Conservatives: Still Not Funny February 15, 2007 Jill Haha? I also love the fact that conservative ire seems to boomerang back and forth between women and people of color. Who do we hate this week? Hillary! Obama! Nancy! Even when they want to go after the white dudes, they do it through their female/non-white staffers — see John Edwards and Marcotte/McEwan. But no racism or sexism here, no sir! Also, note the not-so-subtle homophobia, and the way that they portray Obama as an uppity Negro who had the audacity to go to Harvard (ever heard conservatives whine about Bush’s Andover-to-Yale path of privilege?). So not only do conservatives again reveal themselves as racists, but they aren’t even creative or funny. Am I surprised? No. But did I expect the “conservative Daily Show” to be this thoroughly embarrassing? Not in my wildest dreams. So thank you, Fox News, for making this more painful than I could have predicted. Another incredibly pathetic clip below the fold. Poor little guys.
Yeesh, you can even tell its canned laughter. They couldn’t even find a studio audience of conservatives to laugh at this stuff!
That last clip was supposed to be funny? They were saying all the things they say every day, supposedly seriously. Those people are bizarre.
Hi, Jill – long time no speak. I watched these clips yesterday, and here’s my tirade on the show’s subtle racist overtones. I’m none too politically correct, but study the first clip. It’s got stock footage of throngs of black people (and only black people), which was clearly not taken at an Obama campaign event – it looks more like footage from the riots in Haiti. And then there’s the juxtaposition between Obama and Tiger Woods (’cause Tiger’s half-black too, HAR HAR HAR). And the fact that it’s two very very white people taking potshots at the black guy – at least when Jon Stewart mocks a racial group, he mocks Jews because, well, he is one. They’re about two steps shy of Photoshopping an image of Obama eating fried chicken, cornbread, and collard greens – it makes me wonder if they’re going to do a minstrel show about Hurricane Katrina. Overall, it just makes me feel icky inside. On top of that as you said, the jokes aren’t even the slightest bit funny. The stilted dialogue, the obvious laugh track, and the fact that it goes for the most obvious jokes and targets imaginable. Hmm… conservatives taking a swipe at the ACLU – it must have taken a real brain trust to think of that one. Comedy is the art of taking something that isn’t ordinarily funny and making it so – do they really think that a half-assed crack about the fact that Obama has no experience is somehow high hilarity? The Daily Show is funny because it mocks real events and the real news media – this show is a pale attempt at satiring a satire – a form of humor which just doesn’t work, particularly if your only jokes are tired, lame, sophomoric cliches that show no real attempt at wit. Despite my liberal leanings, I was actually excited when I first heard about this show, because I’m all for mocking the high and mighty of any political stripe, and I wanted to see what humor they could come up with from a conservative point of view. But this is just racist, and to boot, it’s not funny. And the combination of those two things really offends me.
I like the reactions of the pundits in the second clip. Colmes is bemused, Hannity is very clearly embarassed.
I though the Cindy Sheehan shooting spree bit was kind of funny, but other than that, they’ve got nothin’.
Wow. ..if they (in the 2nd clip) ever become president, I’d put myself in self-induced coma. (Confidential to Roger, if you’d want a conservative humor that’s actually decent, try http://www.pricklycity.com)
I gagged at the “BO magazine” title but otherwise I don’t begrudge them their attempts at humor. Obama’s lack of experience is a weak point for him and is a legitimate subject for jokes. The concept of the 2nd clip was funnier than the execution. Of course having Rush as president would be our nightmare and doubly so having Ann as VP. Her last quip was amusing,we should watch their show or “We’ll invade your country,kill your leaders and convert you to Christianity.” Some of us on the left have overstated what their motivations in the Middle East, haven’t we? We ought to be able to take some jokes.
SixtiesLiberal- Ann Coulter was simply quoting herself. She has said that in seriousness before. That’s what I found saddest of all. I can take a joke as good as the next, but there actually has to be a joke.
Her last quip was amusing,we should watch their show or “We’ll invade your country,kill your leaders and convert you to Christianity.” Some of us on the left have overstated what their motivations in the Middle East, haven’t we? Heh. Yeah, “overstating“…
Wow – they totally stole the Colbert set, didn’t they? Canned laugh track was lame, “announcers” reading in a robotic way, completely unfunny stuff – it’s the weenie kid who keeps pathetically trying to be popular but just can’t ever manage, and he tries so hard that people can’t even feel sorry for him any more.
Man, they even stole the precise camera swoops from the Daily Show. They’re parodying parody. I think Nostradamus wrote about this.
