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Obamamania: The English language, Barackafied

ObomedyThe latest addition to Slate's dictionary of Obamaisms.

By Chris Wilson
Posted Thursday, July 17, 2008, at 3:41 PM ET

Today's Obamaism:

Obomedy (oh-BOHM-i-dee) n. Jokes playing on Barack Obama's background or political weaknesses, which are, by definition, certifiably Not Funny.

Example: To his great surprise, Matt's attempt at Obomedy, an "Obama Bin Laden" joke, won him widespread condemnation in the blogosphere, in spite of his defense that he was merely trying to spark dialogue on the role of irony in modern American politics.

Since Slate first launched its Encyclopedia Baracktannica in February, more than 800 readers have written in with their own Obamaisms, from "Barack Ness Monster" to "Post-Baracalyptic." The best of these entries, along with Slate's original Obama neologisms, are collected in a new book: Obamamania! The English Language, Barackafied, available now.

In conjunction with the publication of the book, we will be publishing a new Obamaism every morning and adding it to the Obamamania widget above, which you can add to your Facebook or MySpace profile or Web site.

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Chris Wilson is an editorial assistant at Slate in Washington, D.C.
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