Conservative attempt at humor watch
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.
February 16th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
I think you’ve had enough medication.
March 12th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
yeah i know what ur saying, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart are hilarious. step 1. Distort facts to make them seem funny. 2. Edit clips to remove any context to what was really said. 3. if any of the previous steps fail, make a Bush is stupid joke. HILARIOUS!!!! I wish i could be a professional comedian, if it only takes making fun of Bush, even my 10 yr. old nephew could make a fortune. OMG LIBS ARE HILARIOUS!!!! HAHAHAHAHA I guess thats what you get from a party that thinks their President sexually assaulting numerous women is laughable.
March 12th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
BTW you totally forgot my favorite Obama funnies. 1. Crapping all over Walmart while his wife happily cashes a paycheck from them, but I’m sure he refuses to watch the plasma TV or sit on the leather furniture they bought with that money. no check 2. Calling our soldiers that died in the war on terrorism a “waste” then recanting with some unintelligible garbage no check 3. Talking like a Harvard grad when talking to white people and talking like a member of the Wu-Tang when talking to black people. God i love that pandering. Can you say “can i get me a hunting license here”? no check. I love how they pointed out Obamas skin color too, i mean i didn’t hear it enough in his speeches about how rough his life was as a “African-American”.