Fakin’ Palin: Why Republicans Need To Wield A Little Humor
by Tim SlagleWhy can’t I be like Tina Fey?
I’m just as smart, and almost as pretty. And I like working politics into my comedy. Yet there she was Sunday night, bowing before the adoring foreign press in a summer dress, while I’m at home, packing long underwear for a road trip into the heartland. While she’s polishing her new Golden Globes, I’ll be working a whiskey soaked nightclub, in a town too small to have a AAA ball club. So much for the road less traveled. And they say that it’s the Republicans, who are in it for the money.
Does anyone really think Tina Fey’s performance on ‘30 Rock’ is that award worthy? Nobody ever watches it, unless they lost the remote, after ‘The Office’ is over. She didn’t get the awards for ‘30 Rock,’ she got them because there isn’t an award for the Best Impersonation of a Republican Candidate. Or: Comedienne Most Responsible for an Obama Victory. Tina Fey is the darling of the Left right now, not as much for her comedic skills, as for putting a stop to the Sarah Palin phenomenon.
There was a huge groundswell when Sarah hit the national scene. She energized the Party in a way John McCain only dreamed of. Here was our Obama: a young, good looking enigmatic speaker, untainted by Washington. There’s something mighty attractive about a girl more familiar with moosemeat than pork. She looked great in flannel and jeans, and unlike all the other candidates, her outdoor gear had all the tags removed long ago. For a while it looked like she might run away with the grand prize.
But then Tina Fey came on the air one night, with her hair in an up-do, and talking like she was in Fargo. And it was over. It is still amazing to me, that an impression of a candidate could have such an impact, but I know it did. John Ziegler proved it, in his now famous Zogby Poll. The majority of Obama voters actually thought Sarah Palin really said she could see Russia from her house.
I have a friend up north, who was raised by hippie parents in the back of a school bus. She is now a proud graduate of the University of Minnesota, with a degree in women’s studies (and has been unemployable ever since).
I suggested that perhaps she might be encouraged by the nomination of Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket. That the Party of old white men actually nominated a Woman to run for the office of vice president. That a lot of Republicans I knew were wishing Sarah was at the top of the ticket. Certainly the choice of a woman should allow Feminists to swell with pride — another ceiling had been broken.
She laughed at me. “How could you vote for Sarah Palin? Don’t you watch Saturday Night Live? If you saw Tina Fey impersonate her, you’d understand how ridiculous it is to even suggest that she could ever be President. Did you see Tina Fey? I’m going to send you some links!”
And it was over. The Couric interview followed the first Fey impression, which led to an even more biting parody the following week. Were it not for Sarah Palin making an actual appearance on the show, I think they would still be riding that pony into the grave. If you recall, Saturday Night Live has a history of repeating a joke over and over, long after it stopped being funny. (Then they base a feature length film around it.)
It was probably the most brilliant moves of the entire campaign. Palin defused the joke by owning it. Unfortunately, it was too late. Because as much as I hate to admit it. The impression was funny. I am at the same time smitten and repulsed by Tin Fey. It reminds me of the line from ‘Dr. Strangelove,’ where George C. Scott, envious of a Russian bomb says “Gee, I wish we had one of them doomsday machines.”
Because we need one.
Nobody outside of Rush Limbaugh is attacking the Democrats comedically. Hence, Democrat political figures seem serious, and almost anonymous. Certainly the Left is ripe for parody. The slow lisping cadence of Al Gore, the cartoonish voice of Barney Frank, or the arrogant stuttering President Elect are all characters begging for comedic attention. Today, politicians are defined by comedians. From the clumsy verbiage of George Bush, to the pageant airhead played by Fey, those impressions have become more real than the characters themselves.
Meanwhile, Obama is completely untouchable. The Late Night writers (who are mostly all Harvard alumni) are less than a week away from a new Administration, and still making fun of Governor Palin, and President Bush. They haven’t seemed this starved for material, since the airlines stopped serving food. Whether it’s fear of perceived racism, or simple idol worship, there have been few Obama jokes aired.
I don’t like that. Because a President you cannot make fun of, is not a President.
It is a dictator.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Tips & Feedback
107 Comments
I thought that once MSM bias was exposed it would have an affect on things. However they just keep on trucking.
When Palin was nominated I said to my wife “start the clock now.The media has 6 weeks to destroy this woman”. They’re butt kissing of Caroline Kennedy is pathetic.
If you don’t think there is political humor on the right, check out what Rush Limbaugh called “the Stalinist Version of The Onion”
http://www.thepeoplescube.com
While Fey’s parody of Palin was biting, I thought SNL’s parodies of Clinton (as a screeching witch) and Obama (as an airhead) were just as biting. Remember the skit where Obama calls Clinton, with her hair in curlers, at 3:00 AM for national security advice?
If anything, the fact that your Minnesota friend—college-educated, no less—apparently based her assessment and vote on an SNL parody, doesn’t speak well of her. If many other American voters were also swayed by Fey’s parody, then that doesn’t speak well of American voters.
