# Liberal vs Conservative Sense of Humor **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 19, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310 "2004-03-19T23:45:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/1 "2004-03-19T23:45:18Z")
On the average, which party’s supporters have the better sense of humor? Both groups have their extremist that seem to be without any trace of a sense of humor, but what about the mean? Who has the easier time laughing at themselves? Which can only laugh at others? Which can’t laugh at all? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/2 "2004-03-19T23:50:43Z")
Liberal humor, IMO, tends towards sarcasm and dry witticism. Conservative humor seems to be primarily about mocking the target. That said, liberals don’t seem to have any problems making fun of their own – folks like Al Franken and Michael Moore have no problems tossing jabs at Democratic/liberal leaders and stereotypes on a regular basis (though not as frequently as they make fun of conservatives, natch). I can’t recall the last time I heard a conservative humorist make fun of a fellow conservative politician, though I admit I haven’t been actively seeking such a thing. (ObJoke: According to Al Franken, whenever he does a speaking gig before a conservative group, he starts by saying, “I’m Al Franken, author of _Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot,_ so you know I’m a liberal. However, I’m here talking to conservatives like yourselves because – unlike liberal groups – you’ll actually have money to pay me.” 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/3 "2004-03-19T23:59:45Z")
I’m a conservative, and I have a great sense of humor. I have a good appreciation for many forms of humor, including much British “dry” humor, irony, etc. Obviously, I can’t speak for my fellow conservatives as a whole, though. I suspect that, since conservatives are supposedly more likely to be religious, they might have less of a tendency to appreciate dirty jokes. I personally don’t mind a dirty joke, as long as it’s honestly funny, and not simply dirty for dirty’s sake. I don’t like much racial humor, though I have heard some that manages to be funny without being disparaging. My favorite “racial” jokes tend to be those that, upon closer inspection, are actually disparaging racism. For example: Two black men from New York are vacationing in Mississippi. In their hotel room, one suggests to the other, “Why don’t we call the front desk and ask them to send up a couple white girls?” His friend replies, “What? Are you crazy? They’ll kill us!” The first man answers, “Well, hell, I just want to make love to them, not go to school with them!” ---
**Author:** ![annaplurabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@annaplurabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annaplurabelle)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/4 "2004-03-20T01:16:50Z")
I agree with **rjung**. The biggest difference is that conservatives hardly ever laugh at themselves (I’m thinking P.J. O’Rourke _maybe_). When you give one side of the political spectrum a pass, it highlights the idea that the main purpose is mean spirited. That is death for true comedic principles (not to mention cutting down on your possible material). What makes it worse right now is that the conservatives are the sitting power. The “angry rant” routine doesn’t play as well when you’re _not_ the disgruntled opposition. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/5 "2004-03-20T01:35:15Z")
> [@flickster](#): > > On the average, which party’s supporters have the better sense of humor? > > Both groups have their extremist that seem to be without any trace of a sense of humor, but what about the mean? Who has the easier time laughing at themselves? Which can only laugh at others? Which can’t laugh at all? Who do you mean by “liberals” and “converatives”? Do you mean voters, like rjung and me, or do you mean the party’s self-appointed spokespersons like Franken and Rush, or political figures themselves like Bush and Kerry? The first is rather broad to try to charaterize and the latter two are seldom (intentionally) funny. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/6 "2004-03-20T01:43:51Z")
They don’t need humor. They got money. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/7 "2004-03-20T01:47:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > They don’t need humor. They got money. Yes, they pay their servants to laugh for them. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/8 "2004-03-20T01:59:50Z")
