Footage of a late-2000s Obama-era segment from “The Onion,” a hilarious parody news outlet, has resurfaced on social media depicting then-gaffe-prone Vice President Joe Biden. The clip, titled “Gaffe-Prone Biden Embarrasses Nation Yet Again by Sneezing During Meeting,” proved to be a comical foreshadowing of the plethora of gaffes Biden has delivered throughout his presidency.
The parody news segment begins with a reporter stating, “Well, Joe Biden’s big mouth is getting him in trouble again yesterday. The gaffe-prone Vice President made headlines by sneezing during a policy summit at the White House.” The segment jokes about the seemingly innocuous incident being “out-of-control” behavior from Biden. “Is this type of out-of-control behavior hurting the administration?” the reporter asks.
Another panelist chimed in, “Well Biden’s known for going off script, but this is an all time low at a major event, cameras are rolling, and you sneeze… It was so off-message.” A female panelist exclaimed, “You cannot sneeze like that the world was watching.” Another man said, “I don’t see how Biden could think a sneeze like that was appropriate.” One of the panelists quipped, “Well, he doesn’t think that’s it.”
The host continued, pointing to a hilarious, fictitious Wall Street Journal editorial calling out Biden’s sneeze. “Editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, which was devoted entirely today to the sneezing incident, has said that Biden is unfit to hold office.” However, one of the panelists suggested, “I do think the sneeze is not going to have any major repercussions, because people expect it. Biden is just a court gesture.”
The Onion blasted Biden for another “gaffe” in which Biden tied his shoes in the middle of a conference. “Well, this is all coming just two weeks after the incident of Biden stopping to tie his shoes during the International Conference on Renewable Energy,” the reporter said. One person in the discussion shouted, “You know what? People are fed up. They are thinking, why is he doing that? Why does he think that that’s okay?” One panelist told Biden, “Do your job, stupid. This isn’t day camp.”
The parody news outlet took it a step further and blasted Biden for blinking during a conference. “And then there’s the now infamous clip of Biden at the High Speed Rail press conference,” the host said. One of the panelists groaned, “Oh, look at that blink, blink, blink.” Someone else commented, “He’s completely off.” “I can’t even watch it,” another said. Another panelist firmly stated, “Life is not a blinking contest.”
The segment ended with mutiny breaking out amongst the panel, with the participants brandishing weapons of all varieties, to take to the streets against Biden for his incessant gaffes. Notably, this clip was from early in the Obama administration, when Joe Biden was a much younger and far more cogent vice president. In retrospect, the segment served as a foreshadowing of Biden’s presidency years later, where endless gaffes have occurred amid signs of mental and physical decline.
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Watch the segment- below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.