Did you hear the one about Kerry looking like a horse?

September 17, 2005 1:08 PM

Are there any funny right-wing comedians?

I have been looking all over for new funny stuff to keep me entertained on long journeys to work and back but all my comedy seems to come from left-wing/atheist/anti-bush sources (David Cross, Lewis Black, Patton Oswalt etc). I'd like to know if there are actually any funny right-wing/religious/pro-bush comedians so that I don't end up laughing at just one thing all the time. I don't want the usual suspects saying "Bushisms are funny hem-hem-hem", I'd like genuine suggestions if there are any - bonus points if the jokes aren't all about Bill Clinton since he is an easy whipping boy for all comedians. The comedian doesn't even have to be from the USA, as long as it's in English.

posted by longbaugh to media & arts (47 comments total)

Larry the Cable Guy ?
posted by benkolb at 1:20 PM on September 17, 2005

Not necessarily a comedian, but the Capitol Steps are a very funny DC-based parody song group. They're all congressional staffers and are pretty balanced...although I saw them in the Clinton years and he was the brunt of many of their jokes. I'd imagine the same would be true now for Bush.
posted by awesomebrad at 1:22 PM on September 17, 2005

how do you feel about the Blue Collar Comedy tour guys? I've never been able to sit through more than two or three minutes of it, but they seem like good candidates.
posted by hototogisu at 1:22 PM on September 17, 2005

Dennis Miller comes to mind as a right-wing comedian.
posted by bobo123 at 1:27 PM on September 17, 2005

The problem you're going to run into is that, if you're not a right-winger yourself, you're going to be too busy being pissed off by the politics of right-wing comedians to actually laugh at them. I have the same problem with the far left-wingers because their jokes come from some planet I've never even visited. I can't even get the humor because my worldview overlaps insufficiently with theirs -- to me, they just keep saying infuriatingly dumb things whose connection with reality is tenuous at best. Ergo, they're just not funny to me. And I'm not even a hard-righter, I consider myself a moderate who leans right. I have the same problem to a somewhat lesser extent with Rush Limbaugh and his ilk, though he's not really a comedian. Dennis Miller I do find funny, though I know a lot of liberals feel he "lost the funny" when he decided to support Bush on the war.
posted by kindall at 1:30 PM on September 17, 2005

http://www.rightstuffcomedy.com/
posted by fire&wings at 1:35 PM on September 17, 2005

kindall, could you share some examples of some of the far-left comedians you can't find funny because of their politics?
posted by odinsdream at 1:36 PM on September 17, 2005

Kindall's nailed it, but in the specific case of Miller, while I think his politics are just fine, in recent years if he hasn't lost the funny, he's not sure exactly where it is. His Rants, tho, remain excellent (YMMV) and pretty bipartisan.
posted by mojohand at 1:45 PM on September 17, 2005

Lewis Black: "For those of you who are Republicans and think what I'm about to do is disturbing and not fair, go listen to the stuff that I did about Clinton, okay? If you want to elect George Bush, that's the prick I'm gonna yell about. If you want to elect John Kerry, I'll be yelling about him. My problem is with -- huh-heh! -- AUTHORITY."

See his White Album for further evidence.
posted by Danelope at 1:57 PM on September 17, 2005

PJ O'Rourke. He's a a capital "C" conservative, former editor of National Lampoon, and a funny motherfucker. I think he was on Real Time last week, and ripped that moron Joy Behar a new corn shoot.
posted by SweetJesus at 1:58 PM on September 17, 2005

Nick DiPaolo
posted by slow, man at 2:00 PM on September 17, 2005

colin quinn, jim norton and nick dipalo all come to mind... their acts might not really have much political comedy in them, but on things such as Tough Crowd w/ Colin Quinn (no longer on tv) and Opie&Anthony on XM Satellite Radio you will often hear those comedians being extrememly funny about all sorts of current issues.

you can get a free 3day online trial of XM Satellite Radio at http://listen.xmradio.com (doesn't help you much since you want it for your commute, sorry).


.//chris
posted by hummercash at 2:04 PM on September 17, 2005

DiPaolo quote: "If hooking a car battery up to a monkey's brain will help find the cure for AIDS and save somebody's life, I have two things to say ... the red is positive and the black is negative."
posted by slow, man at 2:07 PM on September 17, 2005

Drew Carry is a right-winger and a funny guy, but he usually doesn't dwell on politics, at least from what I've seen.

Ben Stein I've found funny but after I read his apologia regarding Bush and Katrina I don't think I could stomach him anymore.

