# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/101 "2011-06-07T19:40:39Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > I’ve never listened to his show, but my dad thinks he’s pretty funny. Of course, my dad’s sense of humor is questionable at best, so grain of salt. I’ve heard others say that they think Limbaugh is or was pretty funny, though. > > -XT “My friends, when I’m sitting around the house…and when I sit around the house, I sit _around_ the house! When I’m sitting around, rripped to the tits on Dr. House’s Amazing Elixer, and laughing about all those guys rotting in prison on drug charges because the can’t afford a battallion of lawyers like I can…when I think about them, I laugh, because its so funny…” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/102 "2011-06-07T21:53:28Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > Really? There are millions of people who would disagree with you. You see, because YOU don’t find him funny doesn’t mean that others will be of the same opinion. Air is not edible, water is not predatory, and Dennis Miller is not funny. We’re not even in YMMV territory here. ---
**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 7, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/103 "2011-06-07T23:19:36Z")
Some Dennis Miller lines: > [@](#): > > A new poll shows that Senator Kerry’s support in the South is strongest amongst blacks. Kerry’s appeal to Southern blacks is obvious. He is a white man who lives far, far away. > … > A recent police study found that you’re much more likely to get shot by a fat cop if you run. > … > The average American’s day planner has fewer holes in it than Ray Charles’s dart board. > … > “You know there is a problem with the education system when you realize that out of the 3 R’s only one begins with an R” > … > “Elected office holds more perks than Elvis’ nightstand” > … > “That field goal attempt was so far to the left it nearly decapitated Lyndon LaRouche” > … > “The Soviet Union, which has complained recently about alleged anti-Soviet themes in American advertising, lodged an official protest this week against the Ford Motor Company’s new campaign: ‘Hey you stinking fat Russian, get off my Ford Escort.’” > … > “German reunification: I view this in much the same way I view a possible Dean Martin - Jerry Lewis reconciliation: I never really enjoyed their work, and I’m not sure I need to see any of their new stuff” > … > Two wrongs may not make a right, but a thousand wrongs make a writer. ---
**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 7, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/104 "2011-06-07T23:30:34Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Some Dennis Miller lines: Got anything a little less ancient? ---
**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, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/105 "2011-06-07T23:34:19Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Got anything a little less ancient? …or that pander specifically to conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/106 "2011-06-07T23:43:16Z")
I reserve some sympathy for Dennis Miller, he was, at one time, quite funny. Plus he told the kind of complex jokes that not only made you laugh, but made you feel smart as well. But he’s one of those people that 9/11 drove nuts, it sent him round the bend, caused him to become a lesser man who despised the better man he used to be. More’s the pity, but it happened to a whole bunch of us, and some of us got better. I think he will as well, given time. Got a nickle that says the really funny things on **Sam** ’s list pre-date 9/11. Just guessin’, is all. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/107 "2011-06-07T23:55:10Z")
Pre 9/11 Dennis Miller stand up was comedy gold. Since his conservative epiphany, his comedy is a little less funny, and his political rants seem mean spirited. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/108 "2011-06-08T00:17:23Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > But dry wit is, when a fellow like Wilde or Groucho Marx deadpans a stone cold barb at some poor schmoe who just happened to say the wrong thing at the wrong time in front of the wrong guy. > Wilde and Groucho were fine entertainers, but they were humiliating the guys being barbed all the same. Hmmm … you really think so? I never classified humor with a Straight Man to be cruel. But I may be projecting - in my experience, when someone gets zinged, they appreciate the line as much as anyone else. Just like laughing hardest at the Darwin’s that remind you of yourself. Besides, Wilde gave all his characters some great lines. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/109 "2011-06-08T00:32:06Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Agreed. And I have yet to meet a solid conservative who could poke fun at his or her own ideology. There are plenty of lefties who can’t take a joke either, but on the whole liberals do tend to be more open to examination. And of course moderates/independents/disaffecteds are more than happy to mock any and all sides that deserve it. Where many liberals can’t take a joke is any sort of humor which is “intentionally un-PC” e.g. anything racist, sexist, homophobic etc. Even if the comedian is well established as not being any of those -ists and it is done ironically, a lot of bleeding hearts will just refuse to laugh at anything involving those subjects. Religious conservatives are not going to find mainstream humor funny because mainstream humor (dating back at least to the Ancient Romans) has always been _irreverent_. And in fact is only funny precisely because a certain conservative section of society will be so offended about it. Atheist or just non-fundamentalist Christian conservatives in the U.S. probably find the same comedians funny that liberals do–and they don’t have any remarkably unique cultural characteristics that would make them very susceptible to someone marketing humor directly at their “niche.” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/110 "2011-06-08T02:19:27Z")
