A couple writers — Paul Farhi at WaPo, and Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Trib — are whining that Saturday Night Live has done something racially insensitive in casting Latino-Asian Fred Armisen as Obama in last week’s cold open, and that it would have been more appropriate to cast a black actor.

Oh, please. Fred Armisen is a profoundly gifted physical mimic (though his verbal skills aren’t a match for castmate Bill Hader), and is the natural choice for a whole host of political and cultural targets. He’s been Prince, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, George Carlin, David Gregory, Vicente Fox, Steve Jobs, and Tony Danza, for crying out loud. The right person to impersonate anyone is the person who can most bring humor to the skit. Darryl Hammond did a wonderful Jesse Jackson, and he’s white as Wonder Bread. Billy Crystal made us all laugh as Sammy Davis, Jr. It’s not about race. It’s about the funny — and on a deadline. Farhi and Ryan are at best missing the point, and at worst grasping at racial straws to create controversy and therefore draw attention to themselves.