Did anyone else notice the gender roles in that show? The female anchor asks questions of the male anchor and provides reactions to him; the male anchor actually says things. Ann Coulter as the VP plays the same role to the prez: he says things, she supports them.
That. Was. Pathetic. I was in my office with the door closed and I was still looking around to make sure no one saw me. I haven’t seen the Daily Show in a while, has Jon Stewart seen this? Better yet, has Jon Stewart ripped them a new one by showing them how it’s done? This is obviously only for conservatives to preach to the choir. I’d take the absolutely worst SNL skit looped over this any day.
The real question for FAUX is just how much they will have to pay for the call center. After all, they’ll have to answer the question as to why they added a canned laugh track to their news coverage. I give this show a month.
Finally got around to watching the clips. That show sucks. The “my 18 month journey” was the only decent joke in either clip. Even the Norm McDonald era Weekend Update was funnier that that.
The first was predictable, the clip of the African masses in the beginning shocked me though. Advertising efforts, “This is what will happen!” The second I saw Rush’s face on the next I gave up. Forgive me, I hate that man and will not suffer his image to offend my eyes.
And then there’s the juxtaposition between Obama and Tiger Woods (’cause Tiger’s half-black too, HAR HAR HAR). Don’t forget the comparison between Obama and Oprah; that was a take-off on her magazine.
Don’t forget the comparison between Obama and Oprah; that was a take-off on her magazine. Yeah, that thought crossed my mind as well, then slipped out. I guess I don’t have that big “NOT WHITE” filter that some folks have in their minds that gets that stuff clogged in it. Or maybe the holes are too big these days.
It’s like weekend update, but even less funny than Jimmy Fallon. which is MIND BOGGLING. and the Rush clip had NO JOKES. none. just a bunch of partisan sniping they always do. Why were Hannity and Colmes laughing at that? Hannity is a dick, but I’m pretty sure he still knows what unfunny is. man, if ever I needed more evidence that humor comes from oppression, it’s that. Women, Jews, Blacks, Gays, Irish, etc. all quite capible of bringing teh funny. Rich WASP stock guys? not funny. never funny.
Not to mention, their name is an unfunny ripoff of the iconic Canadian political satire show This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
I think it would be hysterical in a meta way if Stewart were to critique them and then redo their first skits “properly”. Sadly, someone at the Washington Post gave them a tepidly good review today. However, the article started by praising George Will as a wit, so you can see how far to trust that opinion.
I can’t bear to watch Rush, but that first clip actually had some decent jokes, badly executed. For instance, the jokes about Obama’s popularity could have worked in more skilled hands. But they had to throw in the racist stuff (Marion Berry! Oprah! Tiger Woods! Muffy, do we know any more black people?), which killed it.
The “endorsed by Marion Barry” was the only thing I found funny in the whole thing. Not because of the race of anyone, but because I live near DC and having a former crack-using mayor was the butt of a lot of jokes around here A new one is always welcome.
Here’s a comment from Chuck Jones on humor and how Chaplin did it: “One day Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur decided to corner Chaplin and ask him about comedy. MacArthur said, “How would you make comic business out of a fat lady and a banana peel?” They thought he’d say he wouldn’t bother with anything like that, but he said, “You can make comic business out of anything. Let’s analyze it. First of all, decide about how much time you’re going to spend.. Let’s say half-a-minute on it. Second of all, you have to make everybody dislike her if she’s going to get in trouble. So you pick her up, say, on Fifth Avenue, walking along, and she has an umbrella or a nasty little dog or something that immediately says she’s not socially acceptable. She pokes people with the umbrella or her dog snaps at people. But she has the right of way, by God. You get that feeling from her. Now that can be done very quickly. Once you’ve established that (you’ll get a minor laugh then because the audience wants her to come to some sort of a problem), you zoom your camera ahead and pick up a banana peel lying on the sidewalk. Then you cut to her being mean again, intercutting shots. Get an angle shot from the banana peel down on the pavement, looking across the banana peel, seeing her approach the banana peel (this is a good dramatic shot.) You do a series of fast intercuts, increasing the pace as you go. We’re approaching this peel closer and closer. You cut to the banana peel; she walks in, steps over the banana peel, and falls into a manhole. You expect something and you deliver something else. So you can take any sort of ordinary comic business and by a slight variation, make it work.”
Ironically, the best part was colmes’ quip at the end, pointing out that the secretary’s name is Rosemary. “Could it be Rose Mary Woods?”
I kind of thought the name of the magazine in clip #1 was funny. Aside from the similarities in appearance to the O Magazine, the joke seemed almost Jon Stewart-like. The rest of it was pretty much trash, though. I’ll be glad when this show goes off the air (and even more glad when Fox News goes off the air, if it ever does). *sigh*