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Even ‘Half Hour’ too much of Fox comedy
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by Mike Peters
Friday, February 23, 2007
Rush Limbaugh is president. Ann Coulter is vice president. Sounds like a staunch Republican's dream.
Wait, Limbaugh and Coulter are acting — this is a nightmare for anyone to witness.
The viewer's nightmare doesn't end there: This is the first segment of the new Fox News series "The Half Hour News Hour," which premiered on Sunday night.
The show is a "Daily Show"-like news parody with a conservative bias. There is nothing wrong with the concept, and it definitely deserved a go. Unfortunately, "The Half Hour News Hour" may have squandered the opportunity. What a waste of potential.
I agree that "The Daily Show" and most political comedy in general leans to the left. I also agree that conservatives deserve a comedy show of their own. However, this shouldn't be it. If I didn't have a column to write, I would have shut it off in the first five minutes.
The show just isn't funny. In fact, it is more mean-spirited than anything, as if a fifth-grade bully who teases his classmates in order to hide from his own insecurities wrote the show.
For instance, at one point, the show introduces a new magazine called "BO: The Barack Obama Magazine." Get it? Obama's initials are the same as body odor! Take that, Barack Obama, or should I say, BO!
Coming up next week, Obama gets a wedgie.
Kurt McNally (Kurt Long), who takes the concept of deadpan to an awkward extreme, co-hosts the show with the vacant Jennifer Lange (Jenn Robertson). I find it strange that they use aliases, but then again, I wouldn't want to be associated with this show either. These two lack so much chemistry, they make Seth Myers and Amy Poehler look like a fireworks display. In fact, they rattle off each joke at a pace reminiscent of "Weekend Update," but without all that pesky laughter from the audience to slow them down. At times, I wasn't even sure if the laughter was coming from the audience or a sound-effects tape.
The two hosts couldn't seem more uninterested in the topics they discuss, reading everything off the teleprompter like especially stiff robots. The great thing about "The Daily Show" is its sense of spontaneity. Jon Stewart may read everything off a teleprompter, but he conveys it with feeling and adds his own little twist every once and a while. It seems less scripted and more fun. "The Half Hour News Hour," on the other hand, is the opposite of fun.
If I had to point out the major flaw, aside from not being funny, I would say the show leans so far to the right, it refuses to have a sense of humor about itself. This gives it the off-putting aura of arrogance. Even though "The Daily Show," and specifically Jon Stewart, has an obvious liberal bias, this bias rarely affects the humor. The show gladly slams liberals, conservatives and anyone else who deserves it.
The way "The Half Hour News Hour" is produced makes me wonder if the writers ignore the bipartisan ribbing on "The Daily Show" and immediately take everything personally, which, like the bully from before, would just be childish and oddly defensive. Instead of saying something intelligent, they come back with the TV show equivalent of "My political views can beat up your political views."
The most cringe-inducing moments came with the introduction of Lenny Varnadou, a novelty T-shirt salesman. Comedian Dom Irrera, who is much better than this show, played Lenny. As he displayed each T-shirt with a picture of a political figure and a supposedly funny saying (e.g. "Shiite Happens"), the two hosts identified the picture and read the slogan aloud. I found this incredibly condescending and annoying, as if they thought the viewers were incapable of reading or understanding the joke on their own (although if the show continues, this will probably reflect the regular audience).
"The Half Hour News Hour" is brought to us by Joel Surnow, the executive producer of "24." If "24" weren't such a big hit, I'd say this monstrosity would be the end of his career. It certainly won't help it.
I don't blame Fox News for this one. Conservatives do deserve a comedic voice, but the show was just poorly executed. Until someone figures out how to do it correctly, I suppose conservatives have Dennis Miller (who I personally consider a comedy genius) during the occasional "Tonight Show" appearance and, to a more depressing degree, "Blue Collar TV."
Now that "The Half Hour News Hour" has premiered, I'm thinking Fox News will yank it off the air very soon, bury the tapes in the studio vault and never talk about it again.
Then, Fox News can go back to doing what it does best — supplying "The Daily Show" with material.
Mike Peters is a senior focusing on communication arts, film and business. Thought the Barack Obama body odor gag was actually funny? Let Mike know at mpeters@badgerherald.com.
