Rodeo Announcer Tells Crowd Michelle Obama is 'National Geographic'-Worthy

It borders on inexplicable. How is it that, seemingly from top to bottom, the oft-vaunted "conservative Republican base" speaks collectively with roughly all of the forethought and eloquence of Michael Scott?

In the very same weekend that former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum told the Washington, D.C. Values Voter Summit that "We will never have the elite smart people on our side, because they believe they should have the power to tell you what to do," a California rodeo announcer somehow found a way he could come across so much worse, Jezebel reported Monday.

Comedian Ed Kutz was presiding over a San Louis Obispo rodeo and decided to crack wise that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's wife Ann was offered $250,000 to doff her duds for Playboy. On the other hand, First Lady Michelle Obama was given a paltry $50 offer....

....To appear in National Geographic.

Making a crack that a black woman was offered $50 to appear in a magazine known for its candid, natural depictions of semi-nude tribeswomen? What could possibly go wrong?

Jezebel suggests that the funny was supposed to be found in that it's basically a magazine devoted to hairy animals. See? Context!

There's taking a quote out of context. There's misquoting someone. There's even making sound bites up entirely. Then there's "exceptionally unfunny at best, overtly racist at worst."

KultureKritic.com reports that spectator Mike Barrett told The San Louis Obispo Tribune, "I can't speak for the [rodeo] board, but I myself think that this is unacceptable behavior or conduct by the announcer. I find it offensive, and I think that it's conduct unbecoming the rodeo announcer."

Rodeo organizers have reportedly demanded that Kutz apologize, but that he apparently hasn't yet responded.