# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/41 "2011-06-06T22:51:03Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > I think Dennis Miller is a great case study on this subject. His time on SNL, “Off-White” Album, even his rants stuff were hilarious. I remember my jaw hurting from laughing so hard during his shows. > > The content was not at all political. His stuff on airlines, with the subreferences to James Bond and stockbrokers on thorazine, was beautiful, for example. > > Whether it was his own development or whether 9/11 was the transformative event that he describes it as I can’t say. All I know is that he is just terribly, awfully, painfully not funny anymore. He tries, but his stuff is just shit. He did quite a few funny rants about G. H. W.Bush and Republicans back in the day as well. I bought a couple of his rants books on CD in 2000 for a road trip. I listened to them a few years ago and the political stuff completely caught me off guard. But it’s true, he used to due political jokes with a liberal slant pre-9/11. > [@](#): > > I don’t think it’s the material. I think it’s the mindset and manner of looking at the world. The ability to take other people’s perspectives has to play a part in it all, too. My hypothesis is that it relates to being a good actor as well. Conservatives just don’t make good actors either. I think it has more to do with conservative status of victim. A good comedian needs to be able to laugh at themselves. Most successful liberal comedians make fun of the left a lot. Maybe not half the time, but a lot. If all you do is make fun of others you come of as mean, and not funny. > [@xtisme](#): > > But people who dislike strong language aren’t going to find someone funny who doesn’t use strong language…or vice versa. And people who joke about religious subjects aren’t going to find a strong sympathetic audience among people who don’t think religion is funny…or who think that religion is not a proper subject for humor because they take it too seriously. > > Really, man…you don’t know all this? Who do you think self identified conservatives in the US are?? > > And I wouldn’t find it humorous, since it neither uses the word ‘fuck’, nor do I find that sort of corny pre-school humor very, well, humorous. I don’t believe you’d be knocking them down in the isles doing chicken jokes…which means they wouldn’t make your top 10 list, even if people would get the jokes (I was actually a fan of Steven Wright…one of who’s big selling points were how hard it was to get is jokes by large segments of the population). > > I think DtC said best what I was trying to get at: > > -XT There are many people who like both blue and clean comedy. You are not limited to either swearing up storm for the shock value or telling chicken jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/42 "2011-06-06T23:03:20Z")
> [@Chen019](#): > > Trey Parker & Matt Stone? > > [http://www.emmakennedy.net/blog/index.php?id=1178](http://www.emmakennedy.net/blog/index.php?id=1178) It’s clear that chick is only remembering the episodes she wants to remember. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/43 "2011-06-06T23:04:11Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > Isn’t a sense of humor necessary to appreciate comedy? Why target a group of people who don’t possess a sense of humor? > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Well for one thing, I don’t think that the conservative mentality and most types of humor mix very well. Someone capable of not taking things seriously probably wouldn’t be a conservative in the first place. > > And I expect most of what actually passes for conservative humor is deeply bigoted and generally juvenile, and not the sort of thing they want to expose for public consumption. Remember “Barney Fag” and “Ellen Degenerate”? Bigoted, and something out of grade school. And there’s all the race based “humor” aimed at Obama, like the White House with a field of watermelons, or portraying Michelle Obama as a monkey. Conservative humor is going to be mean and bigoted because they themselves are mean and bigoted. Lots of nasty race and sex jokes. The two quotes above pretty much encompass what I feel on the subject of humor and conservatives. Speaking from an admittedly biased perspective, conservatives seem to be angry about, well, everything, and much of what they do find humorous is either inappropriate or offensive. Then you have guys like Dennis Miller, who used to be funny a long time ago. Once he turned political, he became an angry dick who wouldn’t know humor if it landed on him. But he didn’t stop there. For some reason, he believed that adding a heaping mound of pretentious smarminess into the mix would endear him to his audience. Conservatives have never understood what makes Jon Stewart and the Daily Show funny, which is why The Half Hour Comedy Hour sunk like a lead balloon. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/44 "2011-06-06T23:04:52Z")
There’s just more comedy in making fun of conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/45 "2011-06-06T23:08:34Z")
I get the feeling that Ron White might be conservative. Dennis Miller was already mentioned, and although I think he’s incredibly smart, his humor seems to have dropped off after he didn’t have his last TV show. Norm Macdonald is a very funny guy and he’s pretty conservative. Nick DiPaolo isn’t too bad either, although at the lower end of this spectrum, below Ron White in these examples. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/46 "2011-06-06T23:10:18Z")
