Clearly you can be a conservative comedian because they exist and some of them are funny (although I would say many of them would describe themselves as “libertarian”). But what I think “Conservative comedy”, that is comedy about conservative and right ring topics (which the good conservative comedians actually usually do very little of) is almost always not funny because it is almost always either:
Based on faulty premises of whatever Right Wing nonsense has circulated through their media.
Comedy of meanness. Comedy can be mean and being mean can be funny but it is a fine line that Conservative comedy usually misses.
Related to 3 Conservative comedy is almost always punching down with the only exception of comedy about Democrats or famous liberals.
I’ve never heard Norm MacDonald talk politics, but apparently he’s conservative and he’s very funny. Jeff Foxworthy is funny, but the rest of the blue collar gang (Larry the Cable Guy, Ron White, Bill Engvall) are not great, in my opinion. However, my uber-liberal parents’ favorite comedian is…Ron White. Those guys don’t talk a lot of politics from what I’ve heard.
Any comedian whose shtick is primarily tied to politics is unfunny to me. Doesn’t matter which side. Stephen Colbert is about as unfunny as it gets because that’s all he can do. On the other side of the aisle, when Dennis Miller launches into politics he becomes equally unfunny.
There’s a persistent sense of insecurity in what passes for modern American conservatism and it kills the funny utterly. I can picture redneck comedy in the sense of “them libruls think I’m dumb ‘cause o’ the way I talk, but I’m a lot wiser than they think”, as opposed to redneck vindictiveness in the sense of “them libruls think I’m dumb ‘cause o’ the way I talk, so me 'n the boys are gonna get our rifles and Second Amendment us some payback.” Much of what I see in so-called conservative humor these days has that threatening undercurrent.
I don’t think it’s impossible for someone of a conservative bent to be a decent comedian. channel 97 on SiriusXM (Jeff & Larry’s Comedy Roundup) airs plenty.
I think the problem is that- politically speaking- those in power or public roles who call themselves “conservative” are actually “regressives.”
I think both Norm and Bill Burr have conservative tendencies. Burr definitely would be a social liberal but he’s also very un-PC and very old-school in his sensibilities.
Humor requires empathy, even if it is to upend expectations and go against the grain. Conservatism is built upon a lack of empathy, conservatives lack humor and have rage in its place.
Lots of interesting ideas in this thread. Would only add that Much humour is essentially set theory, that is, drawing circles around “us” and “them,” even when “us” is everyone else and “them” is the guy who slips on a banana peel. It helps form solidarity especially and divisions. Sometimes these are smart and progressive, that is, binding disparate people together for causes that improve lives, and sometimes they are stupid and regressive, creating artificial divisions and serving narrow interests that hurt people.
:dubious:
Seriously? Besides the occasional and safe self-deprecating joke, neither of them can make much fun of “their own side”. They either fall flat (Noah) or don’t even bother (Bee).
Compare Jon Stewart or John Oliver. Who do so.
Or Monty Python. Life of Brain is 2 hours of lampooning of leftist politics and is actually pretty easy on “establishment” figures, despite all the Pythons being very left wing at the time.
In regards to Larry the Cable Guy, Ron White, Bill Engvall, and Jeff Foxworthy are they are admitted conservatives/Republicans or is everyone just assuming that based on the fact they are “redneck” comedians? (They all appeared on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour which was marketed to the blue collar “redneck” audience.)