Still. It’s better than the show. I just had to give Liberal a hard time for missing the obvious.
Oh, I don’t know–the laughter seemed reasonably sincere to me. Did anyone else besides me notice the audience in the beginning of the segment?
Democrat here, moderate-to-liberal leaning. That being said, and at the risk of a hail of brickbats from my Democratic brethren, I thought it was funny ! There, I said it!
**dives behind sandbags **
Oh my god, someone made a Barack Obama joke! Sweet Jeebus, what are we gonna do?
How about this: GET OVER IT!
These people are politicians ! That’s spelled S-H-I-T-H-E-A-D-S! They’re all a big joke and they all deserve to be made fun of! The “BO” magazine bit absolutely cracked me up! OK, the Marion Barry joke was kinda lame, but the “99.9%” comment was funny.
My biggest criticism would be regarding the anchors. Rather than hire two wanna-be comics to deadpan it, making the whole thing look like a lame SNL sketch (as if there’s any other kind), how about someone like Dennis Miller? That could at least lend some credibility to the project.
And about the “gay penguins”: My only problem with that was that most of Fox Noise Channel’s audience don’t know about the children’s book in question (discussed in a previous Pit thread), so a case could be made for inflaming anti-gay sentiment among the ignorant. All’s I know is, I got the joke and liked it.
Now, granted, we’ve all only seen 2 minutes of this show. For all I know, it could turn out to be a steaming pile of elephant turds–but I will watch it, give it a fair chance, and then decide.
But I gotta tell ya, I like what I see so far.
Oh, there’s no taint about Liberal. He’s either nuts or a complete asshole.
Bu-dum-bump. Crash.
I got 47 of 'em, folks! Wakka wakka wakka.
Ouch. That wasn’t a right wing Daily Show. That was Weekend Update complete with jokes stretched to the breaking point, terrible pseudobanter, and canned laughter.
I find it very odd, if it was a live audiance, that they held their laughter for the exactly appropriate moments. They didn’t step on any punch lines, and laughed at spots that really weren’t all that funny. I could see that maybe the parts at the newsdesk may have been live, but the humor segmant was canned beyond repair.
That was seriously intentional laughter. Sometimes without even the pause that should accrue while the joke is understood. That one guy in particular is going to get a hernia.
I am not against my ox being gored, I’d just like it done competently, thanks.
“But I gotta tell ya, I like what I see so far.”
Then you’ll be happy to know that Rob Schnider, Pauly Shore, and CarrotTop are teaming up to make like the funniest movie evar!
Well, I’m 28 and I remember. I mean, I think that particular line from the Fox segment sucked, but I would wager that a pretty decent number of people my age recall the huge ruckus at the time. Besides, the jokes about him went on for years.
Chris Rock had a hilarious Marion Barry joke in his 1996 HBO special, Bring the Pain:
"Smoked crack, got his job back. How the hell did that happen?
I mean, if you get caught smoking crack at McDonald’s, you can’t get your job back! They’re not going to trust you around the Happy Meals! They’re gonna send your ass to Hardees!"
You’re missing the point - there are lots of excellent jokes that can be made about Obama. Linking his initials to Body Odor is one aimed at eight year-olds. I don’t get the impression anyone here is offended by the material so much as nonplussed (That’s not funny - it’s just stupid).
Personally, I think Obama is way too ridiculously young and inexperienced to be your President but I can understand him running a means to keep his national profile high. I figure 2008 and 2012 are safe years for him to campaign for President because his Senate seat isn’t at risk. In 2016, he might have to fight for his third Senate term but he’s young and 2020 is not implausible. Assuming, of course, that a career-breaking scandal or offer of the Vice-Presidency doesn’t come along in the meantime.
Anyhoo, another weak aspect of the clip (though not necessarily of the show, pending more sampling) is that the anchors are in seemingly robotic sync. A major strength of Daily Show (and to some degree, SNL’s “Weekend Update”) are bits where Stewart talks to a correspondent who in seemingly perfect sincerity advances a completely insane idea which is the exaggerated form of something a politician (of either party) said earlier that week. Stewart acts confused, asks a question, and gets an even more insane answer. If the HHNH does something similar, are the correspondents going to be exclusively generic left-wing stereotypes? Time will tell.
Stewart’s willingness and ability to play the befuddled straight man is the main reason for the success of the Daily show, in my opinion.
That was an edited-in clip of The Daily Show. Didn’t just look like the same set, it was the same set. Very weird. And yeah, the laughter was canned.
The line about Obama’s popularity plunging to 99 percent was pretty funny. 
Meh. It was 99.9% and I side with stolichnaya that the joke would’ve worked had the number been high, but not pointlessly high. Obama, even pre-confession, wasn’t polling at more than 99.9% (obviously) and saying he was suggests a uniformity among Democrats that has never existed and actually invokes images of monolithic conspiracies. It’s the difference between a joke about a man with three wives and a man with three million wives - the exaggeration goes too far.
On reflection, the BO magazine joke might’ve worked had it been quicker - i.e. show the cover with one or two gag headlines for the quick readers to chuckle over. Don’t read to your audience. It suggests they’re too dumb to get the joke unless it’s spelled out for them. Stewart does stuff like this all the time and typically the mock book or store or product with the goofy title is a two-second quip before moving on. As for there being an live audience - that means nothing. Recall America’s Funniest Home Videos where Bob Saget would make a lame joke and the audience was clearly managing (at best) a minor chuckle with pasted-on grins. The soundtrack, in contrast, echoed with hilarity.
I just watched the clip… It was… okay. Not great. Not as bad as I thought it would be, but not anywhere near the caliber of the Daily Show. But it’s good enough that it at least has the potential to get better. The “BO Magazine” had a couple of funny bits - “My life in politics - an 18 month journey”. “Tiger Woods or Barack Obama - which one is more diverse?”.
And I’m glad to see the tone was more light-hearted and not mean like I thought it might be - I was worried that it would be more like Rush Limbaugh’s old TV show.
I agree with those who say that this show will only succeed if it’s a comedy show first, and a political show second. If the whole focus of the show is attacking the left, it’ll fail miserably. Even hardcore Republicans will find it tedious. It can’t be relentlessly partisan, and they have to be willing to skewer both sides and do non-political material as well if they hope to succeed.
And, they’ll need some good correspondents. I’d like to see Larry Miller, Drew Carey, Dennis Miller, Rob Long, and a few other funny conservatives show up from time to time.
As for the laughter - I think the desk bit was in front of a live audience, but the “BO Magazine” was a taped segment with a laugh track. At least, that’s how it all sounded to me.
To be funny, a joke should have an underlying kernel of truth to it. So unless its true that “liberals=pro-cocaine use”, I really fail to see the humor.
That wasn’t the point. The point was that liberals are astonishingly pro-Obama. So much so that his cocaine use barely put a dent in his popularity. Hence the “all time low” of 99.9%
They should have said 99.99 percent. Then it would have been super-extra funny.
This is like reading a high-school newspaper. The structure is there, the patterns are there, and you can tell the people responsible have seen what they’re imitating. It’s just not fully baked.
I think the optimal number is 97%. 99.9% is really overdoing it, and is a sign of either tone-deafness or lazy writing.
Was anyone else worried (in a really selfish, partisan way) that this show would actually be funny? Anyone else watch that clip and feel nothing so much as relief?
They filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. Just a couple of weeks ago they announced that Stephen Green is buying Air America for $4.25 million. Yes they’re still on the air.