Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Someone call the time here, because you're about to hear something that may never again be repeated in polite society: Jay Leno inspired me to write something.
I know, I know. Leno is the guy who bamboozled Conan in 2010 and boxed Letterman out of the late-night lane back in 1992. He's the guy with zero street cred and a seemingly ever-expanding list of detractors in the comedy world.
But he's also the guy who consistently wins in the ratings and has proven a willingness to welcome guests from all across the political spectrum to his show.
The inspiration for this post I penned over at Acculturated was a recent interview Leno gave in which he made the claim that Republicans are more ready, willing and able to laugh at themselves.
An excerpt:
Who are we kidding here? Of course Republicans can laugh at themselves more, if for no other reason than that they get infinitely more practice learning how to embrace their role as the punch-line to every late night talk show’s monologue joke since Bill Clinton. Almost every major comedian is liberal. Every TV and movie studio that produces comedies is liberal. Most of the press covering what makes people laugh in America is liberal. We’re talking a straight numbers game here, folks.
But that doesn’t fully explain why Republicans decide to laugh along and be good sports on the whole. Or why Democrats, who have just as many silly politicians and political scandals as do representatives of the Right, decide to calibrate their personal emotional settings to “sour-puss” when “their guy” or “their side” takes a few jabs to the proverbial chin.
Read the full piece here. I'd love to get some feedback on Mr. Leno's assertion and my analysis from Ricochet nation.
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Apr '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
The Right.
It is how I found out I was conservative.
Apr '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Quite true. Conservatives understand human nature rather than getting upset by it. Liberals are bullies. It's alright for them to make fun of the other guy, but don't you dare make fun of liberals.
Aug '10
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
I think it's because conservatives are able to see how human foibles and weaknesses are permanent features of the human condition.
Yes, we want to keep those weaknesses and foibles under some semblance of control, but we recognize that we'll never be able to eliminate them entirely, even in ourselves, so we might as well have a laugh about 'em in the meantime.
Progressives, on the other hand, are trying to create a heaven on Earth. They think that human weakness and foibles can be eliminated. Any attempt to satirize their side of the debate is clearly an attempt to make progressives appear weak, and is therefore a political threat.
Sep '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Nietzsche said that the sacred is whatever it is in a culture at which one cannot laugh. To the Left, the struggle they wage for justice of whatever type (social/economic/environmental), however misguided and counterproductive, is the sacred.
Dec '10
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Mark Steyn once said that since comedy is taking reality and tweaking it, most liberals - by definition - cannot be true comedians because they refuse to accept and tweak all of the realities that exist. What do you think of that statement? I'm inclined to agree.
Dec '10
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
So then what, in your opinion, are the things that the Right hold sacred? Faith? Family?
Oct '11
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
What Misthiocracy said. Didn't Chesterton characterize Original Sin as a gift?
Apr '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
R.J. Moeller
Mark Steyn once said that since comedy is taking reality and tweaking it, most liberals - by definition - cannot be true comedians because they refuse to accept and tweak all of the realities that exist. What do you think of that statement? I'm inclined to agree. · 33 minutes ago
Who could argue with the inestimable Mr. Steyn?
Jul '10
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
In addition:
The Right thinks Their station in Life is because of Themselves. The left feels their station in Life is because of others.
I'd be walking around ticked off all day too if I thought others were keeping Me from getting what I want or having to rely on others for what I want.
Jun '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
We conservatives laugh at ourselves more than liberals laugh at themselves because we are funnier than liberals. Liberals laugh at us more because: a) see above, and b) they cannot laugh at themselves.
We are defined by our ideas, they by their emotions. You can take an idea out, polish it up, set it on the coffee table, and poke fun at it all day. Try that with an emotion, and you'll likely get called several bad names right before your are slapped.
Mar '11
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Misthiocracy got it just about right.
You're crazy if you think Letterman is funnier than Leno, and I doubt you could find anyone on the right able to laugh with Bill Maher who is an interesting case. Maher shows that the left is easier to pander to than the right. You can be sure of getting a big laugh on the left just by being cruel to someone they don't like; the crueler the better.
Your post reminded me of Alexi Sayle's routine about the difficulty of performing stand-up to a left wing audience; how the comedian has to deliver a joke then pause for a few seconds while the audience examine the joke for political correctness then glance to their neighbor for permission to laugh, or maybe applaud.
