Chris Rock talked to CNN about his upcoming release of Kill the Messenger, a DVD of three of Rock’s stand-up shows in Africa. Of course, the conversation turned very quickly to president-elect Barack Obama, race and racism. Rock claims that Obama is a very difficult man to make jokes about. Judging from what I’ve seen of other comedians, this seems to be true. Obama is a very self-aware politician, fully versed in the modern ironic sense of humor. As such, there’s very little material. Well, nothing along the lines of George Allen’s “macaca” incident, or Larry Craig’s public bathroom incident, or Nancy Pelosi’s blinking fetish habit. God save the comedians.

Chris Rock is best known for two things: being funny and being crass.

“This is what people come to see. I’m just doing my show,” the comedian said with a laugh. He’s also known for his political commentary, but there’s one person he’s having a lot of trouble making fun of — president-elect Barack Obama.

This is apparent in his new DVD “Kill the Messenger,” which combines three shows from his international tour: New York; London, England; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

“It was a tour nobody wanted to do… because the general perception is that comedy doesn’t translate,” Rock said. But thanks to the Internet, the world is a lot smaller than it was even 10 years ago. And people are digging the same jokes, he said, including ones about John McCain and Sarah Palin.

As the DVD readies for release on January 20, CNN talked with Chris Rock about his lack of Obama jokes, Inauguration Day and why racism will never die. The following is an edited version of that interview:

CNN: I watched the special last night, and I noticed that you did a lot of jokes about John McCain — his age, his war hero story — but not so many about Barack Obama. Is it harder to make fun of Obama?
Chris Rock: He’s just one of those guys, you know, like Will Smith. There’s no Will Smith jokes. There’s no Brad Pitt jokes. You know, what are you going to say? “Ooh, you used to have sex with Jennifer Aniston. Now you have sex with Angelina Jolie. You’re such a loser.” What do you say? “Ooh, your movies are big. You make $20 million.” There’s nothing to say about Brad Pitt.

CNN: Why is Barack Obama like that?
Rock: It’s like “Ooh, you’re young and virile and you’ve got a beautiful wife and kids. You’re the first African-American president.” You know, what do you say?

CNN: As time goes on do you think it will get easier?
Rock: It’s like “Ooh, you’re young and virile and you’ve got a beautiful wife and kids. You’re the first African-American president.” You know, what do you say?

CNN: As time goes on do you think it will get easier?
Rock: Of course, as time goes on. At some point he’s going to — there’s always slip-ups. No one can survive that level of scrutiny without occasionally making it easy for a comedian.

CNN: Let’s talk about the inauguration. Are you going?
Rock: No, I have to go to Sundance [Film Festival]. I’ve got a movie premiering at Sundance. So I have to go to the whitest place in America — Utah.

CNN: What’s it going to be like for you on Inauguration Day?
It’ll be a cool day. It’s weird. I’ve never watched an inauguration. I’ve never watched anyone get sworn in. You know, it’s like Election Day and then you look up and somebody else is the president two months later. It was never like, “I can’t wait till tomorrow. Oh my god! They’re going to swear in Jimmy Carter!”

CNN: Are you going to watch this one, though?
Rock: I’ll put it this way — like any business is going to be getting done while this guy is getting sworn in. Like I’m going to be in a meeting. Everything is going to stop for however long it takes. Hope they get to it — hope it’s not like I gotta listen to three different versions of “The Star-Spangled Banner” or something. I hope it’s not like Rosa Parks’ funeral, where everybody f***ing speaks.

CNN: What are you hoping Barack Obama does for this country? What do you think is his most important task?
Rock: You know, if you’re the president you only have two jobs: peace and money. That’s it. I mean, it’s like, what did Clinton do? We were at peace and we had a budget surplus. That’s it. That’s the gig. The closer you get us to those two goals, you know, that’s pretty much the gig. Is that too much to ask for?

CNN: At one point in your act, you said, “Racism will never die. It will only multiply.” Why do you believe that?
Rock: Well, it’s never going to die. Maybe it won’t multiply. Is racism going to end? No.
It’s not even race. People are always going to, you know, find something wrong with people who are not the exact same as them. That’s just what it is. Black, white, short, tall, religions, whatever. People are bad, man.

CNN: How was it different playing for an audience in Africa?
Rock: You know it’s weird — it really wasn’t that different. I mean, that’s why I love this special. People are the same wherever you go. And if they weren’t, they wouldn’t laugh at the same s**t. If they were so different they wouldn’t know what I was talking about.

From CNN

I liked the bit about Brad Pitt, but apparently Chris Rock has never gone online to see what jokes people actually joke make about Brad Pitt. Something about ZOMG homewrecking, I can’t remember. And I laughed out loud at Rock’s statement that he hopes the inauguration isn’t like Rosa Parks’ funeral. That funeral was a total disaster – it got way too political, and it seemed like every politician who had ever met an African-American person wanted to get up and pontificate for an hour. I really think that comedians are going to have an easier time than they realize with the incoming Obama administration. They’ll have all of the people who either obsessively love or hate Obama to make fun of. Plus, there’s Vice President Joe Biden.

Here’s Chris Rock walking in Beverly Hills rehearsing with an iPod on 01/13/2009. Images thanks to Splash.