedy is so high-minded? If you’re wondering what injuries are covered by insurance on the exchanges, listen to Letterman explain the top 10 injuries and watch the examples. Enjoy the classic slapstick and home videos that follow.
3. Jon Stewart: Why is the President acting like Gil from The Simpsons?
The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart expresses his discontentment with the Democratic Party at the site’s rollout. After a government shutdown, it should be easy for the Dems to win the next set of elections, right?
“How bad is it? More of this country believes Obamacare has been repealed than have been able to sign up for Obamacare.”
“The whole point of websites is to design them so that is nearly impossible to not sign up for something. Every time I go onto Amazon, there’s a 40 percent chance I’ll mistakenly overnight myself six seasons of Night Court. It ‘s just the way it’s designed.”
Watch the skit above to see why Obamacare proponents have 99 problems and a glitch. . . is all of them.
2. Colbert: ACA as President Barack Obama’s Gettysburg address, if the famous speech were a “techno turd taco”
The Colbert Report
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As per usual, Colbert sears the right and the left while making me laugh-cry. “Folks, this job is hard. I don’t wanna bring you depressing stories night after night, which is why I’m so happy to finally have some good news to report: Millions of Americans can’t get health insurance.”
How does this “techno turd taco” link President Barack Obama to the great presidents of the past?
“It’s his Gettysburg Address if Lincoln had said, “Four score and Error 404, Emancipation not found.”
For full effect, watch the video above.
1. Of course, the SNL Sebelius skit
“If you’re in a rush, consider using our low-res website, with simpler fonts and graphics.”
Cue “U WANT DOCTR?” screen.
Oh, yeah, and if you’re still having trouble, this version of the website includes a link to Kayak.com, where you can buy plane tickets to Canada and buy cheaper prescription drugs.
The site’s top FAQ? “What the hell?”
Watch the full skit, in all its glory, above.
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