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It is to laugh
Feb. 7th, 2007 12:23 pmWelp, the wingnuts are at it again, convinced that this time, surely this time they'll be able to make the conservative version of The Daily Show. It's called "Red Eye" and you can watch a clip (if you're feeling particularly masochistic) here:
Oh the pain...the pain
In the comments, Mr. Wonderful summarizes why this doesn't and can't work:
Compare and contrast how many times the repellent Gutfield and that crew, and the Gorin woman and her crew, say “liberals” as part of their humor, with how often Stewart, Colbert, Maher, etc. say “conservatives.” Which is, like, a jillion to zero!
Even Gutfield, who in the Biden line had a legitimate topic for a joke, couldn’t wait to leap to “liberals.”
Ditto Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity: with all of them, humor is always in the service of propaganda (whether they know it or not). Which is not only why it isn’t funny, but why it’s never even interestingly not-funny. It’s stale before they ever say it.
It never provides a takeoff point for sharp observation about an individual’s speech or behavior. Or (as Stewart and his writers often do), to explore the logical implications of someone’s statement or policy. Instead, it’s always an excuse to haul out the stereotype and point to it as the punch line.
Why? Because they love being “conservatives.” It’s all they love. “Conservative” to them is what “patriot” is to their dumber yahoo colleagues.
In both cases, it dresses up power-worship and an eagerness to please the authorities (for strength by proxy, or just out of personal greed) in the costume of “tradition,” “freedom” (for themselves and the boss), and a (bogus, dumbbell) sort of wised-up “pragmatism.” Oh, yeah, and “standards,” as opp. to “liberals,” who “don’t believe in anything.”
These jerks really are the crowd who clustered around the playground bully and laughed when he pounded some little kid. And the more objectively disastrous their rule has been, the more ordinary people who don’t give a fuck about liberal or conservative are horrified, the more desperate they become.
Oh the pain...the pain
In the comments, Mr. Wonderful summarizes why this doesn't and can't work:
Compare and contrast how many times the repellent Gutfield and that crew, and the Gorin woman and her crew, say “liberals” as part of their humor, with how often Stewart, Colbert, Maher, etc. say “conservatives.” Which is, like, a jillion to zero!
Even Gutfield, who in the Biden line had a legitimate topic for a joke, couldn’t wait to leap to “liberals.”
Ditto Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity: with all of them, humor is always in the service of propaganda (whether they know it or not). Which is not only why it isn’t funny, but why it’s never even interestingly not-funny. It’s stale before they ever say it.
It never provides a takeoff point for sharp observation about an individual’s speech or behavior. Or (as Stewart and his writers often do), to explore the logical implications of someone’s statement or policy. Instead, it’s always an excuse to haul out the stereotype and point to it as the punch line.
Why? Because they love being “conservatives.” It’s all they love. “Conservative” to them is what “patriot” is to their dumber yahoo colleagues.
In both cases, it dresses up power-worship and an eagerness to please the authorities (for strength by proxy, or just out of personal greed) in the costume of “tradition,” “freedom” (for themselves and the boss), and a (bogus, dumbbell) sort of wised-up “pragmatism.” Oh, yeah, and “standards,” as opp. to “liberals,” who “don’t believe in anything.”
These jerks really are the crowd who clustered around the playground bully and laughed when he pounded some little kid. And the more objectively disastrous their rule has been, the more ordinary people who don’t give a fuck about liberal or conservative are horrified, the more desperate they become.
