# Conservatives: Where's the funny? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 6, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526 "2011-06-06T18:43:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/201 "2011-06-10T06:33:42Z")
[Fox Anchor Patti Ann Browne on Red Eye](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t8S6TACMtY&feature=related) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/202 "2011-06-10T06:42:20Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Wrong on both counts. > > [Check out this article from Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/02/us-hollywood-idUSTRE7517JQ20110602) outlining Hollywood TV exec’s determined bias and activism against conservatives. Snippet ensues: I know. All of us liberal Jews are to blame. Lots of characters change during the show. No matter what the original intention was, he turned out sympathetic and they wrote him that way. And he was funny. Maybe only liberals can write funny conservative humor. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/203 "2011-06-10T12:30:22Z")
What do you think they should have done - bring in a conservative to write his lines while they wrote for everybody else? I don’t think things in Hollywood work quite like that. I do think it’s funny how the “liberal Hollywood Jew” stereotype came into play in allowing the author to get these guys to be frank about their hatred and bias against conservatives and how they intentionally promote liberal values and scorn conservative ones in their programs. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/204 "2011-06-10T13:04:51Z")
Oh, you poor dear! Do you need a minute? Need a hanky? Well, yeah, its a bit crusty, but that’s nose stuff. Probably. Pretty sure. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/205 "2011-06-10T13:41:49Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > I don’t understand where this ‘debate’ continues to come from. Czarcasm and I agree we won’t probably think conservative humor is funny, in fact, that is exactly what we are asking for; humor that conservatives find funny at the expense of liberals. > > We are both asking conservatives what _they_ find funny. And I’ve been providing snippets of clearly conservative partisan jokes by Conservative comedians in answer to that challenge. The “debate” comes when the response is in the form of a question, to paraphrase: ‘why is that example a joke (rather than a straight statement, attack, etc.)’? In short, I meet the challenge, and some of my examples are questioned. That’s the “debate” and it is comming from your ‘side’. The reason this is a debate is that, for folks on one side of a partisan divide, partisan “jokes” made by folks on the other side often not only are not funny, they evidently don’t read as “jokes” at all - which helps in part to explain why big-L Liberals are saying not only that partisan Liberal comedians far outnumber partisan Conservative comedians (a fact everyone agrees on), but go further and say _partisan Conservative jokes by comedians don’t much exist at all_. Hence, the ‘challenge’ in the first place, to find even a single example of such. My thesis is that such jokes do exist, but are often not recognized as such by folks on the other side of the partisan divide, for the reasons I have described - of which this debate is an illuminating example. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/206 "2011-06-10T14:19:35Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > My thesis is that such jokes do exist, but are often not recognized as such by folks on the other side of the partisan divide, for the reasons I have described - of which this debate is an illuminating example. I think Jon Stewart, Stephan Colbert, Lewis Black, George Carlin et al. are hilarious and would have no reservations citing them as examples of comedy with a liberal bent. You continue to argue conservatives can’t cite examples here because \*I \*won’t think they’re funny. Do you see whats wrong with your position? Thank you, **Sam Stone**. Did those make you laugh? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/207 "2011-06-10T14:21:52Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > I think Jon Stewart, Stephan Colbert, Lewis Black, George Carlin et al. are hilarious and would have no reservations citing them as examples of comedy with a liberal bent. You continue to argue conservatives can’t cite examples here because \*I \*won’t think they’re funny. Do you see whats wrong with your position? Huh? I cited two examples. One of which is what we were arguing about. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/208 "2011-06-10T14:33:41Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Huh? I cited two examples. One of which is what we were arguing about. I can only find: > [@](#): > > “Michael Moore simultaneously represents everything I detest in a human being and everything I feel obligated to defend in an American. Quite simply, it is that stupid moron’s right to be that utterly, completely wrong.” Though you’ve admitted you aren’t conservative. So, Conservatives, is this a good joke? Did it make you laugh? If it did, do you know of any others like it? If it isn’t could you provide an example of something with a conservative bent that did? Why is there so much evasion going on about this? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/209 "2011-06-10T14:41:40Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > I can only find: > Though you’ve admitted you aren’t conservative. So, > > Conservatives, is this a good joke? Did it make you laugh? If it did, do you know of any others like it? If it isn’t could you provide an example of something with a conservative bent that did? > > Why is there so much evasion going on about this? Well, here’s the other. > [@](#): > > These liberals are telling me that I should take it easy on the terrorists. They said that our founding fathers would have gone easier on them. They were, after all, for civil liberties. Let me ask you a question: Do you really think that our founding fathers would have put up with any of this shit? I mean, our founding fathers blew peoples’ heads off because they put a tax on their morning beverage! ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/210 "2011-06-10T14:42:58Z")
