I don’t know what direction America is headed in, but whichever way it is, I need him elected.

October 18, 2012 3:35 PM

The Audacity Of Louis Ortiz is a kickstarter funded documentary that chronicles the life and times an unemployed Puerto Rican man from the Bronx, whose life completely changed when he was told that he resembles Barack Obama. The story of Ortiz has been featured on This American Life, NY Times, and DRS 3. Ortiz as Obama has been featured in a few TV spots including an episode of Flight of the Concords and a Korean satellite TV commercial.
posted by wcfields (18 comments total)

There's some sort of birther joke in here somewhere but I honestly don't have the strength.
posted by JauntyFedora at 3:50 PM on October 18, 2012

This is fascinating, but, for me, the resemblance is very slight.
posted by juniper at 3:50 PM on October 18, 2012

That's one job created.
posted by 2bucksplus at 3:51 PM on October 18, 2012 [7 favorites]

I heard the audio version of this on TAL and was quite affected by it. Thanks for steering me toward the film doc.
posted by GrammarMoses at 3:51 PM on October 18, 2012

I loved this story when I heard it on This American Life (though agreed, based on the accompanying illustration, that the resemblance was slight)

That said, anybody who slightly looks like Romney has a better chance of already having a job, so supporting potential Obama impersonators is just another reason to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate this election.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 3:52 PM on October 18, 2012 [4 favorites]

That said, anybody who slightly looks like Romney has a better chance of already having a job

There's also Romney's resemblance to Bryan Ferry. What's even weirder is you can find YouTube clips of Roxy Music tribute bands where the lead singer looks more like Romney than Bryan Ferry.
posted by jonp72 at 3:58 PM on October 18, 2012

The Kickstarter video confirms not only a very modest resemblance, but an awful voice imitation. I don't see the story here.
posted by dgaicun at 4:42 PM on October 18, 2012

Next time, let's wait for the porno before posting.
posted by phaedon at 4:55 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oritz used to look like Obama, but, like most modern presidents, Obama has aged about a decade in the last four years, while Oritz hasn't.
posted by straight at 5:02 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

The Kickstarter video confirms not only a very modest resemblance, but an awful voice imitation. I don't see the story here.

The resemblance has been strong enough to change Ortiz's life -- I think that's the story here.
posted by saturday_morning at 5:06 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

OMG I HAD NO IDEA!

what i love about this is .... AFROBORICUAS REPRESENT!!!!!!

we are so absent from media, even in the island, that having a Puerto Rican guy resemble the first black President of the United States just kind of makes a point that our negritude does exist :)
posted by liza at 5:23 PM on October 18, 2012 [2 favorites]

I see nothing being offered to this man but a false promise and a facsimile of hope. His modest fame will wither away in a few years and it will leave something more like resentment than warm memories. There are no plausible lasting opportunities attached to this.

To the extent this kind of king-for-a-day hype-making is done as a charity, it is woefully misguided, and to the extent it is done for cheap human interest-story lulz it is blindly irresponsible. IMO.

There is a difference between this and Ted Williams who had a marketable skill but fell through the cracks.
posted by dgaicun at 5:29 PM on October 18, 2012

Now wait, he wasn't that pathetic before all this. He also seems well aware of the fifteen-minutes-ness, not like some naïf who'll buy into it.

Aside from him, the documentary looks awful: loudly, stridently, emptily hyped.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 5:59 PM on October 18, 2012

It is what it is, and just maybe he'll be able to take it an run with it. Gots to 'member, if 'bama has four more years, so will Ortez. (especially as an illustration of 'bama before and after)
posted by BlueHorse at 6:12 PM on October 18, 2012

In the Flight of the Conchords he doesn't so much play Obama as play a really improbable Obama-impersonator. Which seems about right.
posted by yoink at 6:20 PM on October 18, 2012

The Kickstarter video confirms not only a very modest resemblance, but an awful voice imitation.

This is talked about at length on the This American Life episode. He started losing work to lookalikes who resembled Obama less but were able to do a better impression. He's been working on his impression in the meantime and from the followup I saw, has significantly improved. His inability to get rid of his accent is still dragging him down, though.

As far as I can see, the point of the documentary isn't that he's a dead-ringer for Obama, but is instead a human interest piece about how someone's life can be changed when they seize an opportunity to change their lives for better or worse, no matter how out-there it is.
posted by gregoryg at 6:27 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

My sister and I recently agreed that Mitt Romney reminds us of our father, which makes me feel really awkward about all the Romney/Ryan slashfic I've been writing.
posted by roger ackroyd at 7:27 PM on October 18, 2012 [5 favorites]

Next time, let's wait for the porno before posting.

Drum solo!
posted by sebastienbailard at 11:25 PM on October 18, 2012 [1 favorite]