A republic and a democracy will only be strong when the people who choose its leaders do so responsibly.
But, we do have an opportunity here, if we choose to use it.
You can now go back to your friend and say “But, you’re a college-educated person. Are you saying you let your vote—the most important tool you have as a citizen in the world’s most influential democracy—be swayed by a TV comic?”
I’d love to hear her response.
30 Rock is a very funny show and Tina Fey is Adward worthy for her work. Her work on SNL, not so much. And Fey’s alter ego, Liz Lemon, predicted the Obama/McCain race almost two years ago saying, “I’m going to tell all my friends I’m voting for Obama, but I’ll really vote for McCain.”
Mr. Slagle. You are so true.
I loved the impersonation, and thought it took nothing away from the candidate. SNL and the like poke fun at everyone, building up a caricature, recognizable but with imperfections massively inflated. But the act is not the woman.
“I don’t like that. Because a President you cannot make fun of, is not a President.
It is a dictator.”
Truer words not spoken this election cycle.
I had a similar thought when I read yesterday that Will Smith said, “If I am ordered by the Commander-In-Chief to star in the film, I will do my duty as an American.”
I would like to believe that Smith was being facetious, but I can’t, because my gut tells me he is deadly serious.
This website is manned by people from an industry that cannot survive without a certain amount of acceptable, reasonable ‘hero worship’ from its customers – please tell me, am I being overly paranoid about liberals, their unquestioned embrace of ‘The One’ and the language of these devout, seemingly blind followers?
But did they stop the Sarah phenomenon though? We may have lost this election but nothing can stop Sarah. Look Obama had national exposure first on 2004 convention which propelled him. Sarah’s vice-presidential run is way significant than that but it’s the same thing. She has a huge advantage going into 2012 and we are taking that one!
Tina’s funny, but I’m beginning to think she’s overrated. To be truly great, you have to be fearless and take on everyone. You can’t be cynical 50% of the time. It’s not just about only appealing to part of your audience, if you’re a sycophant, then you have no credibility as a real commentator. Someone will break the ceiling on the Obama jokes, and will achieve a good deal of notoriety over it. Unfortunately, it will never be attacked with the kind of gusto that the Right is (except by Right-wing satirists). Comedy is one of the biggest differences between us and so many countries that have fallen prey to political correctness and group-think. I just hope we’re not so far gone that people will only lampoon those they disagree with.
On a lighter note though – Tina Fey does a superb and hilarious imitation of Sarah Palin. She is a very funny and talented lady. Darn her.
[...] and the incoming President. If humor about the President is a duty of the loyal opposition, perhaps the uniformity of [...]
I just don’t get the adulation for 30 rock. It is one of the most
inane ’s*itcoms’ in the recent lame-o generations of s*itcoms that
nbc has produced (kath&kim OMG have you seen THAT turd).
Also 30 rock has some of the most annoying ‘actors’ on the planet:
Alec “I’m gonna straighten you out’ Baldwin, Tracy ‘probably needs medication’
Morgan and Jane ‘what the heck is up with her face’ krakowski(?)
Honestly I’ve seen maybe 2 episodes of this, one being the la bomba
where they dressed TM up as a white chick (WoW now that is groundbreaking
comedy) and it was JUST SO LAME!!!!!!
[...] Fey’s take down and the need for conservatives to take the comedic reigns, as well. Read the article, but the money quote comes at the end: Meanwhile, Obama is completely untouchable. The Late Night [...]
Sarah Pa;in is still a phenomenon with many in the GOP base (like myself), but with the idiot mushy middle she is toast and forever tarnished.
You just don’t come back from being defined as a caricature. I just hope that if Conservatives and the GOP have any chance to take down Obama or his shrew of a wife or even his daughters, they do it and do it brutally. This isn’t fun and games anymore. There has to be payback for the destruction of Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin is still a phenomenon with many in the GOP base (like myself), but with the idiot mushy middle she is toast and forever tarnished.
You just don’t come back from being defined as a caricature. I just hope that if Conservatives and the GOP have any chance to take down Obama or his shrew of a wife or even his daughters, they do it and do it brutally. This isn’t fun and games anymore. There has to be payback for the destruction of Sarah Palin.
“The majority of Obama voters actually thought Sarah Palin really said she could see Russia from her house.” These are the idiots who elected our next President. Wonderful.
I agree wholeheartedly with your statements about humor, if you can find something to laugh about.
But, I didn’t see anything funny last fall. What the media did to Sarah Palin was nothing less than a public stoning.
Sarah Palin is tough, among other things, and I’m not sure they quite finished her off. But one thing’s for sure; we know exactly what the media is capable of doing.
A thing that I find amazing was how instantaneously — in the time it took for John McCain to introduce Sarah Palin to a noon-time crowd in Dayton, Ohio — the media turned 180 degrees. They transformed from Liberals who support the idea of an empowered woman in politics to a modern equivalent to the 16th-century Witch Finders.
