Galifianakis Had the President Between Two Ferns

Between Two Ferns is Zach Galifianakis’s deliberately terrible talk show on Funny or Die, shot to look like public-access television from a town no one has heard of. The conceit is that Galifianakis plays a host who is obtuse, hostile, and somehow more at ease in the excruciating silences than any of his guests. It’s a precision instrument disguised as a broken one, and it has destroyed people who should have known better.

Obama went on it. In person, between actual potted ferns, to promote Healthcare.gov. Which meant the sitting president agreed to sit still while a comedian insulted him for several minutes in exchange for a brief window to mention a government website. The healthcare pitch evaporates almost immediately—whether that’s the plan failing or the plan working depends on how generously you want to read it.

Either way, watching a president submit to a bit this specific is something. Galifianakis doesn’t let up for a second and Obama, to his credit, doesn’t flinch. The whole thing is deeply weird in the best way.