Eh? They do mock the leadership of different leftist groups (their splintering, the Loretta conversation, the crack suicide squad), but the vast majority of the movie is the lampooning of religion - I mean there was a reason it was banned in quite a few countries. And the establishment is seen as ineffectual and absolutely idiotic twits.
Now the point that they do mock the left is true, but a small portion of it.
Oh, and re: Samantha Bee, do you count her mockery against Bernie supporters as against her own side (granted Bernie supporters were against her side for a lot of 2016, but they occupy the left as well)? Because she did that quite a bit.
I find Ron White to be an extremely interesting example of someone who comes off as a loudmouth lout but has some really nonconformist stuff going on under the hood when you really listen to what he’s saying. He has a bit where he proves to his cousin, I think it is, that even strapping manly men such as themselves are a little bit gay, and that’s ground his target audience is not likely to be really comfortably standing on for very long. Of course, he follows it up with stuff like “Careful, this plate his hot,” so maybe I’m just reading more into it than I should.
EDIT: FWIW, I suspect Ron’s politics lean more to “libertarian” than traditional conservative. That’s just a vibe I get from his act, and I’m fully aware that it is his act and thus should be taken with a grain of salt.
This is all very US-slanted (and why not?) so I’m not sure this UK observation fits in or will add anything. But hey…
There was a sea change 30 plus years ago in UK stand-up comedy. Before this the job of a comedian was basically to stand up on stage and say
My mother in law is so fat (etc)
Did you hear the one about the Pakistani (etc - and they likely would not have said “Pakistani”)
There was an Irishman, a Welshman and (etc)
And that was the act. This was absolutely the norm, and these (older) comedians were almost exclusively of the right. By which I mean, they were vocal in their support of Conservatives, but you could do some inferring from their subject matter also.
Almost in the blinking of an eye (as I recollect it) “alternative comedy” as it was called rendered them obsolete, with a anarchic, self mocking style rapidly morphing into personal storytelling. These (young) comedians were almost uniformly of the left.
There’s a whole lot of generalisation in here to keep it short, but what I see if a generational change and a change in style which ushered in what we think of as “liberal” comedians. No doubt this had something to do with Thatcher, but I had always assumed that there was something similar (if less dramatic) in the history of comedy in the US. Right or wrong?
j
PS: There were good - nay, great - older ones too. Peter Cook, Dave Allen, Spike …
Odd thing is, compared with today’s Republican Party, O’Rourke isn’t that conservative anymore. He has nothing in common with the religious right and conspiracy-monger factions that now dominate the GOP. At best, he’s somewhat right-of-center.
Owen Benjamin. Frequent sidekick to Steven Crowder.
It’s quite simple. People who are defined by their point of view don’t like to see it lampooned.
Since politics have devolved into “I’m right and you’re evil,” there’s nothing that can be joked about that won’t make those holding the opposite view uncomfortable.
If I see all your jokes as personal insults or based on lies, I won’t laugh at them. And vice versa.
You’re just repeating what you said, which is simply wrong. History is replete with monarchs, potentates, and rich people commissioning art, right from antiquity through to the present day. Even the much-maligned Koch brothers sponsor art - one is apparently a significant collector per the BBC. Now, I’ll grant you that Trump likely hasn’t a clue. Here in the UK Sir Michael Hintze is a billionaire Tory donor and a major sponsor of the arts.
It’s stupid, ignorant, and easily disproven statements like yours which make Trump look good.
I don’t know if this would be conservative or liberal, but the traditional answer to this one when presented in a block of other ‘how many X’ questions was:
A: THAT’S NOT FUNNY!
<said in an offended, indignant tone>
I mention this because it illustrates a stereotype of a set of people who were both liberal and thought of as humorless.
I’d argue that modern US conservatism just doesn’t have a lot of depth to be mined for comedy. The only jokes they really have are jokes that they’ve made in the past.
And, yes, it’s also the self-deprecation and punching up issue. Right now conservatism itself is largely defined by punching down.
And, while it’s tangential to my point, I don’t agree in the slightest that comedy is always about “not being PC,” by which I assume adaher means saying the things that people are thinking but would not say out loud. Sometimes it’s more about a funny way to articulate the thing people are thinking. Other times, it’s absurdity. Or satire. Or even puns.
As for Sarah Silverman: she’s doing message comedy now, and I’d say she’s as good at it as the others. She used to just do the crass stuff, back when that was actually somewhat novel, but not anymore.
And sex. He had an article in the *National Lampoon *called something like “How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Diddled”. He may have also described himself as a “pants-down Republican”.
O’Rourke was born into comfortable middle class status. He admits he tried to fit in to the 1960s hippie ethos, and has spent all his life since ruminating on that, sometimes creating some very good comedy and literature.
Undermining the imprecision in this thread is the way the word “conservatism” means whatever the person saying it thinks it means.
I asked for conservative humor on this site years ago and we really didn’t get anywhere, but I’d say Bill Burr, Sebastian Maniscalco, and Christopher Titus´ standup qualifies. King of the Hill has a conservative slant. I’d call Daniel Tosh liberal but there are times his pastor father comes out, specifically abortion
They mock everyone. However, most of the heavy hits are against their own side. On the other hand while yes establishment does come in for ridicule, they also have their good qualities called out, what have the Romans ever done for us, basically takes contemporary leftists and anti-colonial claims and turns them on its head.
She was dead-set against Bernie, so this is hardly a counter.
Just see her bit after the Aziz Ansari allegetions.
I don’t count that at all because at the time Clinton supporters were painting the so-called “BernieBros” as sexist misogynist racists among other things. They claimed that they were only voting for Bernie because he was a dude and that they’d all defect to Trump the moment Clinton got the nomination. Thus to Bee she wasn’t making fun of the left at all, rather this splinter faction that was actually far right.