Obama Daughters Find Him 'Just the Right Amount of Embarrassing'

May 15, 2012 — -- President Obama nearly aced a pop-culture quiz on ABC's "The View" this morning and talked about how the first daughters find him "embarrassing, but not too embarrassing."

"Malia and Sasha and a bunch of my friends and Michelle had sort of like a roast, a little private roast, each one of them read something and Malia and Sasha had written out why I am such a wonderful dad," he said, recalling a private roast for his 50th birthday party last year. "And they had this list, it was so sweet, and one of the items on Malia's list was, 'You are just the right amount of embarrassing.'"

Obama also blushed when a now-famous clip of his singing an Al Green song was played but declined when asked to sing a few bars.

"Michelle gets jealous when I sing too much," he said, adding that she thinks it's a "private thing."

The hosts asked Obama what kinds of rules he has for his daughters in terms of technology and "e-tegrity."

He said oldest daughter Malia didn't get a phone until last year. She will turn 14 July 4. Sasha does not have a phone. She'll be 11 next month. The girls don't have Facebook pages and can only use their computers for schoolwork during the week. Cellphones and TV are reserved for the weekend, too.

Obama has a Twitter account, but is usually not the one doing the actual tweeting, he said.

"I'm not much of a tweeter," he said. "I do it once in a while, but, as Michelle said, I'm too long-winded for 140 characters."

The president also talked about how the first lady keeps him grounded by teasing him "mercilessly" on everything from his ears to the way he shakes a handful of peanuts in his hand before popping them into his mouth one at a time.

"She is just relentless, but it is good for you, especially in the White House" he said in the wide-ranging interview that was taped in New York Monday. "You know, you got a bunch of people around who are always laughing at your jokes and thinking you're funny and all that stuff, and Michelle's like, 'Really? This guy?'"

The talk also turned to sports, one of the president's favorite pastimes. He has been volunteering to coach his daughter's basketball team, the Vipers, which he said was the most fun he has had in a long time.

When asked who he predicted would win the NBA finals, the diehard Chicago fan said, "Now that the Bulls are out, I've just been pouting."

The show's hosts put the president's pop-culture knowledge to the test when they asked him a series of entertainment questions.

His first question was about which Kardashian was married for 72 days.

"That would be Kim," he said. "Because it was a ball player. That's how I know, from watching basketball," he said referring to Kardashian's ex-husband, NBA player Kris Humphries.

When asked whether he knew the name of a "controversial sex book" on millions of women's shelves, he said after pausing to think, "I don't know that."

"I'll ask Michelle when I get home," he added to laughter from the audience. The book is "Fifty Shades of Grey."

Obama didn't know that Jessica Simpson had had a baby, but knew that co-host Sherri Shepherd was on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" and could name three characters from "The Avengers" because he had recently watched the movie.

He also knew that "Modern Family" is the sitcom that has a gay couple at the center of the show, saying, "Malia and Sasha love that show."

In terms of his own viewing habits, he said that sports shows are his favorite guilty pleasure.

"Michelle will say that I will watch any sport," he said. "It doesn't matter; curling, pool, the luge."

He said he likes to DVR "Mad Men" and "Homeland" for long flights and that his preferred snacks are guacamole and salsa with chips and French fries.

This marked Obama's fourth appearance on "The View," his second as president. He made history as the first sitting president to make an appearance on daytime television when he visited the women of "The View" July 2010.