Like Father, Like Daughters

Whether Liddy, Abby, and Mary Anne — more commonly known as the Huntsman Girls — can do much damage to a campaign that has never left the launch pad is doubtful, but they are certainly a liability in one area: They are not funny. In his classic “schoolmaster” sketch, Rowan Atkinson tells his students that we can tell “Antony and Cleopatra is not a funny play” because “if Shakespeare had meant it to be funny, he would have put a joke in it.” The Huntsman Girls might take note, for theirs is a big stage on which to fail.

The trio represents a wasted opportunity for their father, and for a primary season that could do with some cheering up. The girls are young, beautiful, and charming, and they could quite easily be an asset. Instead, they are repeatedly missing the mark. Even the most charitable of viewers would be hard-pressed to laugh out loud either at their Twitter feed or their two YouTube videos — one a parody of the bizarre Mark Block “smoking” video, the other a reworking of Justin Timberlake’s “Sexyback,” entitled “Huntsman’s Back,” in which the girls first take shots at the other Republican candidates and then lionize their father. “We’re bringing Huntsman back,” the lyrics run. “The rest of them is one big circus act. We’re right behind the guy who’s right on track.”

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