Even though in the article, Tim Slagle mentions a female friend of his with a degree in women’s studies who got her opinions from Saturday Night Live, I suspect it was not humor that got her. I think the media got the message out fast that Liberal-Progressive-ism out ranks Feminism and she bought it.
A book could be written and probably will.
I love 30 Rock–I think it keeps getting better, but it certainly was helped by Fey as Palin, which I don’t think anyone can argue against being brilliant. (But Amy Poehler’s ‘rap’ was better) But it also won a slew of awards the season before, even if the rating were anemic. (It also routinely does some of the slyest takes on race I’ve ever seen done, and the characters are in my opinion the best written bunch of insecure misfits on tv) SNL’s Obama impression hasn’t hit a chord yet frankly because Fred Armisen isn’t that great at it. Jamie Foxx actually did a pretty funny impression of Obama’s voice on “The View” of all places. In any case, yay for 30 Rock’s recent renewal!
If McCain had picked Mitt Romney, he would be the President of the United States. He betrayed us, and the cause. And it’s time to stop whining about the treatment of Palin. That girl is dumber than a box of rocks. She is not and never will be qualified to be in the White House.
Stick a fork in the #%@!, she’s old news. God help us if she shows up in 2012.
I won’t date a girl who doesn’t like Sarah Palin, so obviously nothing’s going to happen between me and ole Shep up there. (Shep’s uglier than the back end of a moose, so no biggie.)
I disagree that you can’t make fun of Obummer. Last time I knew of someone that stuttered as much as that poseur, he was walking around a beach with rocks in his mouth trying to straighten out the words. I’m going with comedian Ann Coulter’s description of him – Jug-eared Clodhopper. Perfect!
In case you haven’t noticed, “liberal” comedians have an arc – they go from once funny to bitter creeps. Rosie, Maher, Stuart Smalley, and Tina “Suck It” Fey is on her way there fast.
If McCain picked Romney, he gets around 40% of the popular vote. Palin drew far bigger crowds than McCain and she was the only reason he got as many votes as he did.
As someone who saw Palin live, she draws crowds and speaks well to an audience, at least she did when I saw her. People loved her to death and it was obvious base Republicans really identified with her. The number of those under 18 who were at the rally, especially given that it was a school day, was astonishing.
As as member of the dreaded media, I have no problem with Palin getting the rough treatment – on the issues. Some of the stupidity involving the Trig truthers needed to go (listening Andrew?) and the conspiracy theories and everything else. The level for her was raised unbelievably high, especially given her comparative experience level with the Democratic candidate.
The way she was handled by the press, versus the completely hands off approach given to Obama, will haunt the old media until it dies in the near future. The 90-percent Democrat newsroom crowd went all-in for their candidate. It cost them the souls they don’t have and the zero credibility they had left, but it was worth it to them. They got their guy.
Given all of this, it still amazes me. You have an industry on a lemming-like march of death by pissing off at least 50-percent of the country as much as possible, all the while showing the business competence of the auto industry. And you go on industry message boards and these people still have no clue as to why their business is dying. Lemmings.
I was surprised that people still watch SNL.
Tina wishes she looked like Sarah Palin.
Most disturbing to me was the lack of respect for both McCain and Palin. Both of these candidates have numerous admirable accomplishments as opposed to Obama’s and Biden’s singular accomplishments. Americans are losing respect for others. McCain many times stopped negative comments regarding Obama however, I never once heard Obama stop anyone from ridiculing Palin or stop the disgusting comments regarding McCain’s war injuries. I hope that SNL will do a skit with Axelrodsky (read The Obama Nation) as Hitler. he defenitely must be a clone-just add the mustache. This would be in the same taste as what they did to Palin.
Palin rocks. She’s proving it every day. I lived in Alaska for several years, in the town that was to have received the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere”. That public works project had been on the table for decades, it was to have connected Gravina Island and Ketchikan Int’l Airport with Ketchikan to eliminate the incessant ferry trips and allow development of the island. It’s a worthy project but one whose time has not yet come. Along with every other vicious and spiteful caricaturization perpetrated by the SNL crowd, they got this one wrong, too.
I had never heard of Tina Fey until Sarah Palin came into the limelight. Fey will fade, Palin will not.
Obama himself does indeed have a sense of humor; he called himself a “mutt” not long ago. It’s easy to start showing symptoms of Obama Derangement Syndrome, but let’s give the man a chance first.
Love this site, a breath of fresh air.
I have been thinking about what the comedians are going to do when Bush is gone for quite a while. They can’t make fun of him because if they do, what they will hear are gasps and not laughter. They also won’t be hearing any laughter if all they can do is kneel down and kiss BO ass and ask the camera if that was funny.
I’m sorry, but SNL doesn’t hold any weight and hasn’t been funny for years! It’s so sad, sorry and embarrassing to watch. I can’t believe anyone would waste time with that show, let alone let it define and cement their political views. Saw Tina on the cover of (I think) Harpers mag at the checkout line the other day. Harpers! That’s so typical. She’s definitely been blown way out of proportion. And that side by side photo above: except for the copycat hair length, lipstick color, and glasses, Tina ain’t got nothin’ on Sarah. Tina just seems cold and flat … there’s nothing there!