I’ve often thought that the rhetoric employed by individuals at opposite ends of the spectrum, say Michael Moore & vs. Ann Coulter, is close to equal in actual content and logic. But Moore is waaaaaay funnier. No contest there. I nearly pissed myself the time he organized a chorus of tracheostomy patients to “sing” Christmas carrols at the headquarters of big tobacco companies. ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/9 "2004-03-20T03:37:55Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Who do you mean by “liberals” and “converatives”? Do you mean voters, like rjung and me, or do you mean the party’s self-appointed spokespersons like Franken and Rush, or political figures themselves like Bush and Kerry? The first is rather broad to try to charaterize and the latter two are seldom (intentionally) funny. I thought I had answered that in the first sentence > [@](#): > > On the average, which party’s **supporters** have the better sense of humor? Both groups have their extremist that seem to be without any trace of a sense of humor, but what about the mean? mean=average I wouldn’t consider Franken or Rush to be an example of the average. If you would rather replace liberals/conservatives with democrats/republicans, feel free. Six of one - half dozen of the other. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2004, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/10 "2004-03-20T04:04:10Z")
Conservative/Libertarian comedians: Drew Carey, Dave Barry, P.J. O’Rourke, Dennis Miller (so far, less funny as a conservative than when he was a liberal), Larry Miller, John Larroquette, Bill Maher(used to be, got less funny as he became liberal), Trey Parker and Matt Stone (Southpark). I’m sure there are others. But the proper answer is probably, “There’s no correlation between one’s political point of view and comedy.” I don’t think Republicans are more or less funny than Democrats. One’s sense of humor is disconnected from one’s political viewpoint. For instance, George Carlin used to be hilarious back when he was a young hyper liberal. Now he’s an old hyper-liberal, and he sucks. But I think what YOU find funny will depend on your political point of view and how it meshes with what the comedian is poking fun at. For instance, I can’t imagine anyone thinking that Michael Moore is funny. I find the guy tedious and annoying. He’s never got so much as a chuckle out of me. On the other hand, I find P.J. O’Rourke hysterical. I imagine people in favor of the policies he skewers don’t find it that amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/11 "2004-03-20T04:12:21Z")
Conservative here. I can’t speak for others, but I like most kind of jokes about most any topic. I think, to a certain extent, we should have a since of humor about ourselves, whether it’s our gender, race, age, etc. Of course, there’s a line between light hearted humor, and just being mean spirited. I am religious, and do enjoy some religious jokes, like Jesus telling Peter “I think I can see my house from here” but I do try to be careful to avoid sacrilegious and mean spirited religious jokes. For example, in Callahan book, I think it was, years ago, there were three pictures. One titled Full Nelson, and shows a wrestler, holding another in a full nelson. Then was Half Nelson, and again, a wrestler with a half nelson hold on another. And finally, Father Nelson, with a picture of a priest sodomizing some guy. As for making fun of fellow republicans, I don’t really listen to political humor, but if I heard a good joke poking fun at a republican, I’d probably laugh at it. Oh, and hey, off topic, but which political leaning is that crapy comedian Mark Russell? Please, oh please don’t say he’s conservative… ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/12 "2004-03-20T04:20:29Z")
> [@](#): > > On the average, which party’s supporters have the better sense of humor? Both groups have their extremist that seem to be without any trace of a sense of humor, but what about the mean? Maybe I can clarify a little more. How do you see your own (and like minded supporters) sense of humor as compared to the opposite hand folks? Just trying to see how we all view ourselves and each other when it comes to enjoying comedy. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/13 "2004-03-20T04:32:35Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > For instance, George Carlin used to be hilarious back when he was a young hyper liberal. Now he’s an old hyper-liberal, and he sucks. Of course, the problem is that George is still telling exactly the same jokes he was telling back when he was a young hyper-liberal. Even good jokes start to get stale after 10,000 tellings. I disagree that a person’s sense of humour is necessarily disconnected from his political viewpoint. I would think that’s true if you’re just talking about mainstream Democrats and Republicans in the United States, because A) those are pretty large and varied groups anyway, and B) the differences are really not that great in the grand scheme of things. You cite P.J. O’Rourke as a “Conservative,” but O’Rourke (who I agree is hysterical) is a libertarian, for the most part, whereas George W. Bush is a genuine conservative. I could find registered Democrats and Republicans who were politically closer to each other than O’Rourke is to Bush. Or Michael Moore is not the same kind of liberal as Bill Maher or even close to it. It’s easy to say there’s no correlation when you’re talking about two groups whose politics often don’t correlate with their own politics. But if you took groups that were more specifically defined you might be able to come up with a correlation - for instance, religious right theocratist types (of any religion) or hard-core watermelon environmentalists might be slightly likelier to be less humorous. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/14 "2004-03-20T04:41:12Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > Conservative/Libertarian Comedians: …Trey Parker and Matt Stone Uh… _what_? > [@rjung](#): > > Conservative humor is an oxymoron. PJ O’Rourke is the only funny conservative in the world, and he’s more libertarian anyway. ---
**Author:** ![HomerIU](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HomerIU](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HomerIU)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/15 "2004-03-20T04:44:49Z")
I think the extremes of both parties have a pretty poor sense of humor in reagrds to both being able to laugh at themselves and being able to shrug off minor comments that insult their party somehow. However, if you’re asking who is funnier and tells better jokes, its probably the liberals. ``` However, truly, the people with the best sense of humor are probably the Independents and third party voters. They tend to be able to look at some of the absurdity that exists in both the traditional parties and can laugh at both sides once in awhile. ``` ---
**Author:** ![flickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@flickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flickster)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/16 "2004-03-20T06:03:30Z")
Here’s an average snapshot view that I have (again - JMHO). Liberals tend to be more Ichabod Crane/Chicken Little ish while Conservatives tend to be more Ma & Pa Kettle ish. Both have their +/- when it comes to humor. Ma & Pa Kettle tend to respond better to gag/target humor (even if the target is themselves). Ichabod Cranes/Chicken Littles tend to take themselves a little more seriously and respond better to satire/wry humor. Note: my characterizations weren’t picked to offend either - as I stated both have their +/- ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/17 "2004-03-20T06:03:42Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > Liberal humor, IMO, tends towards sarcasm and dry witticism. Conservative humor seems to be primarily about mocking the target. They both seem to revolve around demonization and mean-spirited jabs, considering what I’ve seen. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/18 "2004-03-20T07:01:16Z")
> [@Really Not All That Bright](#): > > Uh… _what_? Oh, sure. Parker and Stone are registered Republicans, that’s common knowledge among **South Park** junkies. Calling them “conservative comedians” may be a bit of a stretch, though – their humor tends to be apolitical, dinging folks on all sides with equal aplomb. You can’t tell me that **South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut** is the kind of chuckle-fest that Pat Robertson would go for. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/19 "2004-03-20T07:49:02Z")
Don’t know…who’s funnier? Bill Maher or Dennis Miller? I think on rare occasion, I must agree with rjung. Conservative humor tends more towards mocking of others while liberal humor tends more towards clever, self depreciating witacisms. On the other hand, I think conservatives tend to have less of a sense of humor in regards to outradgeousness while liberals tend to take offense at non-PC humor. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310/20 "2004-03-20T08:02:16Z")
There’s nothing less funny than someone who is all preachy and self-righteous (except when he is being mocked). So that takes the extremes on both sides right out. Just judging from politicians, I think that there is a pretty even divide. Al Gore, Rudy Giuliani, Al Sharpton, and John McCain hosted Saturday Night Live; Bill Clinton produced the single funniest thing I’ve ever seen from a politician ([here](http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/04/30/correspondents.dinner/)). Bush has had no problems mocking himself (his vocabulary, his poetry to Laura, etc.) The top politicians got there with charisma, and I suppose it is hard to be charismatic without being funny. I do think the current crop of Democrats, with their near embrace of their 1960s pot-smoking roots and their more social libertarian attitude, has an easier time mocking itself than the current crop of Republicans, who seem to be dominated by religious forces. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/liberal-vs-conservative-sense-of-humor/235310.md?page=2)