Someone "leaked" this excerpt of the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjIfaMwIFxU&eurl=

There's a profile of Surnow and a critique of the show's politics in the current New Yorker. Much as I enjoy 24 I find his McCarthyite politics nauseating, but if I stopped watching TV, films, and plays simply because I disagreed with the author's views I'd probably have to take up badminton to pass the time. :)

The New Yorker on 24 and Joel Surnow

Mmmm-mmm...how I love the soothing strains of canned laughter (esp. beefed up during the "BO" bit).
Apparently the show's so bad that one conservative blogger notes that "one suspects the writers are all liberals deliberately sabotaging the show." But given that Fox News is rarely intentionally funny, and that 24 ain't exactly a giggle factory, I'm surprised that anyone could've expected this to be particularly rib-tickling.
...Plus, they ripped off the title itself from MTV's old "Half Hour Comedy Hour". LOTS of original thought must've gone into this. :rolleyes:

No one at Fox seems to have realized that the concept is inherently flawed. There's no such thing as "conservative comedy," particularly in a political or satirical vein. By its very nature, (successful) comedy has to be subversive, which is the opposite of conservative. How many funny Republicans do you know?

Just Dennis Mill... never mind.

On the other hand, several critics have made an argument that the best satirists have frequently been conservatives: Horace, Juvenal, Swift, Pope, Dryden, Mencken, Waugh, Trey Parker & Matt Stone. This is something of a tricky argument because it involves fitting earlier writers/thinkers into our current political categories but the idea that satire can be lower-case-c conservative has some validity whether that's the main stream or not.

Trey and Matt are conservatives? Since when?

If anything, they seem to make it a point to skewer stupidity on both sides of the aisle equally. I wouldn't call them liberal or conservative, just really damn smart (and funny).

Vincent

I'm surprised anyone thinks they can fit H.L. Mencken into the current political category of "Conservative".

If he were in his prime today you'd still have evangelicals passing resolutions to "pray for his soul".

The stock news footage of Africans when the narrator cites "Americans"
(implying the only type that would vote for Obama) is pure FOX comedy gold.

Part of my point was the difficulty (at times anyway) of assigning people to specific political categories. I remember something about Parker & Stone but don't want to spread more mis-information if I'm wrong. In any case Team America is a pretty right-wing film no matter what their intentions may or may not have been. & yes Mencken certainly wouldn't be a 90s/00s conservative but the general argument (again not my own but one I was just bringing up) is that there is a strong strain in satire that's basically conservative (broad-sense, lower-c) and aimed at preserving current structures against the excesses of modern society. Mencken isn't a perfect fit for the argument--probably no writer/artist would be unless somebody like Ezra Pound counts as a satirist--but he did have a very strong elitist, back-to-the-basics element. Overall, though, he certainly fought the good fight.

Perhaps a more clear example of comedy being used for conservative purposes would be racist humor (or as the Gang of Four line put it "Irish jokes on the BBC").

Yes they are - well they call themselves libertarians - and have expressed their displeasure in various interviews over the years with liberals, esp. the far-left

The big thing conservatives seem to miss (intentionally or not) is that The Daily Show will blast liberals as well. Sure, the last 6 years have been more Republican focused but for a reason - they were the ones in power by controlling Congress and the Presidency. But Hillary and co. have been shown plenty of times making dumb statements.

The thing that disturbs me the most about this Fox show is dipping into racism for a gag. The joke "Barack versus Tiger Woods - Who is more diverse?" is really insulting and I don't think I am being overly PC in saying that. I expect that kind of sly, underhanded racism from the likes of Rush Limbaugh who does it all the time but not something that is alledging to be a true attempt at comedy. I am sure Fuzzy Zoeller would approve.

In addition to blasting both sides of the government THE DAILY SHOW is the best media watchdog that we have. The show has been brilliantly calling other news channels out for their around the clock Anna Nicole Smith obsession.

I did get a chuckle out of the Fox show, but for other reasons. When they flashed another coke snorting politician, of course it had to have been Marion Barry. Where's Bush?



marc

Here's another clip:

http://tinyurl.com/25prol

Well, if Trey and Matt are "conservatives", then they're Guilliani conservatives at best. I doubt we'd be seeing them speaking at any Focus on the Family events any time soon. As for TEAM AMERICA being "right wing", that film was pure satire through and through. I don't think they were "endorsing" what Team America was doing, as evidenced by the massive destruction of world monuments that they frequently leave in their wake.

Vincent

First off, don't be too quick to give MTV credit for originality either -- comedian Kelly Montieth hosted "The 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour" on ABC back in the early '80's. It barely lasted six episodes though, so it's understandable no one would remember it.

My gut reaction as a clotting-heart liberal is just "Eh." It's not offensive, it's just lazy, on a par with EPIC MOVIE or GRANDMA'S BOY. The writers go for the easiest, quickest joke, rather than truly explore and heighten the possibilities of a premise. Name check this famous person, name check that fad, make tired generalization. Even Dennis Miller or Larry Miller at their most polemical still know how to write a well-constructed joke.

There's a whole grabbag full of political beliefs that gets lumped together into "conservatism". One of these is pretty straight ahead libertarianism, and those two are definitely that. True, I wouldn't exactly call it "conservative", and true, they don't have a lot of common cause with Focus on the Family. On the other hand, it's also true that they have a lot of political beliefs that a lot of people who vote Republican have.

TEAM AMERICA makes fun of everybody, yes, but I think there's no denying there's a sneaky admiration for the Team, as dim bulb as they all are. Especially at the end, with the speech, etc. I think that's part of why it's so funny.

I haven't seen the show, as I don't have cable, but there's no reason why a conservative-oriented humor show couldn't work. The idea that "conservatives" (or what we call 'conservatives') can't be funny, or that "liberals" (or what we call 'liberals') are inherently anti-status quo, and therefore inherently funny, both seem to me to be pretty, ah, funny. :P


doug

Many conservatives of the past have been thoughtful and witty...but the people you list bear such little resemblance to the current Republican neo-cons that it's pointless to label them all together as one political group. I can hardly imagine Evelyn Waugh watching TV, much less tuning in for Bill O'Reilly or the Half Hour News Hour.

The most bizarre moment in that Daily Show rip-off clip is the "ironical," fake TV banter between the host and his female colleague. I mean...that's the way news anchors always act on Fox. Doesn't Fox realize it's making fun of its own broadcast style?

Faux News?!