It just seems to be such a waste of time and energy to give so much attention and reaction to such trivial crap the left puts out there. And except for my ex-dentist, whose office waiting room is lined with every single Time, Newsweek, People, etc. rag, I don’t think anyone actually buys them. They too will fade. I dropped that dentist simply because of the junk journalism rags he keeps in his waiting room. They’ve all become such twisted parodies of themselves. They bend over backwards in all manner of Twister game positions just to lie and deceive. And it’s so pathetic and blatant that I can’t believe even a force-fed women’s studies student couldn’t see how taken for a corralled cow she is.
My 13 years old daughter knows when she’s being bamboozled by the media. She’s complained since very young about TV, commercials, magazines at the check out, and movies aimed at youth. As a parent, you have to steer them toward the finer, more enlightening forms of entertainment and music. She’s not home schooled but I make it a point to take the time to interject a good dose of American civics, framing of the Constitution, and American history since they just don’t cover it in school anymore. She’s familiarizing herself with books like “America – The Last Best Hope” by Wm. Bennett. As a parent, one must emphasize and instill the important things while they’re still young to help put the litany of entertainment schlock that’s out there into proper perspective.
Oh, BTW, she finds this website very cool indeed!
If you all had watched John Ziegler interviewing all those people that voted for Obama and that basically knew nothing about him or politics you would understand why people thought what they heard and saw on SNL and the MSM was real The conservatives didn’t do their job on the new media “blogs” etc. Now we are getting organized and responding to the OBots and trolls that are on the blogs just to do damage to Sarah and others. Such bitter people that supported Obama…going to be fun to watch them CATCH the rock throwing for 4 years…much easier to throw rocks then catch them.
Palin has more class in her little finger than this used up tampon does in her whole body.
While Palin was attacked unfairly and excessively, she could have turned it all to her advantage, had she been confident enough, and informed enough.
People compare her to Reagan, but I couldn’t imagine Reagan squirming and getting awkwardly defensive when asked what newspapers he reads, no matter how covertly hostile the interviewer.
I kept hearing after the election all the accolades about Fey making SNL “relevant again” and it makes me sick. Name one good thing about a nation allowing comedians to define and select their leaders. It’s sad and scary, but what’s even sadder and scarier is that nobody on the Left sees a problem with it.
Um, so when Tina Fey won multiple Emmy awards for 30 Rock and SNL, and the WGA Nomination for Mean Girls in the years BEFORE Sarah Palin appeared, how do you account for that? That sort of pokes a hole in your “she’s only famous because she made fun of Palin” meme. Fey was a respected comedy writer and reluctant performer (by her own account) who had many admirers in the industry as far back as 2001, back when Palin was a failed TV reporter turned book burning mayor of Moosehick Acres, Alaska.
Slagle! Great piece.
The beautiful thing about Obama is that he surrounds himself with such a freakshow. He may have an untouchable air about him (for the moment) but his cabinet, advisers and supporters are like a carnival with a surplus of bearded ladies and Siamese twins who share a brain, but no thoughts.
We can go after the others for now and wait until Obama has his first huge stumble. Yes, we’ll have to do it in clubs instead of on NBC but at least we can still do it because this isn’t North Korea or China.
Yet.
“I don’t like that. Because a President you cannot make fun of, is not a President. It is a dictator.”
Welcome to the Enlightenment. When a single party controls the bureaucracy, media (propaganda), universities (brain washing), judiciary, Senate, House and Presidency, it IS a dictatorship. Mr. Slagle. Get ready for your IRS audit.
People pointed out years ago the high percentage of college-aged (I think) voters whose primary news source was the now chronically lame “Daily Show.” The situation has only gotten worse.
Over and over people cite the “I can see Russia from my house” line as proof that Palin is a dopey, unqualified joke. It’s just plain fact. End of story, no thinking required. You can’t even creat cognitive dissonance by proving she didn’t say it! Just a blank “syntax error” stare in return.
The fact (as many have pointed out) that, though Obama and Biden had more *real* crazy statements before and during the campaign, nobody focused for more than a minute on and never took or reported seriously the democrats’ statements….this tells us what time it is.
I love 30 Rock. It’s a clever show. And they do take jabs at both sides. The show is especially adept at taking the mickey out of clueless celeb types who don’t know what they’re yammering about. The character Jack Donaghy is a diehard capitalist Republican, but he’s also the one Liz Lemon runs to every time she needs advice. And as someone else has pointed out, Kenneth, the hyper-Christian Southerner, is the only consistently moral person on the show. So unless these portayals are unintentional and the writers don’t understand how Jack and Kenneth are coming off, I’d say there’s more balance than you’d think.
