Right Wing World: Victoria Jackson to Run for Office!

Not too long ago, Martin Bashir got into trouble for calling Sarah Palin (among other things), a village idiot. Well, as dumb as she is, Palin would have to be lobotomized and given a hallucinogen before she'd be the creature that is Victoria Jackson. Jackson not only played a dumb blonde on Saturday Night Live, she happens to be one in real life. So, naturally, she's gotten into politics! Jackson's political philosophy is basically to take the absolute nuttiest and most extreme parts of the Tea Party, married them with even further-out-there conspiracy theories, with a twist of racism and homophobia. Oh, and she sings too!

She was entertaining as part of one of SNL's heyday casts, which included Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller. Miller also has taken a hard-right turn in his later years, but at least he is intelligent, and (occasionally, kind of) funny. Vicki is a total mess. But here's hoping her one-time celebrity shines a spotlight onto her sure-to-be-hilarious campaign. Unintentionally hilarious, of course.

[Excerpt]


Image from source, the fantastic NewsCorpse

The Tea Party’s Dream Candidate Files For Tennessee Election

That’s right, former Saturday Night Live ukelele strummer, Victoria Jackson, has declared her candidacy for a seat as a county commissioner in Williamson County, Tennessee. As a commissioner Jackson can be expected to bring her unique “knowledge” of economics, urban planning, law enforcement, business development, and government administration to Williamson’s county hall. Plus, she can recite poetry while standing on her head. . .

Read more (with video) at: NewsCorpse

Why Aren't Conservatives Funny?

Yuck. Image from source, The Big Slice

I've visited this topic several times, and I still don't have a perfect answer to the question, why isn't conservative "humor" funny? FOX "News" tried a humor-themed program years ago called the 1/2-hour News Hour, and it was famously dreadful. FOX's RedEye lasted longer, but even their best attempts at humor were usually equally offensive, and often times hateful. Dennis Miller jumped from moderate/liberal to conservative, and promptly became as subtle as an anvil, and deathly unfunny. And not coincidentally, his best gig these days is the same FOX "News." If you seek out conservative humor on far-right sites like FreeRepublic.com, you'd better have a tough constitution, and absolutely no ability to be offended. To say they have a mean-spirited streak would be to undersell it, and point out the very, very obvious.

The best answer from the article excerpted below is that conservative humor lacks empathy. Even scathing, balls-out humor needs to have self-deprecation, and empathy to be tolerable. Yes, there are "shock" comics throughout comedy history like Andrew Dice Clay, Don Rickles and Lisa Lampenelli. But everyone knew Rickles' act was schtick, and that Lisa really digs black guys and gay people. Clay was a different story, though clearly a character like Pee-Wee Herman or Elvira. But Clay burned out, didn't he? He had no empathy, no self deprecation. His humor was abrasive, and guilty funny, but it became old and tired quickly. Conservative humor doesn't even garner guilty funny, and it sounds old at the very beginning. But I'll boil it down beyond all of that: conservatives are mean. Mean without empathy is not funny.

[Excerpt]

Why Conservatives Aren’t Funny

Something conservatives lack when it comes to politics is humor.  Everyone takes their politics seriously, but conservatives, whether of the home-spun or Paul Ryan variety, pride themselves in being serious and straightforward.  It is this iron(y) deficiency that makes for a stolid political class and an almost completely humorless pack of pundits. . .

Read more at:  The Big Slice

FOX & Friends Finds Someone Dumber Than Them: Victoria Jackson

Apparently, when the classic 1986-1992 cast of Saturday Night Live disbanded, Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman (RIP) went on to interesting careers, while Dennis Miller and Victoria Jackson went bananas. Well, conservative, which these days is the same thing. At least Miller is plugged in and informed, even if he's desperately unfunny. Victoria Jackson inspires laughter of a sort: nervous laughter. She's seemingly unbalanced, clearly "educated" by FOX "News" and FreeRepublic.com. And she's seemingly still playing an SNL character, twenty years (and fifty pounds) later.

Holiday Cheer: Pat Benatar's Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

With apologies for the Dennis Miller interlude. . .

FOX "News" Cancels 1/2 Hour News Hour

In the spirit of bipartisanship, I gave this show a chance. No, really, I did! I probably watched 3/4 of the episodes (at least in part) of The 1/2 Hour News Hour. While the two "anchors" actually had some chemistry and talent, they couldn't do much with the material.

And whoa, the material. Painful out-of-date groaners, mean-spirited digs at politicians and celebrities, and oh yeah, Dennis Miller. One of the original stars of the real Weekend Update finds himself an unfunny footnote on a Weekend Update/Daily Show ripoff. It was bad, just. . .bad. But you'd never know it from the laugh track. The laugh machine thought it was uproarious!

You can fool most of the FOX "News" viewing public most of the time, but I guess you can't make them think you're funny.

[Excerpt]

Fox’s Right-Wing Alternative To Daily Show Fails

In January, Fox announced that it would begin airing the “Half Hour News Hour” on Sunday nights, the so-called “right-wing answer to ‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.‘” “You can turn on any show and see Bush being bashed,” said creator Joel Surnow, producer of Fox’s 24.

“There really is nothing out there for those who want satire that tilts right.” As Fox has learned, that’s because no one wants to watch that kind of satire. . .

Read more at ThinkProgress.org