I don't know where Jimmy Kimmel is coming from politically but he's done plenty of ugly Muslim caricatures on his show that could be considered pro-war, I guess. Although he's had both David Cross and Bob Odenkirk on, and they did anti-war material.

What about shock jocks? I guess I'm with kindall on this. If you disagree with what they're saying you're not going to be laughing.
posted by hydrophonic at 2:08 PM on September 17, 2005

and a funny motherfucker

circa 1984, yes. in more recent years, not really. he was big on anti-Soviet jokes -- the market for that stuff kinda dried up, I'd say. also, he tried to morph into a "serious" commentator -- bad idea, he just lacks the brains and the gravitas
posted by matteo at 2:11 PM on September 17, 2005

and Chris Rock, while technically not a right-winger, is certainly pretty misogynistic much of the time -- if that rocks your boat, he has plenty of jokes in that department. also, his old "niggaz vs black people" routine seems to be a favourite for a lot of racist pricks, for all the wrong reasons of course
posted by matteo at 2:15 PM on September 17, 2005

also: Bill Cosby, if you still consider him a comedian
posted by matteo at 2:18 PM on September 17, 2005

circa 1984, yes. in more recent years, not really. he was big on anti-Soviet jokes -- the market for that stuff kinda dried up, I'd say. also, he tried to morph into a "serious" commentator -- bad idea, he just lacks the brains and the gravitas

The few times I've seen him on Real Time he's been very funny. He's very quick-witted, and un-like most other Right wing comedians (Nike Dipalo and Jim Norton come to mind.) he doesn't fall back on the whole "poor people are lazy", "black people fuck too much" or Bill Clinton blow job jokes to get a laugh.
posted by SweetJesus at 2:29 PM on September 17, 2005

fwiw; Bill Cosby was on the FBI's list of "dangerous" people along with Noam Chomsky in the early 90's.
posted by odinsdream at 2:29 PM on September 17, 2005

kindall - you're very right in that some of their humour will piss me off, but I need to hear it at least to humanise my opponents. That rightstuffcomedy link features things like :

Here (sic) Chris Warren, a conservative from Eugen Ogegon (sic) talk about tree huggers and terrorists.

Well, treehuggers piss me off too and I am not overly keen on terrorists either, but then there are gems such as :

Sheila Rivera gives her own 411 on Liberals, Tony Robinson comments on liberals and breast feeding,
Caroline Picard loves Bush. Here (sic) about it… oh and she goes after liberals and finally Jeff “Big Daddy” Wayne targets Arnold Swartzenneger, Bill and Hilary Clinton, and Liberals.

I would like intelligent right wing comedy (if it exists). Something that doesn't come across as thinly veiled hatred of "liberals" or if it is then is at least funny. Most left wing comics are as abrasive to Democrat presidents as they are Republican, and whilst his comment above is great, Lewis Black's delivery grates on my nerves a bit too much. I shall try out some Dennis Miller and see how it turns out.

I suppose more than anything I'd like to know that my opponents can laugh at themselves as well as I can laugh at the more extreme elements on my "team". It would make me feel better if I can find at least some middle ground on something.
posted by longbaugh at 3:02 PM on September 17, 2005

Nick DePaolo & Drew Carey are right wing? Jeez, you people need to get out more.

They're funny guys but they're emphasis was never really political. There's a guy who's name escapes me, who's CD came in at work who specifically billed himself as a "right of center, religious" comic. I gave him a whirl. It was a bad Denis Leary imitation.

If by "right wing," you mean "unafraid to offend anybody (including liberal pieties) then I'd second PJ O'Rourke, and I'd add that Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, and TV writers like Norman Lear were quite willing to mock leftists as well as righties and were always funny doing it, which is the first order of business. You can laugh and then be offended, but you can't take back the initial reaction.

Anyways, Lisa Lampanelli is funny as hell, and she'd probably offend some uptight lefties, but I'd hardly call her right wing.
posted by jonmc at 3:04 PM on September 17, 2005

On Dennis Miller: He was funny (and refreshingly literate) back in the day, but lately his material is way too transparently partisan. He used to go after everybody with the same rapier sharp sword. Now he's just a lapdog.
posted by jonmc at 3:05 PM on September 17, 2005

Also, if Carey and Dipaolo are your idea of right wing Carlos Mencia is a comic of the same cloth and funnier than shit.
posted by jonmc at 3:15 PM on September 17, 2005

Bill Cosby, if you still consider him a comedian

In the documentary "comedian" with Seinfield and some obnoxious kid, I think Chris Rock was talking about going to see Cosby do a two hour show and saying he "killed."
posted by craniac at 3:24 PM on September 17, 2005

