8.29.2008

Conservatively funny?

Can anyone out in Barrelhouseland recommend some Republican-tinted equivalents to The Daily Show, or Wonkette? I ask this out of both general curiosity and a desire for reading/viewing material during next week's Republican National Convention, since during this week's DNC I've very much enjoyed the palate-cleansing effect of both John Stewart and whoever it is that edits Wonkette, because while I'm an unabashed Hope-thusiast for Obama, I'm far less enthusiastic about the wide world of punditry, and even though PBS is more palatable than the networks, they still insist on putting a microphone every so often to the oddly pink-tinted lips of David Brooks, who I dislike not because he's a Republican but because, like so many other pundits, he's an insufferable bore.


I've read a handful of the more popular conservative blogs, but none of them strike me as particularly funny. Instead they seem mostly a) angry, b) taking themselves far too seriously, or c) both. 

Of course most liberal blogs are equally, if differently, insufferable. But then there's Wonkette, and the Daily Show, which isn't a blog, per se, but which seems to in a certain sense invoke a blog-like spirit on television, since, like a blog, its bread-and-butter is airing brief bits of news, via video footage rather than web links, then making fun of said footage. 

Which isn't to say I'm one-hundred percent convinced that Wonkette, or The Daily Show, is "liberal," in any traditional definition of that particular ideology, but everyone's always saying they're liberal, which brings us back to my original question, stemming in part from an inability to imagine what a conservative version of either Wonkette or The Daily Show might look like.

Which I guess raises a further question: are there any funny Republicans left? I mean I know several Republicans who are funny, but they're not professionally funny, and their funniness tends to center around things other than politics.

In terms of actual political funniness, there used to be P.J. O'Rourke, who was quite funny, and quite Republican, but if he made it out of the Clinton years I'm not so sure his career did. The last time I stumbled upon a bit of his writing he seemed less funny than clinically depressed. Dennis Miller used to be funny, but that was before he became a Republican, which maybe you'll say only reflects my own biases, but I really don't think so, I believe he's actually become objectively unfunny. The last time I caught him on TV he seemed to be toeing the line between self-righteousness and pure insanity.

George Bush Jr. is sometimes funny, but rarely intentionally funny, and in the brief moments of intentional comedy he usually just seems like a dick. Ditto Dick Cheney, times a billion.

So what gives? Is it just that good political humor, of the George Carlin/Chris Rock/John Stewart mold, is by its nature subversive, and subversiveness stands in pretty much stark relief to the basic tenets of conservatism, or at least conservatism in its current tradition-upholding, President-knows-best incarnation? 

Is it possible someone out there is telling Obama jokes better than this one?

Inquiring minds, etc.

3 comments:

TMC said...

About 1/3 of the way through your post, I was, you know, planning my awesome comments in advance, and was going to mention that Dennis Miller has (had?) some kind of "comedy" show on Fox that was supposed to be like the conservative daily show.

But he really is completely, totally unfunny.

This isn't helping you at all, but for more of that type of humor, you can see NBC's new three-time special, Weekend Update Thursday, which starts this season. Looks like it's just a half hour edition of SNL's weekend update, for, you know, political humor and stuff. And maybe Colin Quinn dressed as a lion.

Dinosaur Mom said...

South Park? Mind of Mencia?

Mike Ingram said...

I don't know that South Park is particularly conservative? I wouldn't know about the political leanings of Carlos Mencia, because I can't listen to him for more than 30 seconds without wanting to go on a killing spree.