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buzzsaw | matthew gilbert

Obama’s not first to walk on TV’s wild side

President Obama and Bear Grylls take a selfie together during their taping of “Running Wild.”The White House

President Obama filmed an episode of NBC’s “Running Wild With Bear Grylls” on Tuesday? During the shoot, Obama and the British adventure celebrity posed for a selfie? They were smiling? Summon the trolls, the id-driven commenters, and the naïfs for another anonymous verbal crusade. Obama’s not dignified, he’s a celebrity president, and, my current favorite on a site detailing Obama’s Alaska schedule, he’s “the missing Kardashian brother,” even though we all know that great honor belongs to Brody Jenner.

I’m not here to argue about Obama’s public appearance decisions, especially not to flame-throwers and threadjackers. It’s just well worth reminding those who are genuinely dismayed by Obama’s choice to go on “Running Wild” to talk climate change — the episode will air later this year — that the world is not ending. He’s merely continuing a trend that began decades ago, probably when President Eisenhower showed up on “The Colgate Comedy Hour” in 1955 and on “The Ed Sullivan Show” three years later. It’s not too far of a fetch to see links between Ike’s star turns, President Ford’s “Saturday Night Live” bit in 1976, President Bush’s moment reaching out to the military on Howie Mandel’s “Deal or No Deal” in 2008, and Obama gone “Wild.” The age of the humorless president is long gone.

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This is not a partisan issue, except for those who want it to be so. Pop culture and politicians from both sides of the aisle — including sitting presidents, former presidents (the Fords on “Dynasty,” OMG), and candidates on the campaign trail — have been mingling with increasing intensity basically since the advent of TV. There’s no reason our cultural lives ought to remain off-limits to elected officials; we only need to hope for discretion. Many of us, I’m betting, don’t want to see Obama screaming back at Gordon Ramsay on “Hell’s Kitchen,” just as we don’t want to hear politicians yell out insults during a joint session of Congress.

Discretion: I vote yes.

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Like presidential candidates, sitting presidents often need to employ the art of politicking through pop culture. With its more casual tone, it can be a hugely effective instrument. Richard Nixon, in perhaps the most oft-cited example, said, “Sock it to me” on “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” in September 1968, to improve his inelegant public image with some flower power; two months later he won, narrowly. “Nixon said . . . appearing on ‘Laugh-In’ is what got him elected,” “Laugh-In” creator George Schlatter once said, “and I believe that.” Bill Clinton on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in June 1992? Same deal.

What is interesting about Obama going on “Running Wild” to promote his environmental agenda is that his media choices of late have been, in some ways, far outside the box. He is clearly of a mind to expand beyond the familiar network outlets and into more alternative spaces, in an acknowledgment of the increasingly fractured media and its many niches. If you want to reach people these days, you have to find out what they’re watching; the country is more of a demographic puzzle than ever. Only the Super Bowl is going to get the massive numbers and broad audiences of olden days. The science of demographics is growing more powerful by the year, and it might be a good thing if our presidents and their staffs are savvy enough to recognize that.

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When Obama waged his campaign to promote the Affordable Care Act last year, he visited late-night TV, of course, but he also visited the Web-only talk-show satire “Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis.” In order to reach those younger, healthier viewers that he needed to sign up for insurance, to balance out the older and sicker subscribers, he found a novel outlet — and it worked, according to White House spokespeople, boosting health care enrollment overnight. Between the “Funny or Die” site and YouTube, the “Ferns” interview has drawn 42 million views. Only a fool would dismiss the power of the YouTube star.

Obama also pushed the envelope this year by giving a free-flowing interview to Marc Maron, a podcaster who gets personal with his guests in his LA garage. The president’s goal: to humanize himself. Obama talked one-on-one to Maron, who is not a White House reporter, for just over an hour — much longer than, say, his visits to “The View,” “The Tonight Show,” “Ellen,” and “The Daily Show.” Maron’s series, which usually tops the iTunes charts, reached its 100 million download landmark two years ago; only a fool would dismiss the power of a podcaster in his garage whose show is called “WTF.”

Will Obama’s appearance on “Running Wild” succeed in calling attention to climate change? Will turning his concerns about the environment into a pop cultural meme top his more sedate appeals? Let’s see if his message will fly.

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Photos and video from Obama’s trip to Alaska:


Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.