Will there be a rush on Chief merchandise? Will there be protests and counter-protests? What will replace the Chief?

If you’ve heard anything about developments regarding the aftermath of this controversey, post your thoughts.

Anonymous posting is allowed…

So it looks like Chief Illiniwek will soon be dancing his last fake Indian dance. I blame Colbert.

Lisa Simpson: Only one person in a million would find that funny!

Professor Frink: Yes, we call that “The Dennis Miller Ratio.”

Since writing my column, two clips of Fox News’s The Half Hour News Hour have surfaced online. I’ve decided to analyze them and see if my “conservatives just aren’t funny” holds up.

Let’s start with this clip in which the show’s hosts discuss Barack Obama.

Wow. That was literally just a checklist of Republican talking points about Obama with a laugh track. His limited experience: check, his middle name: check, his admitted coke use: check, any jokes whatsoever: um, not so much.

One thing I did appreciate was how the show goes out of its way to remind us about Obama’s skin color. Starting with the Marion Barry reference, it’s good to see that Fox isn’t above comparing Obama to a disgraced politician from the 90s who was caught smoking crack in an FBI sting. It’s a shame that they couldn’t think of any other prominent politicians who have used cocaine in the past.

The race baiting highlight though comes at the 1:01 mark when they start the “BO” magazine bit. Of all the footage that exists of people cheering for Barack Obama, I wonder what motivated Fox to pick the “throngs of Africans” one. They might as well have just shown a clip from Hotel Rwanda for the same effect.

And about that laugh track. Are the jokes so tepid that The Half Hour News Hour needs computer generated laughter or are Fox News viewers so stupid that they need to be told when to laugh?

The rest of the clip is filled with jokes that are not jokes at all such as the “Barack Versus Tiger Woods: Who’s More Diverse?” article. Okay, Obama and Woods are biracial, so what’s the punch line exactly? Apparently being mixed race is just inherently funny to conservatives. I knew the show would be bad but is this really the best Fox News can come up with?

The second clip can be seen here. This is the infamous President Limbaugh/Vice president Coulter skit and like the Obama one, it is devoid of any actual jokes. That is, unless you count “man, that Howard Dean/Cindy Sheehan/Nancy Pelosi sure is crazy” jokes as funny. Though I did laugh at the fact that Limbaugh managed to blame America’s sinking standing in the world and the collapsing economy on two years of a “Democrat” Congress with a straight face.

Like I said in my column, the writers of this show base the humor of this skit entirely on the fact that Limbaugh and Coulter piss off liberals. The two just stand there and we are expected to think that their mere presence is funny. I guess to Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, 90% of comedy is just showing up.

I never thought I’d say this but watching these clips makes me miss Dennis Miller. At least he was smart enough to disguise the fact that his jokes aren’t funny by using twelve syllable words and obscure historical references. For this to be even ironically funny I’d have to be heavily medicated. I bet Limbaugh could help me with that though.

It’s happening. Tomorrow. What goes down in the next 24 hours will affect the University forever. Post your thoughts. Do your best to keep it civil.