When the show does get too partisan, it loses steam. E.g., one episode depicted Jack going to work for the White House. The WH was in shambles, filled with tearful loser civil servants wandering around aimlessly. In that case, the satire didn’t work, because it was so far from the reality of what it was satirizing. It was funny as a scene, but not as satire.
Re Sarah Palin.
On the day she was nominated, a liberal neighbor called to say she was voting for McCain because of Palin. Two weeks later, she had an Obama sticker on her SUV. The day after the election the sticker changed to “I voted for Obama”. This is a narrative of a bonafide “useful idiot” who believes Sarah Palin is dumb.
What astounds me about Republicans and Palin especially is their ongoing naivete so far as the propaganda media. Mien Gott! What does the propaganda media have to do to convince Republicans that they’re not going to play fair? Come out with a sledge hammer and crack the GOP candidate on the head before every interview. Charles Gibson’s looking down his nose at Governor Palin was classic! Ferret-faced Katie Couric’s
superior “gotcha” interview is another.
Palin is toast. While the GOP “base” love her, the swing voters are now convinced she’s an idiot thanks to the likes of bona fide idiots like Gibson, Couric and Fey. She needs to accept they got her. Game over. They won. What she should do now is what she did with Ziegler. Give interviews. Point out to the American voter that s/he got conned. Name names. Give examples. No whining, crying, grousing. Just a straightforward “are you sure you want the propagandists to con you next time” kind of message. At the same time Alberto Gonzalez should go out on tour giving Spanish language speeches to Hispanic about how Hispanics are “good enough” to clean the liberals’ commodes, watch their spoiled brats and cut their grass, but God help them if they try to escape the Liberal plantation.
I don’t watch 30 or SNL and even if I didn’t get up early to go to work I wouldn’t watch it.
And I’m waiting for B-HO to crash 2 years and I bet his administration does float like the plane in NY….
Sorry to break into the echo chamber here, but:
Republicans aren’t funny. The Godless Liberal Menace has all of the shrewd creative types; you’ve got Dennis Miller and Jon Voight. Sorry. All that moral superiority and self-flagellating victimization does come with a price.
Not that you haven’t been trying. The best box office fare you’ve mustered recently was David Zucker’s hilariously unfunny “An American Carol,” which was panned by such notorious liberal rags as the NY Post and the Washington Times and made back $7million against its $20million budget. Obviously its failure was due to a massive left-wing conspiracy of theater-goers who wanted to see a funny movie which also propagated the moral decline of America, but hey: them’s the breaks in BIG HOLLYWOOD.
I still contend that the funniest conservative-run show on television is 24, but Joel Surnow’s (ostensibly) intentionally funny show and answer to the Daily Show, the 1/2 Hour News Hour, got only 17 episodes. Was its demise more attributable to its reliance on milque-toast jokes about Barack Obama’s body odor (get it? B.O.! LULZ), or was it silly to think that such excoriating conservative satire could survive on pinko cable? It aired, as we no doubt all remember, on the highest rated cable news network, so presumably _someone_ was watching. Just not, apparently, the Real Americans (TM) who so desperately need a comedic voice which isn’t biased or godless or possessed of an Ivy League education.
Who are some of our other conservative funny men? Glenn Beck? That’s pretty hilarious in itself!
Wow y’all, such a short memory!! And talk about Sour Grapes.
Where was this dastardly MSM when a single party ruled and thrashed America with 3 hr, bully-congressional votes approving huge pork projects, torture and wire-tapping? Where was this “liberal” MSM when a single party let deregulation bankrupt our country? Where was this MSM when taxpayers paid for $1billion in legal fees and countless senate hours investigating a blow job? Where was this liberal media when Cheney was (and still is btw) claiming Al Queda was in Iraq and therefore Saddam Hussein had ties to 9/11?? Please, there are stupid people on both sides. 25% of Texans think BO is a Muslim for crying out loud.
Republicans deserve this backlash of losing control of 2 branches of government. You’re lucky the Supreme Court is appointed. The American People have spoken. It’s time to come together and fix this mess. Time to put aside differences and work together. Your bitterness embarrasses me. This is such an historical time in history and you’re all gonna miss out because you’re clouded and afraid of what??? A president who actually intends to work across the aisle with smart, experienced advisors and is even hosting a party to honor John McCain?
By the way, Mad TV had an awesome BO & MO impersonator. Too bad it was cancelled.
ur dum
Bobby – I’m rubber and you’re glue.
You know, conservatives did have a phenomally funny writer in their midst, that is until they ran him out of the club. Does the name Christopher Buckley come to mind. What the drooling jackals did to him at the National Review was shameful.
First – It was debatable that McCain ever had a real lead in the all important Electoral College tallies. He never held statistically significant leads in Pennsylvania, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado..states he needed to win to eke out the now-traditional Republican less than 20 electoral vote victory.
Second – A Presidential Candidate hadn’t won over 52% of the vote in twenty years (hell, Bush didn’t even win the popular vote in 2000 Nationally).
Third – The word is emigrating, not immigrating. If you’re going to leave the country in a snit, at least brush up on your spelling.
