So I was reading this Cracked article and besides the fact that there were a lot of funny word plays, the author mentioned this book - Elect Me If I’m Wrong: A Collection of Conservative Comedy.
The “jokes” in that book were just horrible. Do conservatives, or anybody really, find them funny? Are those the funny things that people (I guess conservatives) laugh at and say “yeah!”?
The only funny conservative I’ve seen is Greg Gutfeld. his show is fairly funny.
Comedy requires a lot of self awareness and willingness to challenge tradition and authority. Things conservatives aren’t known for.
PJ O’Rourke can make me laugh. He’s willing to make himself the butt of jokes, willing to listen to other people, and not particularly interested in going for self-righteous screeds against his political adversaries.
Besides him? I got nuthin.
Agreed, as long as he puts humor ahead of politics.
An example (I can’t recall from where) was his description of how conservatives and liberals differed on the minimum wage. Conservatives opposed it; they believed that people should be grateful to have a job whether they got paid or not. Liberals believed it should be set really high - say a million dollars an hour - because even though there wouldn’t be very many jobs, you wouldn’t have to work at one for very long.
The humor stems from making both sides look absurd. And it’s no surprise that you don’t hear such sentiments from propagandists like Limbaugh and Hannity.
Haven’t seen much of him recently, but I would have said he used to be a hilariously funny right wing annoyance. But then he stopped being funny.
In the UK the current generation (and the one before) of comedians are pretty uniformly of the left (and you frequently hear cited Chris Rock’s point about punching up being funny). But people forget that the generation of comics before that were uniformly and unashamedly of the right, and often nastily so (Bernard Manning - Wikipedia, for example.) This was the generation of comedians that stood beside Margaret Thatcher. Lest we forget.
j
If you don’t think this is funny, you probably won’t think any conservatives are funny. If you do think it’s funny, go on to this.
Regards,
Shodan
Of course Reagan had a sense of humor. He used to be a Democrat.
Mallard Fillmore had two collections of its “humor”. In 1995 and 1996. Quite odd. Maybe having so many in one place was too funny and killed people, like the Python sketch? 
O’Rourke has gone off the deep end and then some. Painful, not funny.
Into every generation a conservative comedian is born: one boy in all the world, a chosen one. He alone will wield the wit and humor to fight the communists, liberals, Democrats, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. He is the Conservative Comedian.
Ah, well then, here you go:
====================================
How To Tell Republicans From Democrats
Democrats buy most of the books that have been banned somewhere.
Republicans form censorship committees and read them as a group.
Democrats give their worn out clothes to those less fortunate.
Republicans wear theirs.
Democrats name their children after currently popular sports figures, politicians, and entertainers.
Republican children are named after their parents or grandparents, according to where the money is.
Republicans tend to keep their shades drawn, although there is seldom any reason why they should.
Democrats ought to, but don’t.
Republican boys date Democratic girls. They plan to marry Republican girls, but feel that they’re entitled to a little fun first.
Democrats make plans and then do something else.
Republicans follow the plans their grandfathers made.
Republicans sleep in twin beds–some even in separate rooms.
That is why there are more Democrats.
==========
Politics: It all really just boils down to this:
Criminals
Democrats: Give them a second chance.
Republicans: Give them the swift sword of death.
The poor
Democrats: Give them some food.
Republicans: Give them the swift sword of death.
Endangered species
Democrats: Give them protection.
Republicans: Give them the swift sword of death.
Dictators
Democrats: Give them a way out.
Republicans: Give them the swift sword of death.
The uninsured
Democrats: Give them health care.
Republicans: Give them the swift sword of death.
The cost
Democrats: $9,000,000,000,000,000,000
Republicans: $29.95 (cost of one sword)
Don’t quit your day job.
Regards,
Shodan
Hahah love it.
I have no doubt that left of center people are, in general, funnier and more creative. There are probably more funny conservatives, who are either hiding that fact, or holding back on pushing the envelope. You cannot fear offending someone and be a good comic.
The only known openly conservative comic I can think of that’s funny is Norm McDonald, but he’s not for everyone. Tim Allen’s okay but he’s kind of one-note. Some middling ones like Dennis Miller, Jeff Foxworthy, and Jeff Dunham, Joe Rogan. Some people love em, ymmv. Barr I don’t consider a true conservative, in spite of liking Trump.
Sadly, Shodan, I’m unconvinced that you’re the one conservative in your generation who’s equipped to give advice on comedy :).
Reagan had a sense of humor and could certainly deliver a good one-liner. He was a conservative but it wasn’t conservative humor–it was humor everybody could laugh at.
Some of the other comedians above mentioned as conservatives do not do political humor (that I have seen).
I think Bill Maher, though mostly liberal, is not afraid to skewer both sides of the aisle. I saw him live a few years back. He said, “The Democrats have shitty ideas, and the Republicans have no ideas.”
Oh, God. See, Bill Maher is an example of a mostly liberal comedian that I can’t fucking stand. His smarminess makes my skin crawl.
I was going to mention Foxworthy, too. One point that’s notable about his humor, which is missing from many conservative attempts, is that he mostly makes fun of himself. Someone making fun of themself is almost always funnier than someone making fun of someone else.
You can also see shades of this in Reagan’s quip about youth and inexperience (which, yes, was funny): Yes, on the surface, it’s a dig against his opponent, but it does so by acknowledging his own age.
Exactly. Several of Reagan’s jokes in that montage Shodan linked to are self-deprecating, mocking his age. Even ones that are primarily making fun other others sometimes let the wind out of his own sails: he talks about freedom of speech by contrasting our country, where an American can go around saying what a lousy job Reagan is doing running America, with the Soviet Union, where a Soviet citizen can similarly go around saying what a lousy job Reagan is doing running America.
A little hard to imagine Trump telling a similarly-framed joke, innit?
That said, I’m being a little unfair. Despite all the criticisms of Trump, he has some decent comedic timing. He just employs it–as do Limbaugh and Coulter and Yiannopolous and all the other current conservative comedians–in the most mean-spirited fashion possible.
Isn’t this backwards???