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
The Right is less respectful of the transient, banal, petty pieties of political fashion, which provides a wider spectrum for ridicule and hilarity. While they hold faith and family sacred, as RJ notes, neither are exempt. A believer or agnostic's arguments with God are rich fodder for comedy; all the atheist has is rote ridicule of Jeebus-lovin' hicks with their Sky Daddy. Hyuk.
Plus, the post-60s cultural pole-shift means that all the counter-culture notions are now the Holy Writ of the Establishment, which puts the critics in the role of the truth-telling jesters previously filled by Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl and the Smothers Brothers. Without the adolescent smugness.
May '10
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Q: How many leftists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: That's not funny.
May '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
I think the left finds it unthinkable to laugh at itself. It does so because, unlike conservatives' arguments, left-wing ideas are sustained by their status as orthodoxy within our cultural elite. Nothing punctures orthodoxy faster than satire.
Edited on October 1, 2012 at 7:42amSep '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
I have been plugging the Conservatives are, or more accurately can be, funny, while leftists just arn't idea for a while. Though it is odd given that the leftists seem to have a near monopoly on the Comedy profession in this country (UK) - a subject I could bore on for a while but best not.
What really crystallised this thought was listing to Mr Delingpole on the Any Questions radio show here. This is a national political Q&A panel show on BBC Radio. The audience is (almost) always packed out with lefties willing to cheer to the rafters left wing loonery and to boo and mock, or worse greet with chilling silence, sensible right wing views. Delingpole has had a rough ride on this show in the past but on the last outing, rather brilliantly, he turned up frivilous and amusing. The opening question was a soft ball about Prince Harry's nude pics and restraint of the press: James delighted the audience by expressing his admiration for the Prince's buttocks and, unusually, they warmed to him. He continued in similar vein .....
Edited on October 1, 2012 at 2:59pmSep '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
[cont] I think this a brilliant tactic for the right - deploy humour to get the message across against po faced superserious lefties. In this country we tend to value humour above most approaches. I do however recognise that it is more difficult for policians than for a free agent like James, though the likes of Boris Johnson exemplify the humanising aspect of humour in political debate.
Nov '10
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Kervinlee: Q: How many leftists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: That's not funny. · 8 hours ago
And for complete balance...
Q: How many conservatives does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Change??!
Apr '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Well... I think he has it backwards.
The Right isn't more likely to laugh because we get more practice, we get more practice because we're more willing to laugh at ourselves.
The folks selling "being funny" want to reach as many folks as possible, and for a lot of the Left their politics are their religion. And their faith isn't healthy enough for, oh, Catholic Dictionary type humor. You don't joke about important things that are threatened.
Thirding that a lot of specifically Left wing humor is just being nasty, in the "tragedy is when I have a hangnail, comedy is when you fall down a sewer and die" sort.
Nov '10
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
It all ultimately comes back to collectivism. If, say, Mike Huckabee does something worthy of mockery, conservatives are okay with said mockery because we know that he is an individual and his acts reflect solely against him and not on Evangelical Christians in general. Meanwhile if Jesse Jackson Jr. does something dumb, collectivists see him as representing black people writ large, so mockery in his case suddenly becomes racism.
We saw this a lot in the 90's (when I was just starting to awaken politically.) People were criticizing some predominantly black sitcoms for their negative portrayal of black people, but no one was criticizing Al Bundy as a representative of white people in general.
I think there are plenty of funny leftists; it's all a question of which they value more. Even though I'm sure they all agree on 90% of issues, Robin Williams is funny, and Bill Maher is not; Ellen Degeneres is funny, and Rosie O'Donnell is not; Elton John makes good music, and Bruce Springsteen does not. And so on and so on.
Feb '12
Re: Right vs. Left: Who Laughs More?
Liberals laugh more...at us.
Conservatives laugh more...with us.
James Lileks: The Right is less respectful of the transient, banal, petty pieties of political fashion, which provides a wider spectrum for ridicule and hilarity. While they hold faith and family sacred, as RJ notes, neither are exempt. A believer or agnostic's arguments with God are rich fodder for comedy; all the atheist has is rote ridicule of Jeebus-lovin' hicks with their Sky Daddy. Hyuk.
Plus, the post-60s cultural pole-shift means that all the counter-culture notions are now the Holy Writ of the Establishment, which puts the critics in the role of the truth-telling jesters previously filled by Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl and the Smothers Brothers. Without the adolescent smugness. · 10 hours ago
I agree, Mr. Lileks. I find religious folks, myself included, find it hard to take themselves too seriously when juxtaposed to the Almighty. If it wasn't so tragic sometimes, it would all be too hilarious.