Obama speechwriter leaves White House for Funny Or Die

At last year’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner, President Obama brought out comedian Keegen Michael Key for a live version of a sketch from the Key & Peele show in which Key plays Luther, the president’s Anger Translator.  

That bit was put together with the help of David Litt.  He was the president’s senior speechwriter at the time. In fact, he wrote material for several correspondents dinners starting in 2011, and serious speeches, as well.  

Last month, Litt left the White House to become head writer and producer of Funny or Die’s new office in Washington D.C. He tells The Frame that it was when Funny or Die collaborated with the White House on the President's episode of "Between Two Ferns" with Zack Galifianakis that he realized the power of comedy to promote an issue — in that case the Affordable Care Act.

Below are excerpts of his interview with The Frame's guest host,

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INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS

I'm wondering if you watched the GOP debate last night.

I did.

How much material did you come away with? It seems like it would be hard to make comedy out of what was essentially a penis-measuring contest.

Yeah. I can't imagine things getting more absurd than the debate itself. It was like a tryout to become America's next top insult comic, instead of the president. That was a strange thing to watch. There's a point where this whole thing is devolving into a joke, and I don't think that's good for anybody.

You joined the Presidential staff as a speechwriter in 2011, at the age of 24. So for all the ambitious college kids out there looking to get into presidential politics right now, how exactly does someone do that?

Through a friend of a friend, I met somebody who was writing speeches for then-Senator Kerry, now Secretary of State. He said they were working on a blog post that didn't come out right. [He asked], Do you want to take a weekend and just do it? He knew I'd done some writing in college, that I edited a humor magazine. They liked that and he helped me get a job at West Wing Writers, which is a private sector speech-writing firm. A couple years later there happened to be an opening to write for senior staff at the White House.

Do you have greatest hits speeches you're especially proud of?

A lot of the more visible stuff that I did was probably the jokes. I have what passes in Washington for a comedy background. The bar is set a little lower here. So I did a lot of the work on the White House Correspondents' Dinner. I got to work with some of the folks from "Veep" on something with the Vice President. That was not the most serious work I did, but it was a lot of fun.

How did that evolve? Were you saying funny things around the office? Did you have a penchant for making President Obama chortle at meetings?

The way the White House speechwriting calendar works is there's usually one or two events a year where the President is expected to go out and tell a bunch of jokes. So we work with a lot of different people on that, in and outside the White House. In 2011, our chief joke-writer was someone named

who's since moved to Hollywood to write comedy. When he left, there wasn't anyone else excited about the prospect of spending three weeks writing jokes nonstop and seeing what sticks. From there, I would work on that with a whole team of people. But if it ever went really badly, it would be my fault.

I'm sure you must have a joke or two that you're especially proud of. Could you tell us, to refresh our memory?

Yeah, one of the jokes that was one of my favorites was [from] two years ago. The President said, "After the 2012 elections, Republicans realized they need to start reaching out to minorities. Call me self-centered, but I can think of one minority they should start with."

I like stuff like that. It doesn't cross a line, but walks up to it. The other thing is, the President himself is very funny. He has amazing timing. So almost anything we do, he makes us look a lot better than we are. 

Can you tell us a bit about his personal taste in jokes? What would he go for, and not go for?

The President has always understood that nothing is more funny than a President willing to make fun of himself. So he always wants to do stuff that is self-deprecating, acknowledging that there's something silly about the President telling a joke. 

We've also had a chance to poke fun at some of the absurdities of Washington. That's always nice. I think the President's major concern is, it's gotta be funny.  

Was there a point where you thought that writing jokes could be your job after the White House?

I think one of the biggest moments was one where I was not intensely involved, and that was the "Between Two Ferns" video that we did with Zack Galifianakis. Funny Or Die had been meeting with us for a while. We'd danced around the idea of doing something together. The healthcare website was not doing so well. It was not typical for a President to do a viral video like that, but it had a huge impact.

The purpose of that video was to get young people to learn more about health care. How do you think that went?

I think it went really well. Just yesterday the President announced that 20 million people have been insured under the Affordable Care Act. That's a success. And it was amazing to see how something funny could help drive people to the website, change the narrative around the law. And that's what we're trying to do at Funny Or Die D.C.

As you professionally enter the comedy world, there's so much political comedy out there. It runs the gamut, from John Oliver's activism to the Funny Or Die Drumpf video. Do you veer toward one end of the spectrum? What's your aim when joining Funny Or Die?

A lot of what we're doing is try to connect the comedy side that's thriving in L.A. or New York with some of the causes that are worthy of attention that have a home in D.C. I like comedy that runs the spectrum. The specific role we're playing is trying to get the word out about causes or organizations that really should have more attention paid to what they're doing. 

I think that people who don't live near D.C., when hearing that Funny Or Die is opening up a D.C. branch at the end of the Obama presidency, it might seem like we're preparing for the end times. Like things are about to get much funnier or darker. Does the office feel that way?

No, I think if you were worried about the end times, you just have to watch the Republican debate last night. [laughs] I think that it's definitely new, that a brand like Funny Or Die would open an office in D.C. At the same time, I think it's just one more way that we communicate, and the way that everybody gets a message across is changing. It used to be that if you cared deeply about the environment or civil rights or workers' rights, the best way to get that across was a specific set of tools, none of which involved viral videos that often star celebrities. Now that's another option you have when you have a cause you want to get out there.

Here the full interview by clicking the blue play button at the top of this post.