Dipaolo and Jim Norton are both right wing in the "haha, stereotypes are funny" sense. Mencia is of the same mold, but is marginally cleverer. It's still mostly recycled "black people do x, white people do y" shtick. I frankly can't think of any true right-wing political comedians that I find funny.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:26 PM on September 17, 2005

Bill Hicks is great (my favorite comic), but he's more anti-ignorance than anything else. But in terms of delivery, he's the best I've ever heard. Post-September 11th David Cross is closest modern analogue to Bill Hicks. There is a torrent out there on the net somewhere (do a search) that is a complete Bill Hicks discography, containing about 25 live shows. It's one of the most fantastic things ever.

It's a fucking shame-of-shames that he died so young. He would have so much material today.
posted by SweetJesus at 3:27 PM on September 17, 2005

+1 Ben Stein. Although, he's not my style of Libertarian conservative... he's pretty neocon.
posted by Netzapper at 3:29 PM on September 17, 2005

well, monju, the truth is stereotypes are funny. Better to lay all our ugly thoughts on the table rather than than the polite faux-multiculti limo-lib shtick that Cross and his ilk peddle.
posted by jonmc at 3:29 PM on September 17, 2005

What exactly is faux-multicluti limo-liberal about David Cross?
posted by SweetJesus at 3:37 PM on September 17, 2005

Clever, original, and unexpected jokes exposing stereotypes are funny. If, on the other hand, I have to sit through another dumbass asking "Why do black people talk at the movies?" I might have to stab myself in the eye.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:37 PM on September 17, 2005

Cross does deal in stereotypes jon, his "Shut Up You Fucking Baby" double album is chock full of them. Thanks for the other suggestions - am looking them up and downloading some "examples" now.

Hicks gets the highest kudos for this one piece of truth though -

"I'll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. 'I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.' 'I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.' 'Hey, wait a minute, there's one guy holding out both puppets!' 'Shut up! Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control. Here's Love Connection. Watch this and get fat and stupid. By the way, keep drinking beer, you fucking morons.'"
posted by longbaugh at 3:37 PM on September 17, 2005

Jackie Mason is old-school, fiercely pro-Israel and very funny. Funnier than the Colin Quinn crowd, for sure, who just plain lack.

Political shifts affect how comedians are perceived, as Danelope's cite of Louis Black suggests. For instance, Bill Maher's libertarianism -- and most good right-of-centre American comics are essentially right-libertarian -- makes him much more palatable to the left these days than, say, a decade ago.
posted by holgate at 3:46 PM on September 17, 2005

kindall, could you share some examples of some of the far-left comedians you can't find funny because of their politics?

Al Franken. Bill Hicks, just for that bit about how anyone in advertising should kill themselves, which is quite possibly the single stupidest and most offensive widely-quoted bit of comedy ever.

I admit to laughing at David Cross sometimes, though.
posted by kindall at 4:24 PM on September 17, 2005

back to the original topic: Does poking fun at a liberal or leftist politician automatically make one a "right-wing comic?"

Let's face it, there are plenty of personalities on the liberal/left side of the fence (Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader, and of course Bill Clinton (whom I voted for twice and would vote for again)) who are comedy gold mines. Phil Hartman's "Clinton At McDonald's" still cracks me up to this day, as does MAD TV's post Jesse Jackson's out of wedlock child parody of OutKast's "Mrs. Jackson."

Does laughing my ass off at that make me a right-winger? Let me know so I can order my straw hat and seersucker suit.

Anybody with the hubris and ego to think that they're fit to govern a nation needs to be taken down a peg if only to keep 'em honest. And one reason I'm still a liberal at the end of the day is that we're supposed to be open minded enough to take a joke. Just sayin'.
posted by jonmc at 4:51 PM on September 17, 2005

I think you have to have a sense of humor to wear a seersucker suit. My boss wears one, and he's pretty funny.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 5:00 PM on September 17, 2005

Back 13 years + ago, I did stand-up comedy throughout the mid-west. I was good enough to make a bit of a living, but eventually gave it up because I got tired of club managers, who's only qualifications for the managerial job was the ability to make a damn good screwdrivers and keep their registers even, kept telling me how I should write my jokes.

I say this not to brag, but to show that I have a least a passing knowledge of the industry.

That being said, the only person who's even close to getting it correct here in the comments is Danelope, with his quote from Lewis Black. Most comics, although having a moderate left or moderate right perspective, are for the most-part anti-authority; direct decendants of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin. For the life of me, I can't think of any specifically far-right or far-left comics worth their salt.

