President Obama's latest foray into the pop culture world was an appearance on the Jerry Seinfeld web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee."
A bizarre exchange between the comedian and the president dealt with the mental stability of world leaders.
Obama has "gotten off just enough funny lines to get on this show," Seinfeld said in the episode that hit the web late on Wednesday.
The former star of the hit TV comedy series "Seinfeld" chose a silver blue 1963 Corvette Stingray for the ride with Obama, although for security reasons the pair had to be content with a few slow turns around the White House grounds and the coffee was drunk in a staff dining room.
Amid the small talk, viewers learned that Obama blows off steam by cursing, that his underwear is all one brand and one color, that he shaves before he works out and that his guilty food pleasure is nachos.
"How many world leaders, you think, are just completely out of their mind?" Seinfeld asked Obama at one point.
"A pretty sizable percentage," Obama replied.
"Some of these people, you must meet them, you'll just be chatting and you look in the eyes and go, 'Oh, this guy's gone,'" Seinfeld said.
"Part of what happens is, these guys, I think the longer they stay in office, the more likely that is to happen," Obama said.
Seinfeld and Obama also talked about the drawbacks of fame versus anonymity, how to deal with hecklers, and Obama's most embarrassing presidential moment. "This may be it," quipped the president.
Seinfeld may have been able to capture the zeitgeist of the 1990's, but he seems old and dated today. Much of the conversation is unfunny banality - which pretty much describes the comedian's long running TV show. But the question of whether the president was actually describing himself when he talked about crazy world leaders is an interesting one.
Recent press conferences - as infrequent as they are - have shown the president to be detatched, mostly bored with national and world affairs. Do world leaders look into his eyes these days and wonder if Obama, too, is "gone"?
Anyway, it's nice to once again see our "smart diplomacy" in action.
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