Fourth – The same National Review that is trying to dredge up the corpse of Vince Foster for the 10,000th time?
The MSM mocks Palin because they truly fear her. Give her the credit that she knows she’s a target, and has the courage to use the attacks to her advantge (hence her SNL appeareance and her ongoing PR efforts well after the election). The more the MSM attacks, the more she will become popular with those who oppose the government-media-academic complex that now rules this country, and the better she positions herself for the next election.
This Republic won’t be saved from Washington, but from outside of it. And she’s part of the reason why.
Rule 5 of Marxist Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” states that ridicule is your most potent weapon. We definitely need to be using the Left’s playbook against them.
1. How many of you simpletons had ever HEARD of Saul Alinsky before this year, when Rush and Sean lamented about them so much.
2. The government-media-academic complex that rules this country? Oh, that’s right a country of 300 million people needs no central government, free press, or education? Why do you conservatives always view the educated with such suspicion? Why do you venerate mediocrities like Palin as somehow being what we should aspire to?
To Greg @1/16/09/6:33 AM:
You need help badly! To attact two innocent little girls in order to salvage the reputation of an adult politician. How did you become so EVIL? You need a lot of prayer to exorcise your demons. Sarah Palin could not care less about you and the rest of you losers who are selling your evil souls to Satan for her career. This is sad. GOD help us, sacrificing children.
“The Godless Liberal Menace has all of the shrewd creative types…”
It’s more profitable and easier in Hollywood to be armchair leftists, so that’s what all those shrewd creative types are. If it paid to be conservative, then that’s what they’d be.
Or maybe that’s what you already meant by “shrewd.”
As much as I’ve been trying to get out of the habit of addressing the obvious trolls, I’m still a Christian and want to help people like Miles. Soooooo, some very funny conservatives for his review…
Evan Sayet
Al Sonja Schmidt
Jeff “Big Daddy” Wayne
Keith Barany
Dez Reed (a conservative Canadian comedian even)
Monty Hoffman
1. Sarah Palin balanced her budget by using a windfall profits tax on oil companies to do that. With the price of oil down nearly 70% in the last year, she won’t have as easy a time. Apart from that, color me extremely unimpressed with her “accomplishments”, especially since she lied so early and often about what she actually did.
2. Christopher Buckley was run out of the magazine that HIS OWN FATHER founded because he dared to criticize McCain’s despicable and hateful campaign rallies, Palin’s mediocrity, and defended Kathleen Parker from death threats she received from deranged Palin boosters. Jonah Goldberg could have stood up for his colleague and respected the concept of “agreeing to disagree”, but instead the NR decided that ideological purity trumped all. It was disgraceful.
Ndisilvestro: Brilliant! You made me laugh and I’m glad someone’s paying attention. Pardon me: An HISTORIC time in history. I can admit when I’m wrong. Now you on the other hand…
Oh, and I’m 43 by the way so thanks for making me feel so young and HOT. XO
43 in dog years maybe.
There will be comedy created about and around the new President…it just takes time.
He’ll make mistakes and say goofy things, as will Joe Biden and the rest of the new administration.
These jokes will be funny but no comedy could ever compare with the absolute brilliance of George W. Bush’s buffoonery. There will be reels and dvd’s sold with only his missteps and guffaws. At-least he gave us this.
Never mind about Palin- She’s not done in the spotlight, she’s just finished credibility-wise in the middle of the road, where most election decisions are made.
Waaaaaaahhhhh!!! Waaaaaaaahhhhh!!!
You’re right; nobody on the right is funny at all.
And Rush Limbaugh may try to funny, but–of course–he isn’t.
“Evan Sayet
Al Sonja Schmidt
Jeff “Big Daddy” Wayne
Keith Barany
Dez Reed (a conservative Canadian comedian even)
Monty Hoffman”
Maybe I am a troll, but I have no idea who any of these people are. I’m sure that’s simply because their careers have been suppressed by the Hollywood commie machine.
I’ll be sure to use fewer big words next time, though, since you all know how smart I am now
And Stewart and Colbert were never all that funny, IMO
Miles (or anyone), if you’re ever in Hollywood on the third Tuesday of the month, save the $20 for the Obama plate/coin set/underoos/tampons and see Evan and a rotating cast of openers (John Ziegler’s been the emcee of late, too), including some of the above-listed at the Laugh Factory. You don’t even smirk and I’ll refund your money.
It won’t be long before the bloom is off the rose. These tv commedians cannot help themselves. They have already parodied Obama and Clinton on SNL.
I simply do not attribute that much impact from Tina Fey’s SNL bits about Sarah. I attribute the snarky , biting, vicious attacks from the media at large and some snobby conservatives in particular.
There needs to be a real shakeup within the Republican party. It seems it no longer IS the party of conservatives. John McCains nomination proves that more than anything else could.
That he chose Sarah Palin was a brilliant move, one I personally think he came to regret. Something along the lies of how Charles felt when he married Diana. She overshadowed him completely when HE was supposed to be the star.