There's a reason for this...when working on the far sides of the political spectrum, it's damn easy to come across as shrill. When you're shrill, your simply not funny. When you're not funny, you don't work...at least on stage. (You can still get work selling jokes to various radio DJ's and other minor gigs, but that's simply a sad, sad life).

There are exceptions to this rule, but they are few and far between.

Comics are a strange breed. As I said before, most of them have a political viewpoint, but being funny trumps them all. If you ain't funny (i.e. if you can't write a bit, nor tell one) you're simply not a comic and not part of their comic world, no matter how hard you pretend. I've seen comics with viewpoints both right and left laugh hard at stuff that would make their political brethern bristle. You know what pisses off comics most? It's not idealogues. It's hacks, prop comics, guitar acts and people who are not funny, almost in that order.

And as for Bill Hicks? I was lucky enough to meet him after a show he did in Cleveland about a year before he died. We talked for about 15 minutes about subjects that I cannot remember for the life of me, mostly because I was sitting there, talking to Bill effin' Hicks.

Back then, he was known as a Comics's comic. Even though he had been on Letterman several times, he was still somewhat of an unknown. And he preferred performing in the UK to any number of places in the States. The reason? The Brits, as an audience, gave you time to develop a premise before you got to your punchlines. Here in the states we're almost conditioned to be hit by the economy of words. If you have a one line set-up followed immediately by a punchline, you could work in the States.

Hicks liked to explore ideas and themes, which often led to rants. So jonmc is right in that, at times, Hicks could be self-indulgent. But he could also write the perfect joke.

I'll say this tho'..."he regurgitates their pre-chewed collegiate liberal politics back to them and they feel flattered and self-satisfied.". Hicks wrote from his own viewpoint, and very deliberately did not write to appease any audience. You're choice of the word "regurgitate" runs contrary to everything I've known and heard about him from other comics. Bill wrote for himself, and couldn't have cared less if his audience "got" him or not. But my opinion is based off of anecdotal info, so take it for what it's worth.

Regardless, trying to convince others that you're favorite comic is funny when the other person clearly doesn't believe so is a tremendous waste of time.
posted by AccidentalHedonist at 5:11 PM on September 17, 2005

side question to Rothko:

As a gay positive straight man and a fan of good writing, I admire Harvey Fierstien, but Jon Lovitz's "I just wanna be looved is that soo wraaawng?" parody of him had me busting a gut.

Homophobic humor? or merely poking fun at a celebrities quirks? I'm asking for a depth charge here.

I think we may be looking at different perceptions of humor and parody here. I remember reading an article about that Wedding Crashers movie by a black female reviewer, where she said she felt vaguely slighted by the fact that the main characters didn't crash a black wedding and make all the attendant comic jabs. It sounded strange but I can kind of see a corrolary in comedy. A true comic genius can have you busting a gut even while he's shredding everything dear to you. And to leave anybody out amounts to a kind of slight, saying that they're too delicate to particpate in freindly joshing. And this goes in every direction, I've listened to black and gay comics who have shredded straight white folk and they've had me busting a gut.

Am I nuts? Am I the only one who feels this way?
posted by jonmc at 5:13 PM on September 17, 2005

People laugh (amazingly) at Will and Grace and most of the actors are straight. To me its 21st Century blackface but I'm sure I'll get called a drama queen for saying so. On the other hand, it's a sitcom and a lot of Americans seem to laugh at the most godawful shite, regardless of who's involved. It all comes down to what tickles your funny bone.
posted by Rothko at 5:20 PM on September 17, 2005

Well, W&G is only occasionally funny, mainly because the characters are so unlikable, but I'm kind of asking a direct question of you: is lampooning a gay celebrity, especially one as lampoonable as Fierstien (who seems to enjoy a bit of good-natured spoofing himslef, watch his bit part in Spinal Tap) de facto homophobic humor? or is it a way of saying "I care so little about your differences that I invite you to join in our reindeer games."

In a way, the Fierstien being parodied on SNL amounted to a form of recognition: here's a gay man so famous that he's getting spoofed along side everyone else.

I may be strafing a mouse here, but it's an important issue in the dialog across barriers, or at least it is to me, as someone who relates to the rest of the world through humor.
posted by jonmc at 5:26 PM on September 17, 2005

I don't think the Fierstein parody is mean-spirited; I think that's the key difference in any parody. Whether this comes down to my personal view of said parody, or in fact it is not mean-spirited at all, doesn't matter to me. Even among gay men, Fierstein is often over-the-top flaming. For that matter, he often caricatures himself to a degree in his end-of-show editorials in In the Life.

