Giving Rahm a Hand

Talk about bad taste!

Ward Room recently came across a set of “comedy” sketches that mines most of its humor from Rahm Emanuel’s missing middle finger. In these videos, Emanuel -- and all the characters he interacts with -- are portrayed as hands.

The hand playing Emanuel folds over its middle finger to simulate a half-absent digit -- sort of like Robert Newton folding over his leg to play Long John Silver.

In the first video, a voter asks whether Emanuel had to cut off his finger to settle a gambling debt with the Yakuza. In the second, Derrick Rose feels he’s not getting full value from a mayoral high five. The third is a faux press conference, with Mike Flannery and Carol Marin holding microphones, and a cameo from an inarticulate Mayor Daley.

The videos, which are the creation of Chicago sketch comedian Jeff Burdick, originally aired on CAN-TV’s The Gentleman Grochowski Show.

Burdick emailed Ward Room over the weekend to say that the videos had been blocked on City Hall computers -- an allegation that Ward Room has not confirmed.

"You may be interested to know that this week Rahm Emanuel's City Hall blocked access to a series of humorous YouTube videos that gently lampoon the Mayor," Burdick wrote Saturday.  "This came after a sudden rise in views of the videos on Monday and Tuesday by City workers. As a Chicago taxpayer, I am not opposed to ensuring city workers stay focused on city work. In fact, I can give the City many more tips to ensure their workers do just that. But as the author of these humorous videos, I take "URL blocking" to be the sincerest form of flattery. "

Ward Room editors have reached out to the city for reaction to the email submission by Burdick.

The Mayor's office has not responded as of press time.

While we wait, check out the following videos.

Contact Us