Norm’s material isn’t really political, though. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/47 "2011-06-06T23:22:49Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > It’s not easy to find people funny when they are laughing at you. Therefore liberals are not going to find conservative comedians funny, and vice versa. > > And therefore the SDMB, which is skewed pretty heavily left, is going to believe that there are no funny comedians on the right. > > Regards, > Shodan As a liberal, I often laugh at liberal comedians making fun of liberals being liberals. (See Jon Stewart for many great examples). So I bet I’d also laugh at conservative comedians making fun of conservatives being conservatives. Please point them out to me so that I may be entertained. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/48 "2011-06-06T23:25:44Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, I admit I haven’t watched it lately, but I recall a few episodes in which Hank is baffled by some new-agey character or premise… made uncomfortable by a female minister, or something… The show has conservative characters in it. The point of view of the show itself, however, is apolitical with a slight leftward lean. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/49 "2011-06-06T23:32:24Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Yes, that follows so well with the rest of what you were saying there. There is no conservative equivalent to the Daily Show, so you are done with me. Q.E.D. 😛 > > -XT Come now, sir! Fox News frequently achieves High Comedy. They just can’t manage to do it intentionally! ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/50 "2011-06-07T00:01:09Z")
Really? I thought there was a pretty well-known reason why conservatives aren’t generally funny. Nobody’s gonna take that shot huh? Conservatives are like your father and grandfather, stereotyped to be rich old white men who hate change. They’re the upperclass, the CEOs, the bank presidents, and bosses and owners. When those people attempt to create humor, they do so by making fun of, guess what? The weak, the poor, the outcasts, the funny-looking, the everyday Joe’s. Basically, the rest of us Its funny when a comic attacks the upper class. Most of us are mid or low class, and we find fun in making fun of the high class even though many of us aspire to be one. They have strange rituals and weird beliefs. That’s funny. When conservatives make fun, they attack the rest of us. When someone in power attacks someone without power, that’s called tyranny, abuse of power, and oppression. That’s not funny. What are they going to do, make fun of how poor the rest of us are? How many babies we’re having to get our welfare checks? How some of us survive on a couple grains of rice and a cup of water a day? That’s mean spirited and I suspect that the failure of conservative humor secretly proves that even they know there’s something wrong with their humor On the other hand, liberal humor attacks up. When people rebel or protest against those in charge, that’s called rebellion, freedom fighting, courageous. There’s humor in that as opposed to conservative humor because you’re not cringing when you hear a homeless immigrant being the butt of a joke Of course, conservatives will disagree, but they still won’t be funny ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/51 "2011-06-07T00:07:29Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Come now, sir! Fox News frequently achieves High Comedy. They just can’t manage to do it intentionally! They just can’t stop _hurting America_. Ah, I know that was on CNN, but it still cracks me up. I actually had CNN on when that first aired. I think someone needs to create a [Stop Hurting America](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE) media campaign. :o ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/52 "2011-06-07T00:09:32Z")
> [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](#): > > I get the feeling that Ron White might be conservative. I have no doubt he’s conservative, I’m sure a majority of his fans are conservative. Hell, I also think he’s very funny. What’s peculiar to me is he doesn’t use that for his jokes at all. No one really does. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/53 "2011-06-07T00:14:36Z")
Two aspects of the conservative mindset make comedy less likely. For many conservatives Authority figures are to be respected - so that cuts out the anti-authority thread in comedy. For many conservatives one must adhere to/demostrate Purity, which means toeing the line on prescribed doctrine - which precludes any criticism of a fellow conservative who shares the same purity. Since much of comedy is critical of others - that’s out! So, for a certain strain of conservative there is no such thing as political comedy. Non-political comedy? Sure, all the time. ---
**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 7, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/54 "2011-06-07T00:27:49Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Come now, sir! Fox News frequently achieves High Comedy. They just can’t manage to do it intentionally! [/QUOTE] Contrary to popular belief I don’t actually watch Fox News, so I’ll have to take your word for it. 😛 [QUOTE=YogSosoth] Conservatives are like your father and grandfather, stereotyped to be rich old white men who hate change. They’re the upperclass, the CEOs, the bank presidents, and bosses and owners. When those people attempt to create humor, they do so by making fun of, guess what? The weak, the poor, the outcasts, the funny-looking, the everyday Joe’s. Basically, the rest of us [/QUOTE] Again, it would depend on the type of conservative we are talking about. Some conservatives are quite poor, and for them what makes them ‘conservative’ is some quasi-religious theme…anti-abortion, prayer in school, anti-gay, etc. For some conservatives it’s about foreign policy…the neo-cons. For some it’s about pro-American themes. To be sure, for some it’s about business, but not all economic conservatives are rich upper class CEO types. For some it’s about social conservatism…getting us back to the good old days when blacks were second hand citizens or going back to some other earlier ideal. I’ve seen Denis Miller rip on conservative themes in the past and his schtick was quite funny, but overall how many laughs are you going to get with a pro-religious or social conservative schtick? You just aren’t going to draw in a wide audience riffing off of anti-gay or anti-abortion themes, or trying to roll back history to some earlier bygone era…at least not outside of a very vertical audience. Really successful comedians riff on stuff that is broadly popular, and play on common beliefs or cords that resonate with the majority of people. Anti-establishment themes like many in this thread have indicated. THAT’S what’s funny, and basically more liberally oriented comedians are able to tap into that than conservative comedians for a broader audience. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/55 "2011-06-07T00:30:59Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I don’t question that Carlin was liberal but he’d happily attack anyone and anything (and with awesome skill, might I add.) No, you said: "How many comedians are brazenly liberal? Not many of the greats do partisan humor; even many of the greats that did political humor, like George Carlin, were more anti-establishment than card-carrying partisan liberal. " That link clearly indicates your wrongness. If you think I’m cherry picking I can effortlessly inundate you with examples. And yes, there are many targets (including some liberals) for his jokes but there is never a question in any of his routines where the audience is left to wonder about his strong political affiliation and that isn’t a coincidence. > [@RickJay](#): > > Well, I think there’s two parts to the answer. > > Number one is that there are a LOT of comics and very little room for them. So the market should dictate. I think you’ll agree there are roughly equal numbers of liberal audience members to conservative yet one side seems to have the monopoly. > [@RickJay](#): > > Secondly, what’s the payoff? > > You can tell a joke about a completely apolitical topic that makes everyone laugh, or tell a political one that you know will only make some people laugh. If this was true there wouldn’t be clearly liberal comedians. > [@RickJay](#): > > Another thing to bear in mind is that comedy is bred in big cities. True. I have no doubt that the comedy club grind is where comedians develop their chops, and that audience would lean liberal. However, nation syndication, little competition, unique style and material (it would seem) I think would offset this disadvantage in the long term. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/56 "2011-06-07T00:57:01Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I’ve seen comics try to do “conservative” in a micro way, like mocking political correctness (Colin Quinn does a lot of that), environmentalism, vegetarianism and the like. Dane Cook even does a bit about atheists. But ‘liberal’ comedians mock political correctness and vegetarianism much, much better. Comedy works best when people are laughing at some aspect of themselves. Read the Darwin Awards - which do you laugh the hardest at, something you might have done, or something that makes no sense to you? ---
**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 7, 2011, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/57 "2011-06-07T01:00:21Z")
[QUOTE=j66] Read the Darwin Awards - which do you laugh the hardest at, something you might have done, or something that makes no sense to you? [/QUOTE] Definitely something that makes zero sense to me and I can’t believe someone was stupid enough to do. But overall I agree with your point. 😉 -XT ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/58 "2011-06-07T01:21:35Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Do writers count? P.J. O’Rourke is pretty funny (as is Christopher Buckley, although I’m not sure he really identifies as conservative these days). > [@Chen019](#): > > P. J. O’Rourke is a conservative isn’t he? O’Rourke is not as funny today as he used to be, nor is he as firmly on the right. The GOP has also gone much further to the right, and O’Rourke has been passed over. However, his older writing is both funny and insightful; _Parliament of Whores_ is pretty good reading, and though he’s a conservative, he advocates for the abolition of all farm subsidies and cutting the defense budget by 35%. ---
**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 7, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/59 "2011-06-07T02:19:17Z")
Quoth **xtisme** : > [@](#): > > And I wouldn’t find it humorous, since it neither uses the word ‘fuck’, nor do I find that sort of corny pre-school humor very, well, humorous. Wait, you’re serious, here? That’s your criterion for what makes something funny? Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. There, I just rendered this the funniest post on the SDMB. And then, after establishing that that’s what your standard of humor is, you go on to say that you don’t like corny pre-school humor? Just what level of maturity do you think fuck fuckity fuck fuck is? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/60 "2011-06-07T02:35:51Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > So the market should dictate. I think you’ll agree there are roughly equal numbers of liberal audience members to conservative yet one side seems to have the monopoly. And yet in the same post you replied to I quite specifically stated that, in fact, that’s not true. During the critical early early os a comic’s career, the audience is liberal. > [@](#): > > True. I have no doubt that the comedy club grind is where comedians develop their chops, and that audience would lean liberal. However, nation syndication, little competition, unique style and material (it would seem) I think would offset this disadvantage in the long term. There isn’t a “long term” if you don’t make it in the short term. It’s simply not an easy path if you want to take a conservative stance on stage. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that - it’s just the way it is. Conservatives get talk radio, liberals get comedy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526.md?page=4)