Skip Navigation
Eleanor Barkhorn

Eleanor Barkhorn - Eleanor Barkhorn is an associate editor at The Atlantic, where she edits the Entertainment channel.
More

Eleanor Barkhorn is an associate editor at The Atlantic, where she edits the Entertainment channel. She is a former producer for the Food channel. Before coming to The Atlantic, she was a reporter at the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, Mississippi. She graduated from Princeton University, where she majored in American literature and wrote her senior thesis about Oprah's Book Club. For her first two years out of college, she taught high school English with the Teach For America program.
« Previous Entertainment | Next Entertainment » Email Email Print Print

Osama bin Laden Is Dead: Twitter Laughs at the News

By Eleanor Barkhorn

May 2 2011, 11:25 AM ET Comment

Osama Bin Laden Comedians usually get themselves into trouble when they make jokes about major international news events: See Gilbert Gottfried's history of "too soon" quips on everything from September 11th to this year's earthquake in Japan.

But as news leaked out about the death of Osama bin Laden on Sunday, humor was embraced. Here, a look at how celebrities and non-celebrities alike tried to make light of the terrorist's demise.

Fox News was a popular punchline:

binladen_fox2_resize.png

binladen_fox_resize.png

As was Donald Trump, who pressured President Obama into presenting his birth certificate last week:

binladen_trump_crop.png

And the question of where bin Laden went after he died:

binladen_jesus_crop.png

Others pointed out the pop culture opportunities presented by the news:

binladen_martin1_crop.png

binladen_kaling_crop.png

binladen_country_crop.png

The rest of the jokes riffed on the name of the suburb where bin Laden was found, the shock of the news, and more:

binladen_costello_crop.png

binladen_klein_crop.png

binladen_martin_crop.png

binladen_silverman_resize.png

And, finally, some of the Twitter humor was (apparently) unintentional:

binladen_online_resize.png

Presented by

More at The Atlantic

This Photo Uses Every Single Instagram Filter How to Go From Kinkade to Rothko in 18 Easy Steps
Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are
We Should Be in a Race for Prevention, Not Cures Why We Should Be in a Race for Prevention, Not Cures
Why Do Asian Americans Have the Worst Long-Term Unemployment? Why Asian-Americans Have the Worst Long-Term Joblessness
Mario Batali on 'Sadistic' TV and Martha Stewart on Raising Chickens Mario Batali on 'Sadistic' TV and Martha Stewart on Raising Chickens

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Just In

Correspondents

View All Correspondents

The Biggest Story in Photos

The Unreal World

May 31, 2012

Subscribe Now

SAVE 59%! 10 issues JUST $2.45 PER COPY

Facebook

Newsletters

Sign up to receive our free newsletters

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)

(sample)