August 18, 2007 8:21 AM

Proof positive that the Right lacks a functional sense of humor

Fox’s Right-Wing Alternative To Daily Show Fails

In January, Fox announced that it would begin airing the “Half Hour News Hour” on Sunday nights, the so-called “right-wing answer to ‚Äö√Ñ√≤The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.‚Äö√Ñ√≤” “You can turn on any show and see Bush being bashed,” said creator Joel Surnow, producer of Fox’s 24. “There really is nothing out there for those who want satire that tilts right.” As Fox has learned, that’s because no one wants to watch that kind of satire. TVNewser reports today that the HHNH has been canceled. In a memo to senior producers today, Fox News Corp.’s senior vice president Bill Shine…claimed the reason for the shelving of the show was that Fox is “considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs.” He held out the chance that the show would air again: “There is still a chance you will see the program at some point in the future.”

One of the biggest problems with Right-wingers is that, no matter how hard they try, they’re just not funny. Look at Dennis Miller. Time was when he actually WAS funny; now he’s just a sad, tired shell, reduced to making lame, mean-spirited attempts at jokes directed against Democrats. Bottom line…NOT FUNNY. Never has been, never will be. Insults, name-calling, and character assassination (the seeming stock in trade of the Right) are damn poor substitutes for humor, which is a commodity that knows and respects neither Left nor Right. Yes, Dennis Miller used to be funny until he went over to the dark side and became just plain pathetic.

I’m not saying that Liberals and Democrats have a corner on funny. What I am saying is the using the tools of the Right- name-calling and mean-spiritedness- as a means for getting laughs is neither humorous nor effective. The “Half Hour News Hour” apparently is, or was, living proof of that theorem. Of course, I never actually forced myself to sit through an episode of HHNH, because I have better things to do with my time- like getting a lobotomy sansanesthetic. Let’s face it, y’all…Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are about as funny as a mine collapse. Why would any thinking person subject themselves to such a lame attempt at garnering laughs?

The Daily Show succeeds because it skewers politics in general. You’d think the fact that so much lunacy can be found on the Right would set people on that side of the political fence to thinking about what they’re doing and the views they’re espousing. Instead, they continue down the road of self-parody, thus making Jon Stewart’s job that much easier.

Someday, folks on the Right will recognize and admit that they’re just not funny…and they’ll get back to the business of generating fake, ideologically-slanted news. Hey, if you think about it, Fox News Channel couldn’t be any more amusing if they actually TRIED to make it funny. FNC is nothing but a self-parody. Why would they need their own fake news shows when they’re a fake news channel??

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on August 18, 2007 8:21 AM.

Hypocrisy, thy name is...uh, Vlad the Impaler?? was the previous entry in this blog.

A Molly Ivins moment is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12