Everything about the White House press briefing's foray into President Obama's appearance on "Between Two Ferns" was cringeworthy.
The gang spent almost six minutes discussing the intricacies of Obama's caustic banter with Zach Galifianakis. No part of it was not either awkward or annoying.
When an oblique reference was made to the bit, press secretary Jay Carney leapt in with a relatively old-person-style defense of the show, which, he stressed, was for the kids.
"Very quickly this video went, you know, viral," he said.
Then he said that Funny or Die was referring lots of people to the health care website. White House reporters either did not like this or did not understand it, because they started grilling him about what referrals meant and demanding that he give them some hard numbers on the referrals from Funny or Die.
"You can't just say this is where all the referrals are coming from!" the AP's Julie Pace sternly warned.
Then, ABC's Jim Avila leapt in to ask the worst questions of the day.
"How much discussion was there in the White House about the dignity of the office?" he wondered. (Answer: none, maybe?) "Was the presidency in any way damaged?" (Guess what Carney had to say about that.)