Public Image of Barack Obama - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

The West Wing writer and producer Eli Attie based the character of Matt Santos (portrayed by Jimmy Smits) on Obama. At the time the politician was only a state senator. Obama later met Smits. Will Smith expressed interest in portraying Obama in a film, citing his physical resemblance – particularly their ears – to the President, something with which Obama concurred while discussing the possibility with Smith. A musical comedy about Obama's presidential campaign, Obama on My Mind, opened in London in 2009. Actor Christopher B. Duncan portrayed Obama in 2008 on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and also portrayed Obama in the 2010 Bollywood film My Name is Khan. Reggie Brown portrayed Obama on "Hannah Montana to the Principal's Office" of season 4 of "Hannah Montana". Obama has also been depicted on the "Harder, Better, Faster, Browner" episode of The Cleveland Show and the "Excellence in Broadcasting" episode of Family Guy. Barack Obama is depicted twice in the TV series the Boondocks while in the episode, "It's a Black President, Huey Freeman" snippets of his words are used his superstar image is parodied. Subsequently in the episode "The Fried Chicken Flu" Obama is portrayed less favorably as being rather ineffectual despite being full of rhetoric. Obama has also been the subject of various impersonators, including Reggie Brown and Iman Crosson.

Obama became a popular subject for artists during his presidential campaign. Shepard Fairey designed posters captioned "Hope". Alex Ross painted a portrait of Obama as Superman, tearing open his suit to reveal a shirt with an 'O'-symbol, while in Entertainment Weekly he was depicted as Spider-Man opposite John McCain's Batman. The association of Obama with Superman was picked up by the media and by the candidate himself: at the 2008 Al Smith Dinner, Obama joked, "Contrary to the rumors you have heard, I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-El, to save the planet Earth." And The Washington Post titled two essays about the impact of Obama's election by Desmond Tutu and Ta-Nehisi Coates "The Man of Tomorrow", referencing a frequent sobriquet of Superman.

Marvel Comics released a special Inauguration Day comic of The Amazing Spider-Man with a picture portraying Barack Obama with Spider-Man hanging upside down behind him snapping his picture, quipping, "Hey, if you get to be on my cover, can I be on the dollar bill?" The comic also featuring a brief story where the Chameleon attempts to pose as Obama in order to be sworn in in his place, Obama subsequently shaking Spider-Man's hand in thanks and admitting that he's always been a fan despite the wall-crawler's negative public image. For right of publicity reasons, Marvel subsequently denied depictions of Obama as acting president in the Marvel Universe were intended to be him. Obama has been portrayed in other comic books, in the more straightforward Barack Obama: The Road to the White House by IDW (and a couple of related comics), but also as Barack The Barbarian and in Drafted: One Hundred Days by Devil's Due Publishing, as a zombie hunter in Antarctic Press' President Evil and with the zombie killer Ash Williams in Dynamite's Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama.

The controversial Obama "Joker" poster depicts Obama as comic book supervillain, The Joker, based on the portrayal by Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. The image, which had been described as "shocking" and racist, led to much surprise as the identity of its creator, 20-year-old Palestinian American university student Firas Alkhateeb, was revealed. The digitally manipulated photograph has been described as the "most infamous anti–Obama image", and is often used by conservative protesters and those associated with the Tea Party movement.

Boris Johnson compared Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) in Quantum of Solace to Obama; the African-American CIA ally of James Bond is promoted to become Section Chief in South America over the previous corrupt agent. Barack Obama appears in the Doctor Who episode The End of Time in which the Master takes over control of his body as well as almost everyone else in the world.