If you want an example of mean-spiritedness, I guess think the kind of 50s-60s Las Vegas smoker acts, like the kind that Don Rickles does (if a bit watered down today). James Ellroy nails it in the portrayal his self-hating gay informant gives in American Tabloid.
posted by Rothko at 5:32 PM on September 17, 2005

I don't think the Fierstein parody is mean-spirited; I think that's the key difference in any parody.

I agree exactly. In the hands of a master, parody is the highest form of homage, in a way. It's a delicate balancing act, for sure, but comedians* can't treat anyone as off limits in my opinion, it's like a betrayal of their duties. I may be insane, but I see it as an embrace, much more so than the condecsending Kathy Griffin "my gays," type of embrace. It's my way of saying "you're one of my boys, and I'm gonna bust your balls just like veryone else's, and I expect no less from you, miss thing."

If you want an example of mean-spiritedness, I guess think the kind of 50s-60s Las Vegas smoker acts, like the kind that Don Rickles does (if a bit watered down today)

I agree that Rickles is a mean spirited fuck, but he spread it around evenly and he was awful funny while he did it.

James Ellroy nails it in the portrayal his self-hating gay informant gives in American Tabloid.

Agreed. Lenny Sands is one of Ellroy's most finely drawn characters. For a self-described conservative, James seems to have a soft spot for gay folk. He's also one of my heroes as a writer.

* This is important to me because as a writer, I see myself as a humorist, and I've been told that I should take a whack at stand-up by several people. I think they're overestimating me, but what the hell...
posted by jonmc at 5:41 PM on September 17, 2005

FWIW, Bill Cosby isn't a Republican. At least, his wallet appears to favour the Democrats.
posted by acoutu at 5:47 PM on September 17, 2005

It's a delicate balancing act, for sure, but comedians* can't treat anyone as off limits in my opinion, it's like a betrayal of their duties.

Which is why the question is kind of poor. There aren't really left- or right-wing comedians per se, just people who can't tolerate different types and levels of bullshit wherever they see it, and have managed to make a living from letting the rest of us know what they think.
posted by Rothko at 5:54 PM on September 17, 2005

Don Rickles? I mean the bit where you stand on the dias and audibly call audience members out as major-league assholes... Rickles invented that.
posted by .kobayashi. at 6:10 PM on September 17, 2005

Carlos Mencia is a comic of the same cloth and funnier than shit.

I love your sarcasm jonmc. Ben Stein, obviously, is as conservative as you can get and some regard him as funny. All the conservatives I know love the Blue Collar Comedy stuff. They are kind of sorta funny but all the jokes are weak and stuff you'd expect from something with Jeff Foxworthy.
posted by geoff. at 8:43 PM on September 17, 2005

I second the recommendation for Jackie Mason, but only his late 1980's / early 1990's work. After that, his shtick gets very repetitive. But his early stuff is frickin' hilarious.

Mason has, in the past five years, been writing an occasional syndicated column with lawyer Raoul Felder in which his right-wing sympathies are more explicit. And he appeared in the "Penn and Teller: Bullshit" episode about gun control (and was vociferously against it). So even though it doesn't always come through in the content of his act, especially in the early days, I would think he definitely considers himself to be a Rightie in more recent years.

Start with the live audio recording of his very first Broadway show, "The World According to Me!". It's really good. It was recorded in 1987, so he takes political potshots at Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, and others of the era--but then listen to some of his 1990's material about Clinton. He hated the guy, thought he was slick and shifty, and this was waaaaay before Ms. Lewinsky showed up.

Also, be warned that a major component of his act is poking fun at (and to an extent endorsing) racial stereotypes, though no more so than, say, Chris Rock does. And he saves the vast majority of the cruel barbs for Jews, who make up a majority of his audience. (Mason comes from a family of rabbis.) But I've seen the video-taped mini-act he did when he received an honrary degree from Oxford in the early 1990's, and when questioned about that point during the audience's Q&A, he defended himself admirably. To summarize, he is very very anti-political correctness. And if he has an excuse to make a joke about Jewish women being bad cooks, then hey, so much the better.
posted by Asparagirl at 11:50 PM on September 17, 2005

Larry Miller has written for the Weekly Standard. (He seems to be not so much one of those Bush Republicans as one of those 9/11-Changed-Everything Republicans.)
posted by Guy Smiley at 12:25 AM on September 18, 2005