…ok, I still pose the same questions. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/211 "2011-06-10T15:22:47Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Why is there so much evasion going on about this? Evasion? Dearth in the marketplace is more like it. ETA: Listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few hours. You’ll get plenty of “conservative” humor. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/212 "2011-06-10T15:32:05Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Evasion? > > Dearth in the marketplace is more like it. > > ETA: Listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few hours. You’ll get plenty of “conservative” humor. A link to a bit or two you found to be humorous?\* \*He requests, but expecting the same non-answer he got the last few times he asked. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/213 "2011-06-10T15:35:27Z")
[QUOTE=Czarcasm] \*He requests, but expecting the same non-answer he got the last few times he asked. [/QUOTE] Sam Stone has posted several examples. I didn’t look through all of them, but the one on Tea Baggers was pretty humorous I thought. I don’t know what you guys are looking for. You’ve been given examples of ‘conservative humor’ (Malthus has also posted several). What more were you looking for? -XT ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/214 "2011-06-10T15:36:27Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Evasion? > > Dearth in the marketplace is more like it. > > ETA: Listen to Rush Limbaugh for a few hours. You’ll get plenty of “conservative” humor. You say that there is a dearth of conservative humor, and in the very next sentence you say that Rush Limbaugh provides plenty of it. Is there a particular reason why conservatives don’t want to link to Rush jokes they find funny? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/215 "2011-06-10T15:46:18Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Sam Stone has posted several examples. I didn’t look through all of them, but the one on Tea Baggers was pretty humorous I thought. I don’t know what you guys are looking for. You’ve been given examples of ‘conservative humor’ (Malthus has also posted several). What more were you looking for? > > -XT I accepted those as jokes, and even found them to be funny. I then asked the conservative posters if those were good examples of conservative humor that they laughed at. _I_ could find good examples of conservative humor, but they would be good by _my_ standards, not theirs. That is why I would like _conservatives_(the more conservative, the better) to provide links to comedians _they_ laugh at and with. Miller has come up, but most of the examples given are from before he jumped to the right on 9/11. Limbaugh keeps coming up, but no recent examples from conservatives have been made. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/216 "2011-06-10T16:28:33Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > You say that there is a dearth of conservative humor, and in the very next sentence you say that Rush Limbaugh provides plenty of it. Is there a particular reason why conservatives don’t want to link to Rush jokes they find funny? Good fucking grief! In the first place, Limbaugh is one guy, so to say imply that he disproves a dearth of conservative humor is just silly. In the second place, as I said upthread, Limbaugh’s humor is largely topical and conversational and doesn’t lend itself to “jokes”. And in the third place, I haven’t listened to Limbaugh myself since the early nineties and have said so on this board probably at least a dozen times. Put all this together and it’s easy to see why I haven’t been linking to Rush jokes. You have consistently ignored most of the examples you’ve been given and seem to have some sort of agenda in mind. Why don’t you just come clean and be frank as to your motive, and then maybe we can get somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/217 "2011-06-10T16:31:16Z")
Conservative joke: Q: How many feminists does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: THAT’S NOT FUNNY!! I actually provided many examples of conservative humor. I listed a number of conservative comedians, and linked to several comedy routines. At this point, I’m not sure what you’re looking for. Tell you what: Why don’t you post an example of a liberal joke that you find funny, and we can try to find a conservative equivalent? And why do I get the feeling that you’re trying to bait us here? Are you expecting to find that conservative jokes are racist or intolerant or something? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/218 "2011-06-10T16:33:50Z")
Wait, so when Evelyn Beatrice Hall (not Voltaire, BTW) wrote “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”, was she joking, too? Because that’s pretty much the exact same sentiment as in the bit about Moore having the right to be an idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/219 "2011-06-10T16:43:04Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Tell you what: Why don’t you post an example of a liberal joke that you find funny, and we can try to find a conservative equivalent? For the sake of continuity lets [use the one I referenced in post #5](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvF1Q3UidWM) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/220 "2011-06-10T16:44:42Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > What do you think they should have done - bring in a conservative to write his lines while they wrote for everybody else? I don’t think things in Hollywood work quite like that. > > I do think it’s funny how the “liberal Hollywood Jew” stereotype came into play in allowing the author to get these guys to be frank about their hatred and bias against conservatives and how they intentionally promote liberal values and scorn conservative ones in their programs. A good writer should be able to write jokes from either perspective, and skewer the left and the right equally, when there is humor to be found. i doubt very much there is a political test for a writing team. I’ve been in the offices of plenty of agents and casting directors, in New York, not Hollywood, and politics has never come up. The show that I could imagine an argument supporting it having a goal of pushing liberal arguments was “All in the Family,” where the conservative protagonist was not given positive lines. Yet that was adapted from an English show, and Archie was a reasonably good American version. Oddly, there were plenty of right wingers who thought Archie told it like it was and was a great role model. I do suppose having gay characters not be hellspawn might be considered as pushing liberal values, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526.md?page=12)