# Why are there no topical, humor oriented shows like the "Daily Show" for conservatives? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 28, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247 "2016-11-28T00:14:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/21 "2016-11-28T05:15:59Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Fox News tried a conservative version of The Daily Show, with [The 1/2 Hour News Hour](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1/2_Hour_News_Hour). I never saw it but it was supposedly unfunny. > > Wikipedia also has an article on [The Greg Gutfeld Show](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greg_Gutfeld_Show), which is supposed to be comedic and which still airs (although I have not watched it either). Gutfeld was the first host of Red Eye which is still on with a different host. It’s a panel show not a Daily Show rip off but it goes for jokes and often has comics on as panelists. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/22 "2016-11-28T05:56:58Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Oddly specific question. One might as well ask more generally why there is so little conservative presence in Hollywood media at all. Presumably this has to do with the general absence of much of a conservative presence behind the camera and in the boardroom. People hire what they know, write what they know, and fund what they know. In the entertainment industry that’s almost always going to swing left… . So, can you name any of the Conservative humorists laboring in obscurity who are held down by The Hollywood Media Establishment? (I don’t think camera men & women are all that powerful.) Let us know about these neglected talents, playing little clubs in The Heartland! As a country music fan, I’ve heard some rural humor. None of it had much of a political slant. Austin-born John Henry Faulk even appeared on _Hee Haw_–but his homespun humor wasn’t political. In fact, he was an old-time Texas Liberal & had battled blacklisting. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/23 "2016-11-28T08:15:41Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Good humour (not the ice cream) punches up. Republicans punch down. That never works. Nitpick: Good humour doesn’t punch down. Punching up is neither necessary nor sufficient to make humour good. A slightly more verbose saying is, “The purpose of satire is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.” ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Smythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f04885/32.png) [@Jane\_Smythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Smythe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/24 "2016-11-28T08:18:03Z")
> [@astro](#): > > People willing to vote for Trump are close to 50% of the country so there is a large potential audience of conservatives out there. I know there are country style comedians and some decent non-country clean comedians like Brian Regan that have some conservative followers, but there’s nothing like the “Daily Show” or similar humorous topical commentary shows for conservatives (so far as I am aware). > > Why? The potential audience is certainly there. My experience of conservative is that they don’t have much of a sense of humor and especially don’t get irony and satire. ---
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/25 "2016-11-28T08:43:54Z")
pj o rourke said something like: “hilary is wrong on everything, but shes wrong within the normal parameters” Trump has made right wing satire impossible. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/26 "2016-11-28T13:54:17Z")
When I think of conservative leaning comedians I think of Colin Quinn, Jim Norton, Nick DiPaolo, Adam Carolla, and Joe Rogan. These guys have various radio shows and podcasts, they seem to do well for themselves. But these guys aren’t religious conservatives. They’re too traveled and cosmopolitan for that. They wouldn’t exactly fit in a country club atmosphere, either. They’re more of a blue collar, leave your PC BS at the door, “look at these triggered liberal weenies” sort of group. > [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Good humour (not the ice cream) punches up. Republicans punch down. That never works. This is a common refrain for this topic. It’s not wrong, but it doesn’t capture everything either. A lot of comedy doesn’t involve punching anything. There’s observational humor, word play, or telling stories about sex, drugs, raising families, pop culture, or talking about uncomfortable subjects like religion, war, and death. Gaffigan made a career joking about food. Conservatives could do that. Moreover, there’s plenty of punching down in stand up comedy. They’ll make fun of the old, fat people, foreigners, minorities, women, feminists, rednecks, the ghetto, and so on. [Here’s](https://youtu.be/AYf7k7LiuqI?t=17m13s) Segura making fun of clueless Mexican women, black guys, and Puerto Ricans in under a minute. A lot of this is covered by a sort of ironic detachment. People accept Lampanelli or Silverman repeating racist black stereotypes, as long as they wink at the crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/27 "2016-11-28T14:09:58Z")
Liberals scream bloody murder when you make fun of them. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/28 "2016-11-28T14:36:46Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Liberals scream bloody murder when you make fun of them. But, in conservative humor, that’s a feature not a bug. So it doesn’t explain the dearth of conservative humor shows. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/29 "2016-11-28T14:43:34Z")
