While the last thing I want to do is leap to the defense of President Obama, I thought I should make a simple observation about the Boris Karloff comparison that has been floating around. Rush Limbaugh seems to have started it with this remark:
Obama was sitting there and his lips were pursed. There as tight as he could be. He had one finger over his mouth and he was shooting Boris Karloff eyes.
OK, now that could be interpreted a number of different ways. Ann Althouse didn’t seem to think much of the comparison yesterday, and she offered a couple of pictures of Karloff to prove her point — one of him as the Frankenstein monster, and the other one as The Mummy.
However, Fallen Sparrow has an interesting picture of Obama exhibiting what is called the “Karloff death stare” and opines that Rush Limbaugh was not being unfair.
Here’s the Obama “Karloff death stare” picture:
OK, I can see the resemblance.
My problem is that I am a huge fan of Karloff, and not so much a fan of Obama.
To better explore what Glenn is calling the Obama vs. Karloff “stare-down,” here are a two more Karloff pictures (showing the actor not made up as a monster) to further prove the point:
Both of the above are Hollywood promotional photos (taken many years apart of course).
While there is certainly a resemblance in the eyes, I do think that the comparison invokes stereotypes that are unfair to Boris Karloff, who in reality was a gentle and soft-spoken man:
Boris Karloff made his name as the ultimate master of horror. Yet under the chilling monster lay a gentle, soft spoken man who found more pleasure in reading stories to children than in scaring the grown-ups out of their seats.
So I think it’s unfair to Karloff the man to be making a negative comparison.
Comparisons to Karloff the actor, though, are another matter.
As an actor, Boris Karloff was legendary for his innumerable heath care horrors, but at least everybody knew it wasn’t really happening.