Fox has apparently decided to try to mimick the success of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and the Colbert Report by creating its own comedy news show -- The 1/2 Hour News Hour. Of course, this being Fox News, its not funny. And by that I mean that its painfully unfunny.
Where the Daily Show and especially the Colbert Report pepper their shows with some of the best satire in a generation, this show appears to be the political-comedy equivalent of a pie in the face or a slip on a banana peel. There's nothing subtle to it at all and that means there's nothing under the surface - no metaphor, no commentary on the times we live in, nothing.
Of course, the first target of their biting* wit is rising star Barack Obama. I can't believe we live in an age where political talking points meant to enact a national political strategy have been digested and processed into comedy by party shills. God help us all.
Here's a link to a clip. Watch it with low expectations. They'll be met.
* By that I mean that their wit actually bites, i.e., blows. hard.
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That was like watching a television show produced by an alien robot civilization attempting to reproduce the Earthling humor. You can practically hear the lightbulbs in the "LAUGHTER" sign come on in the studio. It gave me at least two distinct levels of emotion, like rounding a corner and coming upon a bum urinating on the sidewalk--you're embarrassed for the bum, as I am embarrassed for the FOX employees dragooned into this travesty who haven't figured out that reading your lines in a wooden tone does not automatically equal humorous irony, and you're offended by the act, as I am offended by the leadoff below the belt joke equating drug use and black politicians.
Yeah, I think they completely missed the irony of the fact that the support a president who has an arrest record for his drug and drinking problems.
I can imagine the audience chained to their chairs with jack-boted Nazi grunts roaming the aisles and each time the "Laugh" light goes on, they quickly raise their rifles and point them at the nearest skull, fully prepared to execute their command to kill the unamused.
Also, how gay is that title? "The 1/2 Hour News Hour" Who would find that the least bit clever or funny. It's like they're parodying parody.
It's produced by the producer of "24" according to a not-surprisingly not-very-flattering article about the guy in this week's New Yorker.
I won't be watching it.
I feel like right leaning humor is much tougher to pull off than left leaning humor.
Can you think of any really good right leaning humor? There seems to be a decent amount of radical, anarchist, libertarian type stuff out there, but it has the same sort of irreverance and lack of respect for tradition that left leaning humor does.
On another note, I had never seen 24 until this season. My feelings are mixed. I like it, but really only as an action show. It doesn't feel like there is much there. Maybe it's only because I've recently discovered The Wire and Deadwood, which are in another league altogether.
I really enjoy 24 as an action show and in the "Oh my god, I can't believe they just did that" kind of way. I don't go to 24 for political discourse. This season, however, has been much more interesting than past seasons in the ideological respect. I think they've found a good tone to the "freedom vs. terrorism" debate, but, of course, they're not going to reach any answers.
For my political views, I watch Battlestar Galactica.
But it's all the same gag, the same ticking time bomb situation where a guy does what it takes, but is torn inside for doing it.
And as far as civil liberties go, there's not much really there; no real discussion. And the President's only reason for not wanting to lock up Muslims is that he wants their help. What? That's their argument for protecting civil liberties? That it strengthens the state? What about an argument about the merits of sacrificing the individual for the common good?
And half the show seems to be about how long you could stand up to torture.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the show, but for the same reason I enjoy Mission Impossible III. It's about blowing stuff up.
Seriously, I've never gotten into a TV drama before, but you absolutely need to watch The Wire and Deadwood.
I've heard The Wire is incredible and I've heard good things about Deadwood. Alas, I don't have HBO. I'll pick up The Wire on DVD soon.
Even without HBO, I've found some pretty great shows on the FX network. The Shield is damn near as gritty and hardcore as anything you could find on the premium channels and Denis Leary's character Tommy Gavin on Rescue Me is one of the richest and most complex characters on television.
You're right about the discussion on 24. It's completely hollow. But it's much more than any of the previous seasons have even attempted to offer.
Also, it is the same "man backed into a corner doing what he has to do" kind of action, but the focus on Jack Bauer, making it personal for him and showing, through the years, all the things he's lost in the name of protecting the country,and the impact its had on him makes for riveting TV.
I hear really good things about the Wire, but I couldn't get into Deadwood over the summer. It was just a little too bleak for me. I agree--BSG is the best TV show I have ever seen.
Compared to Deadwood, The Wire is uplifting and cheery. Of course, so is 1984 and the book of Revelations. It is bleak, and I actually had trouble getting through the first couple of episodes.
But, like you, Gus, I don't have HBO (or any cable, for that matter). My parents, who with my brother, turned me on to those shows, sent me the DVDs. So maybe being able to watch a couple of episodes of Deadwood together kept me from being turned off by the depressing intensity. But wait for the last episodes of the first season. It remains bleak, but glimmers of hope shine through.
My parents are sending out seasons two and three of Deadwood, and I can't wait.
Unfortunately, season 4 of The Wire is on now and won't be out on DVD for a bit.
And when I get the chance, I would be happy to send y'all copies of the first season of each show.
Well, I hate to admit this but I thought parts of that were pretty funny. "BO" magazine does an OK job of making fun of Oprah's 'zine. I mean, it definitely isn't as sharp as the Colbert Report, but it was at least college-student production quality funny.
But that's part of the problem as I see it--they're not college students, and they're (I assume) at least trying to compete with the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Their problem is that they've misunderstood the dynamic of Jon and Steven. Both Jon and Steven are, in their own ways, straight men--the humor flows not so much from the things that they say, but how they relate to the even more ridiculous real-life events they discuss. In that context, the more ridiculous the event, the higher the stakes are, and the bigger the payoff.
By contrast, the FOX show isn't content to let the events speak for themselves--they try to create their own humor. Which is fine, provided that you have something to say. 90% of that humor (unless I fell asleep and missed something) was:
1) Barack Obama is black! or
2) Barack Obama is inexperienced!
That is frackin' low-hanging fruit that every two-bit dorm room comedian will trot out like a show pony between now and 2008. Those stakes are ridiculously easy and low, and if you can't take more risks and do better than that you should be replaced by an organ grinder and a monkey. It certainly didn't deserve the manic hilarity of the laugh track.
One of the Pythons (I think John Cleese) said that the group broke up when one day they woke up and weren't angry at British society any more. I believe that almost all really good humor has, at the core, a ball of white-hot rage at something powerful. That's what keeps you taking big risks with your comedy, raising the stakes of your performance--because you are driven by an insane hatred of something that is so large that you have to be willing to do or say anything to attack that leviathan and serve that fury. Anything smaller, and people just don't care as much. That's why there isn't a lot of conservative humor, in my opinion--because they are the establishment, and because jokes about Barack Obama's relative foreigness and inexperience are safe and easy and therefore not worthwhile.
That's an excellent analysis, Josh. I'd like to also point out that comedy from "conservative" comedians never focuses on the political side of conservative American life.
For examples, see Larry the Cable Guy, Jeff Foxworthy, etc. These guys' bread and butter is the typical Republican voter. White, middle-lower class fly-over state voters. Their jokes almost exclusively focus on the crudest kind of humor: farts, beer, getting drunk, my wife is so ugly, etc. There's no substance at all to it. When they do get political, its either something everyone can agree on "Osama bin Laden's gonna git a big 'Merican boot up his A-rab ass!" or something every republican can agree on "Hilary Clinton's a man (and/or lesbian!"
There's no attacking the establishment at all. Nothing to really hang your hat on. Political jokes from conservative comedians tend to be the comedic equivalent of a State of the Union applause line.
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