I thought PJ O’Rourke and Jay Leno were conservative, but I get your point. Most of the republicans I know are quite serious. American Tea Partiers might appreciate great humour like that of Ann Coulter. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/30 "2016-11-28T14:52:01Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > This is a common refrain for this topic. It’s not wrong, but it doesn’t capture everything either. A lot of comedy doesn’t involve punching anything. There’s observational humor, word play, or telling stories about sex, drugs, raising families, pop culture, or talking about uncomfortable subjects like religion, war, and death. Gaffigan made a career joking about food. Conservatives could do that. Sure they could, but the writers of ‘The Half-hour News Hour’ didn’t. That’s why it cratered, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/31 "2016-11-28T15:08:38Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Sure they could, but the writers of ‘The Half-hour News Hour’ didn’t. That’s why it cratered, I think. Well, in the “Like the Daily Show” front, you’re going to be looking for _political_ humor and not just bits on how swell traditional nuclear families and how participation trophies are terrible. Then you get into the weird thing where conservatives glom onto popular movies and try to find ways where it’s really a conservative message like “The EPA was the bad guys in Ghostbusters!” or saying any college humor has out-of-touch academic elites so - hey! - conservative perspectives! ---
**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:** [November 28, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/32 "2016-11-28T15:41:19Z")
Do the conservatives on this board find the comic strip “Mallard Fillmore” to be funny? ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/33 "2016-11-28T16:06:57Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > …Then you get into the weird thing where conservatives glom onto popular movies and try to find ways where it’s really a conservative message like “The EPA was the bad guys in Ghostbusters!” or saying any college humor has out-of-touch academic elites so - hey! - conservative perspectives! I enjoyed a couple of bits at the beginning of _Men In Black_ (the first movie). [ul] [li]The MIB deal with a truckload of “illegals” just smuggled across the Border. One is a Real Alien–a baddie–in disguise. They deal with the Bad Alien, use the flashie thing on the clueless Border Patrol–and Tommie Lee Jones wishes the Other Aliens “_Bienvenidos_.” [/li] [li]Then we see an oafish, probably abusive creep running with gun in hand to investigate the destruction of his truck from on high. A scary voice from the pit tells him to put the weapon down & he bravely replies “You can have my gun when you take it from my cold, dead fingers.” The answer: “Proposal acceptable.” So the armed farmer meets a grisly fate…[/li][/ul] Otherwise, the movie didn’t seem political to me. I wonder if any viewers were upset by these non-conservative message? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/34 "2016-11-28T16:15:11Z")
Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were actually very funny guys who could deliver a good punch line. Either of them could have been decent stand-up comics. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/QH1RfcuNNoI/hqdefault.jpg "George W Bush Stand Up Comedy (Really Funny!)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH1RfcuNNoI) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/35 "2016-11-28T17:38:57Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Liberals scream bloody murder when you make fun of them. > > Regards, > Shodan Yup. And milo yiannopoulos has made a career out of getting a rise out of left wingers. Especially feminists. How easily they take the bait is directly correlated to how badly they come off. ---
**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:** [November 28, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/36 "2016-11-28T18:28:53Z")
Who? I’m pretty sure he’s never gotten a rise out of me, because I have no idea who he is. And even if I did, I probably wouldn’t much care, since I generally reserve my rise-getting to people who matter, like my own personal relatives, or to elected officials with real power. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/37 "2016-11-28T18:36:30Z")
Isn’t he (Milo Yiannopoulos) just a professional troll? Trolling people, even if it does get a rise out of them, is not comedy. I’ve found that The Daily Show and other such shows are equal opportunity when it comes to humor and have often parodied or made fun when liberals, Democrats and the like do something stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/38 "2016-11-28T18:36:39Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > There’s one guy on Fox News who I see doing “man on the street” bits. Typically making fun of protesters and whatnot. You know what he comes across as? A dumb jock frat guy douche. That’s the fundamental problem. If you represent a relatively well off and homogenous group that embodies the status quo, it’s difficult to poke fun at other groups without looking like a jerk. This exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/39 "2016-11-28T19:23:26Z")
Because > [@](#): > > How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb? > > THAT’S NOT FUNNY! Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247/40 "2016-11-28T21:31:38Z")
“Liberals would get mad” is a really lame excuse. It’s not as though liberals are Fox News’ sought after demographic and they’ve tried several comedy shows. There’s plenty of conservative viewers out there to support a comedy show, even if it was one that made liberals mad (like I said, that’d be a feature to the producers, not a bug). That they’ve failed to produce a successful comedy show, and not from lack of trying, would suggest that either conservatives don’t like comedy news shows or else the Powers That Be are just really bad at making a comedy news show that conservatives find funny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-topical-humor-oriented-shows-like-the-daily-show-for-conservatives/773247.md?page=3)