> [@LH75](#): > > Pre 9/11 Dennis Miller stand up was comedy gold. Since his conservative epiphany, his comedy is a little less funny, and his political rants seem mean spirited. Of course, it’s also possible Miller would have run out of steam anyway. Even the greats are generally just recycling their old jokes towards the end. Not many comics put out fresh new material for a long period of time, so they either just recycle old stuff or their material gets weaker. George Carlin spent a long time telling the same old jokes over and over. It happens. ---
**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 8, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/111 "2011-06-08T02:24:28Z")
Well? Where is all that good conservative humor? What’s Dennis Miller joked about recently? Where are the current Limbaugh bon mots? Where’s the funny? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/112 "2011-06-08T02:59:36Z")
How about my thread doesn’t become a referendum on whether or not Dennis Miller is funny. **Sam Stone** , I asked you if you could provide a conservative bit that you found hilarious. Was that it? ---
**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 8, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/113 "2011-06-08T03:32:09Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Well? Where is all that good conservative humor? What’s Dennis Miller joked about recently? > Where are the current Limbaugh bon mots? > Where’s the funny? Trying to make you laugh via Limbaugh would be like trying to make me laugh through Jon Stewart. Stewart has never so much as made me crack a smile and I imagine Limbaugh would strike you the same. Besides, Limbaugh’s humor is jocular and conversational, and relies on intonation, sarcasm, irony, bluster, and understated yet obvious ridicule to get the point across. He doesn’t ‘tell jokes’ in the sense that a standup comedian tells jokes. And in contrast to virtually all of Fox’s commentators, he’s really a pretty personable guy (the Chelsea Clinton gag notwithstanding). Elton John, who was invited to sing at his wedding, seems to like him pretty well, and I recall a NYT profile on Limbaugh from a year or two ago in which the writer seemed fairly charmed by Limbaugh himself. The impression one gets of Rush Limbaugh from this board is quite different than the reality. He gets called “racist”, for example, when what he really is is scornful of liberal notions of how to deal with the problems of race. He gets called “sexist” when in reality he is scornful of the extremists within feminism whose ridiculous ideas nevertheless always seem to get play in the media. In other words, it’s almost always the liberal approach to social problems that draws his ire, and therefore it’s the liberal approach to social problems (and the spokespeople or leaders within it) which is most often the target of his humor, and why he gets called racist and sexist and so forth when he really isn’t. ---
**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 8, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/114 "2011-06-08T03:42:20Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Trying to make you laugh via Limbaugh would be like trying to make me laugh through Jon Stewart. Stewart has never so much as made me crack a smile and I imagine Limbaugh would strike you the same. > > Besides, Limbaugh’s humor is jocular and conversational, and relies on intonation, sarcasm, irony, bluster, and understated yet obvious ridicule to get the point across. He doesn’t ‘tell jokes’ in the sense that a standup comedian tells jokes. So provide a link to something he said that you find humorous. Surely there is _something_ on Youtube of his that makes you chuckle? The same goes for Miller-link to something recent of a conservative bent that caused you to laugh. Do _anything_ but give that ghodawfully tired “I would, but you would only..” excuse, because I am so damn sick of it. ---
**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 8, 2011, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/115 "2011-06-08T04:28:42Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Trying to make you laugh via Limbaugh would be like trying to make me laugh through Jon Stewart. Stewart has never so much as made me crack a smile and I imagine Limbaugh would strike you the same. > > Besides, Limbaugh’s humor is jocular and conversational, and relies on intonation, sarcasm, irony, bluster, and understated yet obvious ridicule to get the point across. He doesn’t ‘tell jokes’ in the sense that a standup comedian tells jokes. > > And in contrast to virtually all of Fox’s commentators, he’s really a pretty personable guy (the Chelsea Clinton gag notwithstanding). Elton John, who was invited to sing at his wedding, seems to like him pretty well, and I recall a NYT profile on Limbaugh from a year or two ago in which the writer seemed fairly charmed by Limbaugh himself. The impression one gets of Rush Limbaugh from this board is quite different than the reality. He gets called “racist”, for example, when what he really is is scornful of liberal notions of how to deal with the problems of race. He gets called “sexist” when in reality he is scornful of the extremists within feminism whose ridiculous ideas nevertheless always seem to get play in the media. In other words, it’s almost always the liberal approach to social problems that draws his ire, and therefore it’s the liberal approach to social problems (and the spokespeople or leaders within it) which is most often the target of his humor, and why he gets called racist and sexist and so forth when he really isn’t. Um no…his attempt at humor is simple name-calling. “Femi-nazi”? Phrasing “liberal” as if he’s saying “disgusting”. ---
**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 8, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/116 "2011-06-08T04:32:49Z")
Don’t forget that “Barack the Magic Negro” song, or referring to Obama as a “halfrican American.” A regular Sam Clemens, that guy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/117 "2011-06-08T05:04:39Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > George Carlin spent a long time telling the same old jokes over and over. It happens. Even his last albums were pretty funny, though. OTOH, not even Carlin could always make political humor work. Some of it was out of the park, and some of it was just grousing or ranting. That’s always a danger when an artist of any kind gets too emotionally invested in a message. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/118 "2011-06-08T05:14:32Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Don’t forget that “Barack the Magic Negro” song, or referring to Obama as a “halfrican American.” A regular Sam Clemens, that guy. There was a **lot** of racial-stereotype humor in the old _National Lampoon,_ but it was always funny because it was always clearly a satire on the stereotype – while simultaneously a transgression of emergent cultural norms. Couldn’t have _NatLamp_ without transgressive humor - at the new, the old, the simply decorous, whatever. Limbaugh never gives the slightest impression he intends any of his racial-stereotype humor to work that way, and I’ve never heard of anyone taking it that way or pretending to. Limbaugh intends none of this ironically. He transgresses, but not humorously. He simply takes the cultural norms involved and shits on them, over and over and over. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/119 "2011-06-08T05:38:55Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > There was a **lot** of racial-stereotype humor in the old _National Lampoon,_ but it was always funny because it was always clearly a satire on the stereotype – while simultaneously a transgression of emergent cultural norms. Couldn’t have _NatLamp_ without transgressive humor - at the new, the old, the simply decorous, whatever. > > Limbaugh never gives the slightest impression he intends any of his racial-stereotype humor to work that way, and I’ve never heard of anyone taking it that way or pretending to. Limbaugh intends none of this ironically. He transgresses, but not humorously. He simply takes the cultural norms involved and shits on them, over and over and over. To give Limbaugh and his audience the extreme benefit of the doubt: I wonder if this isn’t a case of wildly different mindsets. Whereas we might understand that Daniel Tosh isn’t really being serious when he throws out racial jokes, maybe the signals for conservative humor pass us by and we just don’t see Limbaugh’s jokes about Obama in the same light, while people who find him funny understand that he’s not being racist in the same way Tosh isn’t being racist and so can appreciate his humor. I’m trying here, I really am. From a structural standpoint, it seems clear to me that Limbaugh’s Obama jokes are using racialism to deliver the humor, not making fun of the racialism itself. I _suppose_ can see how someone might find that funny, but as far as I can tell only racists would find that funny. It’s possible I’m missing something fundamental, to go back to **Martin Hyde** ’s post about lefties who can’t take a joke regarding intentionally un-PC topics, but generally speaking I can get most jokes even if I don’t find them funny, and I don’t get these jokes. Sorry, it’s late and I’m being a little rambly. I really do want to understand why this kind of thing is funny. Random thought: Generally speaking, lefties and independents are cool with racist/sexist humor when the comedian is doing it about themselves, or has otherwise established some commonality or kinship with the group in question. In this specific case, Limbaugh has no perceived connection to black people, and so making jokes about black people isn’t cool. Maybe folks to the right who find it funny just don’t need that link to laugh at it? I don’t know, I’m just throwing out ideas to see what sticks. ---
**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 8, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526/120 "2011-06-08T05:58:22Z")
You’re pretty close to spot on. For example, “Barack the Magic Negro” was neither racist nor “about” Obama; it was a parody skewering liberal hopes, beliefs and attitudes regarding Obama. ETA: “Halfrican American” likewise is a skewering over liberal glee over having a “black” man as presidential candidate who was just as white as he was black. It was also a swipe at those who would vote for Obama simply because he was (is) black. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservatives-wheres-the-funny/584526.md?page=7)