54 Comments
Jan 24, 2022·edited Jan 24, 2022

I, like you, was a near-obsessive watcher of late night TV for many years, but I've almost totally stopped watching. I'd read a piece some months ago about Gutfeld beating even the network late night shows, so I sampled about 30 minutes of it, and didn't find it to be funny or interesting at all. I guess I sort of get why it's so popular, since most network and cable comedy has become so intrinsically, intentionally unfunny.

I think you're right that conservative comedy could never compete with liberal comedy, because the subversive energy was always with the liberal side. That's changed. I think comedy and entertainment, especially in the '80s and '90s when I came of age, was gleefully apolitical and amoral. Most entertainers were obviously culturally liberal, but at the time that meant hewing to absolutely no rules; chaos reigned. Letterman's NBC years is a perfect example of wild, subversive comedy coming from the most mainstream of sources. That's changed radically: Letterman's ultimate successor, Stephen Colbert, is working so closely from Democratic Party talking points, that it could be moved to MSNBC without changing the format one iota.

I'd be willing to bet that Gutfeld's guests decry the "far left," but I'd argue it's the exact opposite: the Democratic Party has become such a morally stringent, or maybe even reactionary and/or conservative, project that many comedians are no longer able to channel the chaotic energy necessary for comedy. The Tipper Gore wing has truly taken control, and it rules with an iron fist. And this doesn't just refer to the "establishment" wing of the party. The upstart young "progressive" wing is as bad, or maybe worse, in their "I call myself a YIMBY, but with such a stringent, impenetrable rule-set, that I'm really a much more annoying, scolding NIMBY." The freedom to make art and comedy unmoored from these dictates within the mass media environment is almost at zero. (This doesn't make politically conservative-aligned comedy any funnier. It's not an either/or, binary situation.)

I remember the moment I stopped watching John Oliver. He showed a clip of Tucker Carlson (who I don't care for at all) saying something fairly reasonable, that shouldn't have even been controversial, but totally at odds with the "new, very angry young NIMBY/YIMBY talking point of the week." Oliver responded to Tucker's smug calm by performatively screaming "fuck you, Tucker Carlson, fuck you!" Jon Stewart's Daily Show used to show Fox News pundits saying some of the craziest imaginable shit; shit that any thinking person could look at and admit that it was a lie, or unhinged. Now — though I think that Oliver has some very funny bits, and some good journalism — his screaming, banging-fists-on-the-table moral certainty, based solely on a simple political disagreement, is more aligned with the clergy than comedy.

Gutfeld doesn't seem especially funny (to me), but when the professional young hall monitoring Tweeters and bloggers of the internet (which is unfortunately a highly paid career choice now) publish approximately 300,000,000 words about what's horribly wrong with Patton Oswalt putting up a picture of himself with his friend Dave Chappelle and saying "hey, here's a picture of me and my friend Dave Chappelle," you have to wonder about who is allowed to look deep into the black soul of humanity and invite others to laugh at it these days.

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There is nothing funny about John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel - any of them. Saturday Night Live is not funny. The reason is that there is nothing funnier, nothing that is pure comedy gold, nothing that would actually help heal this country with laughter more than mocking the sanctimonious, punitive, self-serious, puritanical LEFT. I am of the left and I am horrified by what has happened to almost everything. We used to be the side that stood up for subversive humor - what do we have now? They punch down people they disdain. They see themselves as superior to the Right and that makes their jokes mean and sad. Not funny. This is why conservatives haven't been all that funny - they used to have all of the institutional power. Now? M&Ms is on Team Left. But their humor can't course correct. It is a tragedy. We need more Dave Chappelles and Ricky Gervais' -- anyone who still has some courage to stand up to the people who are begging to have many pies thrown in their faces.

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Jan 24, 2022·edited Jan 24, 2022

You're right on the money with your observation that the time for conservative comedy is now, for the reason you point out: the left is pretty much doing the same "overdog" stuff that the right used to do when it had the cultural conch. I'm always a little shocked when I see Babylon Bee making the same kind of comedic points that The Onion used to make, and I can't pretend they're not funny. (Though I still feel like The Onion, in its heyday, would have been funnier--and likely would have made the same points!)

But Gutfeld, ugh! Why did it have to be Gutfeld?! I have been underwhelmed by him for years: by his comedy AND his politics. I think he's reaping the benefits of being the only show in town, honestly. And you're right about the panel, I can't imagine how insufferable the show would be without the panel. He's published books and let's just say I read enough to say I have no doubt he really wrote them, LOL.

I can only hope that we get MORE conservative comedians on TV, so that natural selection produces a much better one than Gutfeld. I don't even really think he's a libertarian, I think he's a talking head who found the right glory hole.

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Jan 26, 2022Liked by Jeff Maurer

I really think the elephant in the room is that Gufeld really is the only guy on a major network of any kind who isn't an establishment liberal, it's easy to be the big fish when the pond is so small. It seems like such a gaping market hole I'm kinda shocked no one else has tried to capitalize on it, I feel like a guy could own the market with a halfway decent Jay Leno impression and center-right politics.

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Liberals don’t get libertarians b/c A-liberals don’t like getting called out on fiscal realities, B-liberals are scared of guns in anyones hands-not just felons or the mentally ill, and c-libertarians make fun of everything. Libertarians are to politics what Don Rickles was to celebrity roasts. Liberals get “troubled” by people they perceive as lacking empathy. Comedy is ultimately about truth, and liberals, as a tribe, will throw truth under the bus if it comes into conflict with potential hurt feelings.

