Right wingers cannot do political comedy.

[Drix]

I was listening to Phil Hendrie who can be very funny except when he attempts to do political comedy. He has a nasty right wing streak in him and whenever he tries to mock liberals his comedy just falls flat. The other night he had a character who supposed to be a liberal and he was mocking the hypocrisy of the left by having this character promoting the idea that people should blindly support Obama and his decision for the no fly zone over Libya but also support health care reform and pro-union demonstrators in Wisconsin. Hendrie as the host mocked the character because during the Bush years liberals did not support the Iraq war or Bush's domestic policies across the board.

This was not funny because it didn't make any sense. First of all only right wingers supported the idea that during a time of war that nobody should challenge the President on any and all policies international or domestic. Secondly it was very obvious to many of us here on the left that the reasons to go to war were a sham. No matter where you fall on a Libya no fly zone there is no question the reasons why many want to take military action. In addition this is a position I have not heard one liberal take. The bit might have been funny if liberals actually did take hypocritical positions like that but they don't. It appears to be a combination of projection and phantom false equivalency. This is what I've noticed about Hendrie's supposedly left wing looney characters. They are just mirror images of right wing loonies hawking left wing ideas which isn't very funny because left wingers do not sound like birthers or or grumpy old anti-immigration bigots.

Right wingers for some reason just cannot seem to get it together when it comes to political comedy. Fox News' attempt at a Daily Show was a miserable failure. That anti-Michael Moore movie was a complete embarrassment. I can't think of one right wing, stand up comic who is remotely funny. The only people who actually make funny jokes about liberals are other liberals like Tom Tommorrow or Lalo Alcaraz.

[rucky]

Remember when FOX tried to do their own version of The Daily Show?

neither does anyone else.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. I confess I watched. about 2 minutes.

once upon a time, in Canada, when I was vacationing with my best friend and his family, we decided to quit roughing it and go into town and see a movie.

The movie was called, "Whatever Happened to Jack and Jill?" It was so bad, so badly written, acted, plotted, and performed, that it was actually painful to watch. Yet, in a weird way, it was captivating - I swear the audience stayed to see if it was possible for the movie to get any worse. We did. And it did.

The Fox comedy hour was even worse.

[ZombieHorde]

6. Did they really? What was it called? nt

[calimary]

11. I think it was something really lame like "The Half-Hour News Hour."

And it was flatter than the heads of some teabaggers.

I used to work with Phil Hendrie. He was sort of a mad-dog morning deejay back then, before he evolved his current schtick. I did the morning news for his show. He was a nice guy to work with. I can't say I'm that much of a fan of how he reinvented himself. He's extolled practically everywhere throughout the broadcasting industry as being cutting-edge brilliant with the whole theater-of-the-mind thing, and I'll sort of give him that. But it wears out for me REALLY quickly. I find it tiresome. Listened to it for a little while when he first started and tried hard to give it a chance. Meh. Not a bit stimulating or enjoyable to listen to - at least for my tastes. And I'm just amazed at how people are STILL, to this day, fooled about those "people who call in on his show". I'm amazed they can't put two and two together every time that same slightly-higher-pitched voice comes on that argues with him. He gives it different names and different genders but it's always the same (his) voice. And if you listen even halfway closely, you get it. Or you should, unless you're just thick. And after about five or six minutes of the bit, it's okay FINE, yawn, tired, boring, spent, so-over, Good-GOD-give-it-a-REST. But he'll keep beating it to death for the whole next hour, or even the whole show. His show's a several-hour stretch of "ENOUGH Already!"

:eyes:

[ZombieHorde]

16. I just watched two youtube videos of some clips from the show.

One was completely horrible. The other should have been funny, but was executed really poorly.

[Arugula Latte]

1. The only one I can think of who was remotely funny was PJ O'Roarke in the early 90s

He definitely has a way with words, and that elevated his material into the funny zone sometimes. But that's about it.

[calimary]

12. SOME of his material.

I find him to be a pompous, smug, self-important ass.

[Arugula Latte]

13. Well, yes. Only some. And yes, he was indeed a smug ass and all of that.

But still kinda funny, sometimes.

[tularetom]

33. He can screw up a BIll Maher show singlehandedly

I don't remember him from the 90's, he may have been better, but he has an annoying habit of laughing uproariously at his own attempts at humor.

I think he must have done some weed with maher back in the day and that's why he keeps getting invited back but it sure ain't because he's funny.

[Arugula Latte]

35. Yeah, that's why I specified early 90s.

Today, not so much.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. There is a reason that comedy written from a right wing perspective usually fails

It fails because the right-wing perspective is fundamentally dishonest.

[yellerpup]

3. You cut right to the heart of the RW humor problem.

Honesty is necessary for comedy to exist.

[eppur_se_muova]

40. It's also mean and bullying.

Most right-wing comedy comes down to "let's beat up some people I don't like! Ha ha!"

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[boobooday]

7. I am actually just finishing an academic paper on this topic

The problem is that people who take the side of the powerful and shoot at the less-powerful are always going to come across as bullies.

Only people who hold their very specific and abhorrent opinions will laugh.

