The West Wing aired on NBC between 1999 and 2006, winning multiple Emmys and accolades. The show follows the presidency of fictional Democrat Josiah Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, while also focusing on the lives of his senior staff and all the action within the Oval Office.
While Sorkin was praised at the time for producing a TV show that was not just popular but also topical, over the years, the show has not aged well. Excessively sentimental and melodramatic, The West Wing is less a realistic look into Washington, D.C.’s culture than it is an idealized portrayal of American political life. The West Wing gave rise to the contemporary white liberal trope, and it has since provided a sort of escapism for many people who don’t want to believe the reality of what happens at The White House.
Thanks to less optimistic shows like House of Cards and Veep, both coming after it, The West Wing’s tone now seems naive and misrepresented, and the ten jokes below prove it.
“I Was Trying To Find A Starbucks. A Guy In A Gas Station Said, ‘Round Here, People Don’t Pay Four Bucks For A Cup Of Coffee.’”
Connie makes this joke to Sam while the entire staff is on a trip to Manchester, New Hampshire. Not only is it classist, but it doesn’t account for inflation. A $4 cup of coffee is standard fare at any coffee shop, and many gas stations now carry this Seattle coffee.
While the point of the joke is to highlight D.C. elitism, it goes farther than this, also proving how tone-deaf and aloof The West Wing’s writers were.
“You’ll Find It In Your Filing Cabinet Under A For Anal.”
This bicker fest between President Bartlet’s personal aide Charlie Young and Press Secretary C.J. Cregg is a classic example of The West Wing’s sixth-grade sense of humor. It almost seems as if the show’s writers expect lines like this to provide profound insight into the cut-throat nature of D.C. Instead, these quips come across as cheap and topical.
This is one type of humor that seems to never die in The West Wing. While the show did make the “walk-and-talk” scene famous, it should have given its characters more compelling dialogue.
“Wanna Go Down To The Situation Room, Blow ‘Em Off The Face Of The Earth?”
President Bartlet’s Chief of Staff Leo McGarry poses this question to POTUS. As a man with near-infinite power and access as the president’s right-hand man, making a joke about launching bombs seems a little off base. Considering the current state of American foreign policy, this joke is definitely not funny anymore.
If The West Wing was designed to be a satire, that would be one thing. However, the show suffers from wanting to be too many things at once. It’s a drama, a comedy, a soap opera, and a governmental procedural. As a result, jokes like this just don’t fit. Pick a lane, Aaron Sorkin.
“How About This? We Drop Out Of The UN Entirely And Use The 926 Million To Take Everyone In The Country Out To Brunch?”
Associate White House Counsel Ainsley Hayes gets sassy with this comment. A lifelong Republican, Ainsley is offered a position by the Democratic president Leo Bartlet, a bipartisan gesture that would NEVER happen in D.C. these days.
Ainsley’s brunch joke doesn’t really fit into a current political reality where the American government is actively distancing itself from international organizations like the UN or NATO. Despite fans’ claims about the show’s verisimilitude, Ainsley’s rose-colored glasses couldn’t foresee the future of her party.
“Schadenfreude?” “You Know, Enjoying The Suffering Of Others. The Whole Rationale Behind The House Of Representatives.”
This is a joke between Donna Moss, senior assistant to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, and C.J. Clegg. C.J., essentially the voice of the president as the Press Secretary, is legendary on the show for her sarcasm.
“Schadenfreude” is a German word that roughly means, in English, “enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.” The implication here is that the House of Representatives, through its inherent nature, tries to make things as difficult as possible for Bartlet’s staff. Way to poke fun at the democratic process, Donna and C.J.
“Who Needs Dante? I’m On My Way To Hell At 30,000 Feet.”
White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler makes this comment after he’s forced to fly with Republicans to the funeral of a former Republican president. This single man dedicated to his job makes the political process seem quite futile and negative.
Again, if The West Wing maintained a more critical tone, instead of jumping around between being hopeful and pessimistic about politics, jokes like this would make more sense. Instead, they just seem outdated.
“USA Today Asks You Why You Don’t Spend More Time Campaigning In Texas And You Say It’s Because You Don’t Look Good In Funny Hats.”
This is part of a conversation between C.J. and President Bartlet, who made a dumb comment about the fashion choices of Texans when interviewed by a popular newspaper. After a long discourse involving Latin phrases and self-fulfilling jokes, Bartlet finally asserts, “We did not lose Texas because of the hat joke.”
Jokes like this come across as inconsequential filler. The West Wing is a dialogue-driven venture, and it’s too bad the humor, with time, feels like it was written for older liberals. What about the rest of the population?
“I Wasn’t Calling You A Fool, Sir. The Brand New State Of Georgia Was.”
Sam Seaborn disses Judge Peyton Cabot Harrison III via a long anecdote about the founding of the state of Georgia. As he says, “In 1787, there was a sizable block of delegates who were initially opposed to the Bill of Rights. This is what a member of the Georgia delegation had to say by way of opposition; ‘If we list a set of rights, some fools in the future are going to claim that people are entitled only to those rights enumerated and no others.’”
This Deputy White House Communications Director is right about Judge Harrison III being a fool, but could there be a more convoluted, cavalier way to say it?
“0 For 47. I’m The Jamaican Bobsledding Team!”
Even when this joke was first made, it was way out of date. Jamaican bobsledding was fictionalized in 1993’s Cool Runnings, and this line, jested by Communications Officer Will Bailey, has no current relevance.
While Will may be on a losing streak, the scriptwriters were the real losers for slipping a one-liner like this into an episode. They must have really been reaching for anything they could their hands on for dialog.
“While You May Be Mistaking This For Your Monthly Meeting Of The Ignorant Tight-Ass Club, In This Building, When The President Stands, Nobody Sits.”
One of the more famous lines shouted by President Bartlet, this quote is also one of the silliest lines in the entire series. The West Wing really glamorizes his role, making him a democratic savior rather than a normal politician.
Looking past political history, Sorkin instead uses Bartlet as a representation of what he believes the president should be while being hailed for his show’s “honest and real” look into the White House.
