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Comedy Is Not Pretty, and Nowadays It Isn’t Even Funny
With sanctimony having replaced humor, the only thing left to laugh at is the farce of politics itself.
by Joseph Epstein
Feb. 6, 2018 7:31 p.m. ET
(snip)
I found myself seated at my computer last month, watching on YouTube the comedian Bill Maher talk about Donald Trump’s marriage. If you don’t share Mr. Maher’s politics, you are likely to find him an odious, even loathsome character, for he doesn’t really exist outside politics. His standard tone is mockery, his modus operandi to lacerate his targets with obscenities, flash a nervous smile, and then bask in applause from his audience.
I was watching Mr. Maher on YouTube to see how far he would go on the subject of the Trump marriage. Would he attack the Trumps’ 11-year-old son, or perhaps attack the family for not having a dog? No surprise, he brought up the allegations of sexual harassment against Mr. Trump. Stormy Daniels was mentioned. His final punch line was that Melania Trump hadn’t accompanied her husband to Davos, Switzerland, because she had spent the day having to “lay a wreath on the tomb of the unknown trophy wife.”
Donald Trump has been a great boon to late-night talk-show hosts. His baroque hairdo, his hyperbole, his general extravagance, his unabashed egotism—all these things and more are in the wheelhouse of today’s liberal comedians. Without him, Bill Maher and Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers would be practically out of business. Jon Stewart must wake each morning filled with regret for his wretched timing at retiring just as Mr. Trump came into office.
(snip)
Yet to have taken what I think of as the Trumpian option in their comedy has rendered these comedians charmless while strikingly limiting their audiences to those who share their politics.
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
How do you figure? Carson, Hope et. al. would certainly welcomed back, and with relief.
But they're gone to the Great Beyond, and their replacements are a sorry lot.
And the PC environment in which the Media, and much of society (corporate America, Education) operates is a sorry lot. PC culture is taking the fun, and adventure out of parts of life for some.
Anyway, when he brought up Trump and the election towards the end of his concert, I was ready to be disappointed - I mean, please don't impose your political philosophy on me ... I'm just here to add to your net worth and laugh my arse off.
It's a long bit, but he compared Trump to a horse in a hospital. You knew which side of the political divide Mulaney is on - but it was never the downright vitriol you hear/see on late night that is directed at both the president AND the people that voted for him.
Mulaney was refreshingly funny on a very divisive topic.
Basically, it can be done. And comedians who chose not to, are lazy.
You couldn't fine more PC comedians than Carson, Hope, etc. They made sure never ever to go to far...they were always diplomatic, tactful, politically correct.
You couldn't fine more PC comedians than Carson, Hope, etc. They made sure never ever to go to far...they were always diplomatic, tactful, politically correct.
They did it by avoiding politics entirely. And never saying things like "personkind" instead of "mankind", except as a dig at the people silly enough to demand "personkind".
Let me guess: you're some old guy that wants things to go back to where they were?
Don't quit your day job.
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