[emulatorloo]

9. You've hit the nail on the head.

You should get an A+

[boobooday]

39. Thank you very much. Since I am the professor, I will give myself an A+

Cross your fingers that my peers agree. :-)

[emulatorloo]

41. Excellent. I am sure it will be well received by any journal or conference

you present it too.

[lolly]

18. Humor v. Ridicule

Humor has insight, is often self-deprecatory--a real humorist knows how, when to laugh at himself/herself.

Ridicule is making fun of other people. Sometimes it can be witty and clever, but it is always verbal violence.

[XanaDUer]

8. They really don't do anything well that requires irony, introspection,

sarcasm, the little-guy-against-the-system stuff, b/c they usually are the system.

They're as funny as a heart attack.

But let them keep trying.

[emulatorloo]

10. Lots of good comedy contains empathy, I think. RW can't do empathy either. n/t

[alterfurz]

14. "Republicans don't have a sense of humor, they have a sense of cruelty...

...and think that is the same thing."

[ocd liberal]

24. You nailed it! n/t

[nxylas]

19. But the whole Teabagger schtick relies on painting themselves as the little guy

It should, in theory, be possible to base comedy on their self-perception as decent, hard-working Americans ground down by a smug liberal elite. But I can only think of a few examples of it working in practice. The scene with the EPA bureaucrat in Ghostbusters, pretty much anything by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and that's about it.

[XanaDUer]

26. There's the "ger 'er done" guy who named his kid after Reagan

But "funny" is subjective, of course.

[Shagbark Hickory]

15. Phil used to be so funny. I never relized he was a nut bag but I guess that came later

and I haven't listened to him in a number of years.

[tridim]

17. The irony is that he uses paid/trained callers, which we now know is common in RW hate radio

His gimmick is the new normal.

Now THAT is funny.

[Shagbark Hickory]

21. ?! then things have really changed. He used to call into his own show.

He did an assortment of different voice characters. It was a top notch act and very funny.
He'd pretend to be in the audience and say outrageos things then real audience members would call in outraged. The didn't know he was doing the voices. Hilarious. It never got old.

[jp11]

20. They are great at screwing people over, convincing them that they have

their best interests in mind and winning elections I think that more than makes up for not being good at making fun of dem/liberals.

[Fuzz]

22. Right wing 'humor' reminds me of when Cliff on Cheers tried stand up. "what's up with that?"

And the only person that laughed was Lilith.

[Initech]

23. Conservative humor is an oxymoron.

It generally tends to have racist and/or sexist undertones and then when you find it offensive they respond "oh I was just joking!". :eyes:

[XanaDUer]

27. +1

nt.

[Drix]

25. Liberals can be made fun of.

The was an SNL character who was this clueless, self absorbed, airhead, Lilith Faire poet who was hilarious. I'm also reminded of Dan Ackroyd doing Jimmy Carter or Phil Hartman doing Bill Clinton. There is plenty of material to mock surrounding liberals. Right wingers just don't seem to get it however.

[old mark]

28. Right Wingers are not intentionally funny...nt

[XanaDUer]

29. 1+ also

nt.

[Initech]

36. Seriously, remember Rush Limbaugh openly mocking Parkinson's patients - Michael J. Fox specifically?

[Motown_Johnny]

30. Right Wing Politics IS Comedy

It is just that they don't get the joke and the country as a whole pays for it.

[MisterP]

31. because the left strives to fight assholism:

"ha ha those libs don't want border-crossers to die in the Sonoran Desert, leaving a long littered trail of dead women"
"ha ha those libs think inner city gun deaths are too high"
"ha ha look at those libs crying over what Vick and OJ did"
"ha ha look at the libs sympathizing with the people who did Pearl Harbor"

[The Nexus]

32. The only right wing "comedy" political show on TV now is Red Eye nt

[Kablooie]

34. Liberals views are based on values. Conservative views are based on goals.

This is the essential difference in my opinion.

If your views are based on goals they can flip 180 degrees if an alternative view becomes more supportive of your goal.

Their essential goal is to allow the rich to accumulate as much money as possible.
The freedom to accumulate obscene wealth is the most noble goal that humanity can aspire to, in their view.
In essence, the freedom to be as greedy and selfish as you want.
Everything else they say they believe is in service to this goal and will turn on a dime if necessary to achieve the goal of unrestricted greed.

In essence they are not hypocritical since they are true to their goal.
They appear hypocritical because they present their views as being based on values, but this is a lie.
Lying fits perfectly well with their philosophy because it can further their progress towards the goal.

With liberals, views are based in the true belief in values.
When they say their actions are in service to a value it remains true even in the face of unexpected consequences.

Liberal's goal is, in essence, to find the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
There are many variations and degrees of this belief but this seems to be the foundation.

Holding firm to values is seen as the best way to progress towards this goal so you don't see the same hypocritical ping ponging that you see in conservative camps.

[ErikJ]

37. Dishonest humor is contrived and lame.

I think Real Humor depends on a sense of honesty and truth. Maybe thats why RW humor falls flat.

[11 Bravo]

38. Oh come on, Victoria Jackson is a fucking riot. She doesn't mean to be, but there it is.