Sarah is a living icon of : Woman. Accomplished and Intelligent Woman. Family. Conservative values of tax cuts and responsible fiscal management. Happy and successful Marriage. The image she radiates is dangerous to the left. That is something we should not forget and is all the more reason to support her now and in the future. For I think she IS the future of Conservatism. Our keepers of the flame like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and others pave the way and hold the fort. Those in the Republican party without the steel in their spine need to get out of the way. If not there will not be a republican party for the conservatives to inhabit.
As to Tiny Fey. She has her moment in the spotlight and she should take it. I don’t find her funny. Nor especially talented in anything other than parody of a real live heroine.
Firstly; thanks for Big Hollywood.
The thing is, lefties have just been at this longer. They know how to do it…sometimes with humor and other times using “guilt by association”.
An example of the latter was the first time we viewers were taken to Cliff Clavin’s house (of “Cheers”). In that episode, Cliff was more then his usual “stupid” self, which was the set-up for all of us to see a huge portrait of George Bush (41) on a large otherwise empty wall. Clive Clavin + George Bush + Republicans = stupid. We all have seen these kinds of things in film and TV. This is just one small example. But it’s been there for a long while hasn’t it?
Writers who lean left have been gently pushing for decades. Bad guys with a framed picture of Ronald Reagan on their desk, the change in the movie “Dave”, when the substitute President all of sudden “sees the light” that social programs are the answer, etc. I guess that’s why I like this so much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWpU8sX10_4
If the above clip could be a kind of template to “fight back”, then we could be on our way.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a conspiracy, but I do think it’s an example of “the path of least resistance”. I just don’t hear a lot of righties (other than Limbaugh) working at developing good humor at leftie’s expense…at least consistently. Making fun of leftie’s just not funny (generally), but making fun of rightie is! Again, I think they get the laughs because they’ve just been at it longer. Leftie has prepared the soil over the years and the crops are coming in.
It takes time, but it’s got to be clever, not just “Here’s my sledgehammer, you leftie, you!!”
Articles like this are why conservatives are perceived as humorless prigs. Here’s the facts (and I’m not a HuffPo troll):
1. Tina Fey is cute, talented and funny. She wrote “Mean Girls”, the film that made Lindsey Lohan a big enough star that Paris Hilton befriended and then destroyed her. 30 Rock is hysterically funny and as loathsome as Alec Baldwin’s politics may be, he’s a riot on the show. (Face it: If I refused to watch anything that starred crazy liberals, I’d never watch anything again. Or just Gary Sinise and Chuck Norris flicks.)
B. SNL this year has been the ONLY place that has mocked the liberal Treason Media’s fawning fellation of the Obamessiah and the Dems. Barney Frank, George Soros, Chris Dodd and more have been raked over the coals and various scandals which struck me as odd since few in the audience, outside of Rush or Hannity listeners, would even understand the references.
3. Another example of knee-jerk humorlessness – this time Michelle Malkin – was the outrage over the SNL sketch depicting clueless New York Times reporters speculating that Todd Palin must be committing incest with his daughters because “it’s Alaska, you know?” The shrill conservative scolds shrieked about “incest slander” when anyone not looking to be aggrieved understood that the Times chumps were the butts of all the jokes.
I’m ultra-attuned to biases and smears against conservatives in the popular culture and media and the stuff that gets the social prudes knickers in a twist doesn’t even twitch the needle for me. To quote Sgt. Hulka, “Lighten up, Francis.”
To Cranbone, the Bob Hope clip has already been pulled. I did get to view it once but when I went back to link it to friends it was gone. Too bad, I`m gonna go look for a torrent.
OOPS, its back, must have been a Youtube glitch. Thanks for the link.
3. Another example of knee-jerk humorlessness – this time Michelle Malkin – was the outrage over the SNL sketch depicting clueless New York Times reporters speculating that Todd Palin must be committing incest with his daughters because “it’s Alaska, you know?” The shrill conservative scolds shrieked about “incest slander” when anyone not looking to be aggrieved understood that the Times chumps were the butts of all the jokes.
I’m ultra-attuned to biases and smears against conservatives in the popular culture and media and the stuff that gets the social prudes knickers in a twist doesn’t even twitch the needle for me. To quote Sgt. Hulka, “Lighten up, Francis.”
Dirk,
I agree with most of what you say. However, I think you’re mistaking (or we aren’t conveying) a snese of non-humor with a sense of fair play. Nobody in the media would go places with a female on the liberal side the way they did with Sarah Palin. At least that’s what bothers me about it. Can you think of a female liberal they said should have “aborted her baby?” Or “it was her fault” the child turned out that way because she was on the campaign trail.
“I don’t like that. Because a President you cannot make fun of, is not a President.
It is a dictator.”