Gutfeld would have been very average as a comedian 20 years ago, but the profession on TV has been kneecapped, imo, so any attempt will get noticed.

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Jan 29, 2022·edited Jan 29, 2022

I'm with Bill Maher on this - the far left is seriously taking positions that ten years ago would have been an Onion headline - San Francisco decriminalizes crime!, for example. What has changed is that the far right isn't the only game in town doing/claiming stupid, crazy, insane things.

I'd also add that I used to LOVE the Colbert Report. That show was amazing. I cannot watch his current show, mostly because its repetitive, or at least was a year into the Trump administration. I'm not saying I didn't laugh the first 20 times he pointed out that Trump is a narcissistic ass of low intelligence. I did, it was funny. It just got old when that was he, and many other late night hosts, did night after night after night. Eventually it seemed less of a comedy show that put comedy first and more of a late night spiritual for the tribal left, and I've always found spirituals rather boring.

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When I was young, the Republicans were the Omegas and Democrats were the Deltas. Today, the Democrats are Omegas and the Republicans are Deltas.

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Jan 25, 2022·edited Jan 25, 2022

Jeff, it's worth noting that Gutfeld already effectively ran this show for eight years. It was called Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld and was on Fox News at 3AM from 2007-2015 with also shockingly good ratings.

Red Eye was a little edgier especially before Fox cracked down on their sexual innuendos and such, had lots of now more popular comedians who weren't so popular then (Amy Schumer and Sherrod Small comes to mind but also other namebrands like Greg Proops were regular guests), allowed for more Democrat/liberal/libertarian commentary rather than Republican talking points, interviewed musicians like GWAR, delved more often into Greg's music tastes, did jokes like Ab News where it was just attractive women Fox anchors working out while Greg read the news, etc.

There's still some funny clips out there on YouTube. Gutfeld! shares a lot of similarities in format and the times have certainly changed to change the content although Red Eye itself became increasingly political (versus mostly touching on politics only for jokes/culture wars) as Fox imposed guest restrictions and Greg got more politically serious as the Obama years went on.

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You are entirely correct about puns. As you will have also noticed, British comedy is saturated with them. We even have 'Pun Guys', adult men who have devoted their lives to brocading together sets full of hundreds of puns. We even have a 'Pun-Off' were the best 'punner' in the country is selected. All of this is true.

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I'm surprised to see Trevor Noah's Daily Show with lower ratings than some of the others. It's a shame, because I think he's doing something different (and better). Sure, there are woke politics, but it's more chill and lighthearted, which I really appreciate when everyone else is scolding me.

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"when writers act, you get all the incessant, crippling self-awareness and introspection that turned us into writers to begin with seeping through our pores and making the audience uncomfortable."

finally my life makes sense, THANK YOU

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Thank you for providing a handful of additional reasons to justify why I never watch anything on the Faux News Network. I know there are those who would say that statement is a reflection of my political bias. Some who know me better, might say that it proves I am an intellectual snob. Personally, I believe most, if not all, shows broadcast on Fox News should be preceded by a warning that viewing the following program may be hazardous to your intellectual, emotional, and moral development as a functioning member of the human race. On reflection, I suppose that proves the views of those who know me well. And, I’m OK with that.

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the problem, and fallacy, of you describing Libertarians as being Conservatives, is that Everything to the right of the Far Left (which you are part of) is considered Conservative, even when they truly are in the middle of the political Spectrum. The leftists cannot stand anyone even an inch to the right of their/your Cancel-culture leftist ideology, which has taken over the Democratic party now.

IMO, Trump broke so many on-air comedians, that they moved into hatred territory instead of producing anything that resembles comedy. Watching a recent Colbert show, I found nothing even close to funny and it contained more hate-speech directed to anyone to the right of him and his leftist writers

you cant honestly describe the popularity of Gutfeld! because you dont understand it, so you trying to explain it is like your Tree describing Beethoven.

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Maybe Gutfeld! is serving an underserved market--people looking for right-wing comedy? Most of the other comedy shows mentioned lean left, though I think Charlamagne leans kind-of right? If there are equal numbers of right-wingers and left-wingers, and there are 10 left-wing comedians and 1 right-wing comedian, the righty is going to have a much bigger audience as the lefties split their audience.

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“libertarianism has displaced religious conservativism as the primary strand of conservatism in the Republican Party. “

Or did religious conservatism just join libertarianism in irrelevance? People who identify as neither libertarian nor Republican consistently overestimate the presence and influence of libertarian thought among Republicans. From where I sit, it looks like a struggle between MAGA vs. the neocon remnant, with religious conservatives and libertarians sitting on the sidelines wondering where this all came from. Was Desantis' policy on Covid rooted in respect for liberty, or just a pragmatic policy based on believing different experts? Is his “don’t say gay” bill libertarian?

Who or whose policy could someone have in mind that would lead them to think libertarian influence has increased among the GOP? The only candidate that comes to mind is school choice, but despite its increased relevance, it gets no more oxygen from Republican rhetoric than it ever did.

If this was a libertarian trend, Rand Paul would have to be its informal spokesman. While he has not completely disappeared, what odds would you give him in the Republican presidential primary?

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One word: yawn. The only reason this gets ratings is because 1)the old fogies are dozing off after Hannity ends, and 2) the real audience (that means people - liberal, conservative, and independent are split between Kimmel, Colbert and Fallon.

Does anyone remember the last Gutfeld clip that went viral? No. This is not even a comedy show, it's just a less subservient version of the rest of Fox news propaganda.

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