Anonymous (February 23, 2007 @ 4:40am):
What Fox fails to get, and you fail to get, too, is that the Daily show and the Colbert Report, too, is not a political parody, but a MEDIA parody, viz the story about the astronaut with the diapers. Daily show Header: "Highly qualiified woman in tragic local story", which not only summed up the story, but showed how stupid and overly aggressive American media is. Now, it takes a flexible, quick intelligence to make those kinds of jokes, just the kind of intelligence that Conservatives don't have. Ergo, there will NEVER be a good, conservative media parody show. It is congenitally impossible for them to be that kind of funny. No one "deserves a comedic voice". That is something you earn, and you gotta be smart, and sadly, conservatives are a lot of things, but self-deprecatingly funny/smart isn't on the list.
Anonymous (February 23, 2007 @ 10:10am):
Since when do conservatives think anything in the news is funny?
Anonymous (February 23, 2007 @ 11:34am):
Viz?Ergo??4:40am???Sounds like a douchebag who likes the matrix too much.
Anonymous (February 23, 2007 @ 3:31pm):
"That is something you earn, and you gotta be smart, and sadly, conservatives are a lot of things, but self-deprecatingly funny/smart isn't on the list."
Good wide sweeping generalization. But i think you liberals are funny. Just read the sophomoric comment above. Your comments are so ridiculous its hilarious!
Anonymous (February 23, 2007 @ 9:40pm):
Liberals are just filled with envy right now. First of all because the ratings did so well for the "Half hour news hour" 1.5 million viewers, (more than the Colbert Report" and close to the "Daily show" ratings. Fox will prevail!
Anonymous (February 26, 2007 @ 12:40am):
The show honestly reminded me of high school students doing a take on SNL's "Weekend Update." The initial ratings may have been high because of curiousity, but I cannot imagine this show having a long life. If it does, I am sad for what it says about our national sense of humor.
Anonymous (February 26, 2007 @ 4:06am):
I watched this with anticipation ....but have to agree this is one of the worst attempts at comedy I've ever seen. Fox should kill this now....before it becomes a blight on it's brand name. The concept may be good, the execution is 'Rumsfeldian'.
Anonymous (February 27, 2007 @ 7:09pm):
..."The show just isn’t funny. In fact, it is more mean-spirited than anything, as if a fifth-grade bully who teases his classmates in order to hide from his own insecurities wrote the show."
... Which is exactly what right leaning people tend to be able to identify with.
I don't know a single person that leans right that wasn't a torturer in school.
Anonymous (February 27, 2007 @ 7:30pm):
This is not a competitor to the Daily Show, they don't have to worry about losing any audience.
'When Animals Attack' and 'Real TV' on the other hand, just better hope they don't fill the same time slot.
Anonymous (February 27, 2007 @ 10:33pm):
"...as if a fifth-grade bully who teases his classmates in order to hide from his own insecurities wrote the show."
Precisely, but what else can you really expect from conservatives? This is essentially what conservatives are with their "I love freedom, you don't agree with me on an unrelated point therefore you hate freedom" perspective of the world. Their ignorance and blind, uncritical echoing of their corporate and political master's ideals makes the development of a "right-wing comedy" that is actually funny, impossible. TDS and TCR cut conservatives deeply; suddenly all the chest thumping machismo and marching band anthems are removed revealing the problem that plagues all conservatives - the inability to love and empathise with their own species. We liberals don't have that problem. We're smarter, better educated and enjoy the world. And guess what, even though the feeling isn't mutual, we are able to pity and to love conservatives and understand why they feel the way they do. Was the previous statement retarded enough for you? OK, not as retarded as Anon @ 9:40pm. He is so determined to live in his box that he will support this show not because it is funny or he is entertained by it, but because he is so spiteful that he believes it would somehow annoy liberals. FREAK! Here's an idea, how about we stop dividing our societies with conservative/liberal pigeon holes?
Anonymous (February 28, 2007 @ 1:02pm):
Is the HHNH already pulled? There wasn't a single reference to it at all on www.foxnews.com this morning. Irregardless of its potential or more than likely probable demise how much of the inspiration and desire of FNC to create it in the first came from the success of TDS/TCR? Or was FNC just envious? Doesn't a part of the continued success and longevity of TDS/TCR have to do with the fact that they are both just knee-slappin roll-in-the-aisles tears-running-down-your-face hilarious? Obviously not every single joke works and some episodes are better than others but overall when you tune into them you are guaranteed an entertaining experience in a positive way. They leave you in a much better place as opposed to the egomaniacal, condescending, arrogant, narrow minded O'Reilly-Hannity-Coulter-North-etc braintrust on the nightly FNC lineup. Those guys frequently leave me with a get-me-a-gun-i-want-to-blow-my-brains-out feeling.
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