And it is closer than you think. Dems trying to get The 22nd Amendment repealed. Filed Jan. 6, 2009. You know, the one that says a President can have only two terms.
democraticleader.house.gov
Also, Saul Alinskys Rules for Radicals,
Rule No. 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is irrational. It is infuriating and it works. This is the tactic that is constantly being used against Sarah Palin. This rule also suggests that you get your people started on ridiculing your enemies and they will take over and continue without you having to do anything else. This keeps anyone from asking legitimate questions. They are too busy dodging barbs.
I just dont get Tina Fey, she is a unfunny geek who happened to hit it big by her unfunny Sarah Palin inpersonation. I have never watched her TV show and dont intend to, especially with that fat no talent overated wife and child hating rant filled smartAlec Baldwin!
As for comedy against the left,there is so much material there just waiting for a good comedy writer and comedian. Lets start with the left wing pundits-
Chris Matthews, a spit poppin Ps… an achoholic smartass who wrote speechs for a loser President Jimmy Carter, Keith Olbermann another loser loon who was canned from several sports shows, thought he was funny, and could morph into politics! Katy “ratface” Couric a real genius, Charley Gibson a preppy Mammas boy in loafers, that in Junior high got pantsed in the locker room, probably was a snitch,
Joey Behar idiot, Helen Thomas of AP, woman or man? Lets try some leftist politicians- Nancy Pelosi so much material just look at her face! Harry Reid
a racist nerd that lucked out, Barney Franks, well, where do we start, Al- two necks- Gore a lier and a fraud, an inconvientant human being. Hillary Clinton nurse Ratchet among other satires. You get the picture. As for Obama you have to have an official black crticizer like Rush uses with Mr. Snerdly. There has to be a black conservative comedian out there with a pair of brass ones that could make a career out of an impersonation Of the anointed one, a career just waiting to be honed. Obama has so many ticks and flaws off the teleprompter, it could be a hit, he is a walking paradox! Come on comedians give it back to the left. Sarah Palin will be just fine, shes got more b..ls than alot men, especially on the left!
SNL has been more tedious than funny for many years. I also find it challenging to take any show with Alec Baldwin seriously or humorously since Kim Jung Il called him “Arec Barwin” in “Team America World Police.” Conservative/Libertarian humor is alive and well. I have never laughed as hard at any SNL show, spin off or movie as I did when the marionette Michael Moore appeared as a suicide bomber to blow up Team America H.Q. Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Ben Stein, Mark Steyn, Ann Coulter, Paul Shanklin, Rush Limbaugh, Penn and Teller all demonstrate that believers in smaller government and greater personal liberty can be very funny, especially when p*ssing in someone’s cereal.
The MSM are extremely biased. They totally ignored Ron Paul in the primaries and they bashed Palin to death. While totally ignoring or making excuses for anything negative coming from the Democrats. I wish people would stop watching the MSM and listening to the deception. Start getting your info from the internet and Glenn Beck show!
Yeah, it’s a real stretch for Fey and Baldwin to do a show about behind-the-scenes NBC. What talent.
Reminds me of how upset Richard Dreyfuss was that John Wayne won an Oscar, saying something along the lines of, “Wayne is always just Wayne. He’s not an Actor (sniff). It’s only a matter of time until I am recognized as the genius I am.”
So what does Dreyfuss win his Oscar for? “The Goodbye Girl” — a stage play made into a movie where Dreyfuss plays (wait for it) an actor.
Hmmm…Reps4Brkfst says “Mad TV had an awesome BO & MO impersonator. Too bad it was cancelled.” [sic]
So, MAD TV runs for years, takes a few cracks at BHO and gets abruptly canceled.
Coincidence???? I don’t think so!!
anthony – you, like mccain, are part of the weenies that brought 9-11 to America. We know that people such as you, with your phony superiority, will continue to put the American people at risk as well as getting the innocent Americans killed by the radicals of the world.
Your pompous attitude and actions continues to foist traitorous people such as mcdermott, bonior, murray, dodd, frank, jefferson, kaptur, ellison and other prominent America haters upon the Real Americans.
It is truly unfortunate that your actions, such as the other traitorous Americans, will not be used to hold you and your ilk accountable. The American people will continue to suffer the people like your messiah, untouchable obama, who will be right in line with jimmy carter.
I used to watch Jay Leno’s opening, (he was funnier when his writers were on strike), but his constant attacks on Gov. Palin turned me off. He still harps on Bush even though Bush is going home.
Hillbuzz.com believes this constant attack on Palin is because the left and some of the right, are afraid of her and her possible rise in the Republican Party.
I don’t know, I can’t figure it out. I do believe McCain’s people wanted her to say certain things, so McCain would not take the hit.
Gov. Palin took on her own Party and fought corruption, took on the oil companies…and this is what she got for her work?
Someone tell me what Obama did! Yet, Leno, Letterman and others, won’t tell a joke about him, it has to be because they are afraid of being billed as being a racist, but it’s okay to look sexist.
I want Gov. Palin to rise in the Party, but I am afraid the media has destroyed her, and this is one of the worst things I have ever seen, coming out of our so-called media!
You must be logged in to post a comment.