Not Getting It

Conservatives have hated Jon Stewart and the string of successful comedians/actors that have come off his show. They consistently tried to demonize the Daily Show unsuccessfully for years while supporting the propaganda arm of Fox News. What they didn't understand was that The Daily Show was the only outlet for any sort of non-conservative news since for years they were the only ones who reported critical of the Administration and Congress while the debate on other cable and network news shows centered on the degree of awesomeness this President is so awesome at.

It is basic supply and demand. With ABC's clinton-did-it-umentory and CBS's extremely right leaning news show with Couric, everyone is trying to outdo Fox. Fox News debuted successfully but has been slumping recently. Whether that has to do with shows immitating the Fox format or whether it has to do with the direct correlation of Bush's approval ratings to Fox News viewers, is up for debate. The point is that Fox found something conservatives like (angry conservatives being angry at liberals) and ran with it successfully for some years.

The Daily Show and Colbert Report are successful because there was that end of the market untended to (no such thing as liberal media) and because liberals have a sense of humor. Conservative humorists include the bland What About Raymond? and the not even mildly funny, and extremely derivative Mind of Mencia. This would mean that there is an open market for Conservative humor except most conservatives don't have the sense of humor that would draw them to a "conservative Daily Show" show day after day. Dennis Miller tried it briefly and very unsuccessfully. Fox News is going to debut a conservative Daily Show soon, though.

Fox News Channel might air two episodes of a "Daily Show"-like program with a decidedly nonliberal bent on Saturday nights in late January, with the possibility that it could become a weekly show.

The half-hour show would take aim at what executive producer Joel Surnow, the co-creator of "24," calls "the sacred cows of the left" that don't get made as much fun of by other comedy shows.

"It's a satirical news format that would play more to the Fox News audience than the Michael Moore channel," Surnow said. "It would tip more right as 'The Daily Show' tips left."...

Surnow said it's not going to be strictly conservative but more in the spirit of the old and rebellious "Saturday Night Live."

"It's not going to hit you over the head with partisan politics," Surnow said. "It'll hit anything that deserves to be hit."

So much to digest there. It is being promoted with much anger at the left but it isn't going to be strictly conservative or partisan.

This aside, Surnow doesn't understand that humor doesn't come from partisan politics but from...people having a talent at making people laugh. Stewart, Colbert, and the group of comedians that move through the show are very talented at mocking the right leaning news broadcasts that attempt to portray themselves as center. I have a feeling this conservative version is just going to immitate Fox News with jokes like "Pelosi is a woman..haha" "Billary....haha" "Defeatocrat surrender monkey....haha".

The Daily Show's success didn't come because they were the laughing show of some left leaning network, it came because there was no way to get news without an ultra conservative spin...and because everyone on the show was extremely funny and talented.

The right has too much righteous indignation frothing from the mouths and minds of O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, Malkin, etc. to effectively switch gears to some sort of funny take on politics. There are no funny right wing blogs and no funny right wing comedians. The Hillbilly comedy tour was successful but it would be a stretch to label that as funny. What it comes down to is that there is just no market for rightwing humor. What are they going to make of? The fact that they had control of every branch of government for the last six years and screwed everything up really bad? Deficit...hilarious. War...haha. Cronyism...bust your sides humor. Multiple Republicans being indicted and under investigation with an alarming number of White House officials going to jail...haha...those damn liberals.

They have their indignation but that is it. We'll see how the show goes though.