Why conservatives can't do comedy.

[DetlefK]

http://www.salon.com/2015/06/10/greg_gutfelds_new_comedy_show_for_fox_news_shows_once_again_why_there_are_no_great_conservative_comics/

"When Kilmeade points out that in Quinn’s new book, “The Coloring Book: A Comedian Solves Race Relations in America,” the comedian talks “about growing up with Italians, Jews, Koreans, and Chinese,” he’s positively radiating jealousy. Whereas Quinn’s humor originates from an intimate knowledge of the social situations into which he was born and in which he was raised, Kilmeade is enraptured by the very thought of making jokes at the expense of Italians, Jews, Koreans, and Chinese."

...

"..., which points to the problem with Fox News-watching conservatives: the situation they believe themselves to be in is perpetually dire, always on the verge of cultural and moral collapse, so when they observe the world around them, all they see are enemies who need notches whipped into them.

They possess, in short, the mindset of an embattled bully being forced to live in a world in which the meek are rising against him en masse, and so they react as any cornered animal of meager intelligence would — they lash out."




EDIT:
from the article's comment-section:

Here is every conservative joke ever:
Q: How many liberals does it take to change an energy-efficient light bulb?
A: Obama is a Muslim Kenyan Socialist!

[Gothmog]

1. This show looks to be as bad as Fox News last attempt to do comedy

Does anyone remember the Half Hour News Hour? It was horrible

[jberryhill]

3. That show was painfully unfunny

Mean jokes with stilted delivery.

I watched it just for the cringing sensation.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

14. I don't know. These people thought it was hilarious.

Funny thing is, I think this clip is actually more memorable and funny than anything actually on the Half Hour News Hour ever was.

[LakeVermilion]

2. Our conservatives are the kids who were bullies in school.

They are used to being in a position of power. Power tends to see humor in weakness. In my mind, the best use of humor is when it speaks to power.

[griffi94]

5. most of them weren't even the main bully

they were the yappy sidekicks

[ProfessorGAC]

6. What Griff Said?

They were Kearney, not Nelson Muntz..

[griffi94]

4. because hatred anger and victimhood aren't funny

unless it's satire and they're not clever enough for that.
everything is so personal to them

[el_bryanto]

7. It's interesting how bad they are at it

In theory a small "c" conservative mindset can lead to comedy. Conservatives generally prefer to put up with things rather than fix them, on the grounds that fixing them might end up worse than what you already have. That's a pretty good comedic startpoint - looking at the problems of the world in a sort of detached way, and dealing with them with a wry chuckle rather than getting to work on fixing them (not saying it's good, just that it has the potential to be funny). The more dire the problems are, the more necessary change is, the less room there is to laugh about it.

But Today's conservatives are really more radical than conservative. Yes they want to take America back to the past, but it's not a past most of us lived through. The way that modern conservatives want to change society is so extreme that they can't have a sense of humor about it.

Bryant

[Wounded Bear]

9. I think the 'past' they want to take us to...

is an episode of Father Knows Best, or something. Yes, hardly real.

[el_bryanto]

10. Yes that's true-

I was thinking more historical - sort of got bogged down thinking "well probably before FDR" but you are right - the clearest touchstone is Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best. Probably Father Knows Best, like you say.

Bryant

[Wounded Bear]

15. Well, they are religious...

and they wrap their lives around myths. The mythical 50's was when those sit coms were on, and far too many conservatives confuse that myth with the reality of life in the 50's-60's, especially with regard to how minorities were treated.

The corporatists would definitely want to go back to the 20's. They love to fantasize about the boom times, and can't link the boom times to the bust. Anybody using half their brain can spot the causal link from the permissive business climate in the 20's and the crash and burn of the 30's. Conservatives either don't see or don't care. They seem to feel immunity from any repsonsibility for their actions with regard to effects on others.

[FSogol]

18. Good point: "putting up w/ things in lieu of fixing them"

How many times have you heard them utter some variation of: "it's always been like that..."

[Wounded Bear]

8. Simple answer for me...

Conservative "comedy" tends to work downward. They make fun of those they perceive to be less than they are. Authoritarians don't try to laugh at the boss. In the old days, the court jester's job was to make fun of the 'boss' but I suspect there was a lot of 'turnover.'

Real comedy is more diverse, it can lampoon those in power as well as peers, and doesn't really treat anyone as lesser, to a large degree. In short, there is no subtltey to conservative brands of humor, just attacks.

[mac56]

11. ^ THIS ^

[raouldukelives]

17. Yep, laughing at pain is conservative comedy.

Ever tried to watch Monty Python with a con? You can literally see them squirm and twitch, the brain cannot comprehend irreverence, the humor is lost to them, until someone gets stabbed then watch em guffaw!

[Marr]

12. I think it's just because humor is usually about attacking the powerful in some way.

Whether it's people in authority, or tradition, or silly assumptions we make about the world because that's how we've been instructed to see things, humor is about poking at all that stuff.

Conservative humor is no different-- they just have a very, very weird view of who is powerful and who is not. Listen to them talk for five minutes, and you'll hear them describe a world where Jamie Dimon is a persecuted philanthropist and the country is dictatorially run by university professors and Ferguson protestors.

Their comedy only works if you live in that bizarro world.

[longship]

13. They have irony deficiency anemia.

(A nod to the the incredibly awesome Eugenie Scott for that one.)

R&K

[Tommy_Carcetti]

16. Conservative humor's problem: No clear distinction between sarcasm and self-righteous smugness.

I'll give you an example.

On Facebook, I saw that a friend had replied to a post of another person (not a Facebook friend of mine) who clearly identified himself as a staunch Republican and conservative.

And out of morbid curiosity, I decided to check this person's feed out. Lo and behold, he had made all his posts public so anyone could read them.

And in one of his posts, this guy was talking about a conversation he had with another friend about their ideal Republican ticket, regardless of electability. He said his friend said his ideal ticket was Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina. And then he said his own personal ideal ticket was "Cheney-Rumsfeld or Cheney-Bolton. Because it would just infuriate the left and I miss invading countries."

Now....was that

a) intended strictly as sarcasm, as in "All the left thinks us conservative support is invading countries, so I'll be stupid and pick the two biggest neo-cons out there just to feed into their worst perceptions about me"

Or was it

b) simply a "Fuck you liberals, I want to piss you off so much that I'll cavalierly joke about how we invaded and ruined unarmed countries during the Bush administration for a few cheap political points"

And I don't personally know the guy, but everything about him screams that it the latter and not the former.

What you find on places like The Daily Show is wonderfully tuned sarcasm and satire that serves as a commentary on serious matters. Conservatives just don't have that nuance. Too much of their humor can be boiled down to, "I'm a conservative, so fuck you to anyone who isn't!" That's not really all that funny.

[FSogol]

19. Comedy requires seeing things from other's viewpoints.

Conservatives think everyone has the same greedy, scared, unhappy viewpoint they all share.

[Recursion]

20. Aristophanes was conservative in many ways. So was Bocaccio.

But, yeah, it's an unavoidable aspect of modern comedy that modern conservatives just can't do it at all... Drew Carey, maybe? (and he's not terribly conservative). Adam Sandler? (he's not terribly funny)

Dennis Miller (pre-crazy) may have been the closest, though he was mostly channelling Lenny Bruce and George Carlin (who had some conservative aspects to them)