Al Franken would have been perfect for this shit
A few years old, but still relevant:
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/02/why-theres-no-conservative-jon-stewart/385480/
So if conservatives have yet to produce their own Jon Stewart, it could be the relatively small number of working conservative comedians, or their lack of power in the entertainment industry. Or it could be that shows like The Flipside are failing at least, in part, because they’re just not that funny. But what is it about political satire that makes it so hard for conservatives to get it right?
Political humor, in particular, might have an inherently liberal bias. Alison Dagnes spent years looking into this question for her 2012 book A Conservative Walks Into a Bar. She spoke to dozens of working comedians who self-identified as liberals, and as many who identified as conservatives as she could find. One of the reasons she posits for a lack of conservative satire is that the genre has always been aimed at taking down the powerful, from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam and 9/11. “Conservatism supports institutions and satire aims to knock these institutions down a peg,” she wrote.
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Gillibrand and that decision by others to follow her lead in refusing to grant Franken an ethics review, did so much damage. More than they even understood or appreciated at the time. The exchange for Roy Moore's seat was just not a fair exchange at all. One more racist pedo d-bag in the GOP arsenal yes, but the Democratic party lost so much more. They took a very powerful weapon out of our holster, opened the chamber and dropped all the bullets out, and threw the gun under a street paving drum roller.
Without even the chance to clear his name, he is all but done as a candidate. The Democratic leadership would lose too much face if they were to do the right thing and admit they over reacted. Especially with Gillibrand running as a candidate now. Also, I think Al is too nice a guy to even try, simply because of the friction and controversy he would cause for the party.
This is the important point: There are a limited number of top skilled comedians in the country. The number is probably in the hundreds. Similar to pro sports leagues. Only in the hundreds of that particular level of skill in the whole country. Furthermore, you could say that as with music, athletic skills are universal around the globe. Comedians, particularly those clever and bold enough to take on the political arena are even more localized and rare because the subject of their humor applies exclusively to a North American audience. Political comedians of that level could be counted in the 10's not the 100's.
The Democratic party was so blessed when Franken decided to forgo a successful career continuing in comedy, probably forgoing also more income, and do right by his country and serve in the Senate. There was no one else like him there with that kind of skill, and might never be. The power of a very good comedic mind and them using it, is like Kryptonite to any Republican. They do not have a comedic grain in their body. They have no counter weapon. Crying "Fake News!" won't work. Whining about being picked on won't work.
And no, Franken was not there to do a comedy act. He skirted the line very adeptly at being dead serious when he had to, but he had this ability to know just when to use a quip at the expense of some dufus Republican which exposed their duplicity, in a way that they could never defend themselves back from. Because of this skill, Al was, and would have been, able to cut through a lot of bullshit going on right now, and be the best kind of communicator to the rest of the American people about the reality of the situation, and just how corrupt this administration is.
I really hope we, the grassroots, can find a way to get Al back in the game. Its not going to come from the party leadership.
So it will take a degree of defiance and perseverance. Even if he comes back as an Independent. We need him.
= new reply since forum marked as read
And that author is being kind in calling them "comedians"
Dennis Miller: “I think liberalism is like a nude beach,” Miller said. “It’s better off in your mind than actually going there.”
Michael Loftus: “What’s the deal with Harry Reid?” he asked in a recent episode. “You either hate him or you hate him, am I right? The man is in the business of telling people how greedy they are, and how they don’t pay their fair share, and he lives in the Ritz Carlton … This guy is literally Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.”
Greg Gutfeld: “You know you’re getting close to the truth when someone is calling you a racist,”
Last edited Thu Apr 25, 2019, 03:11 PM - Edit history (1)
Cons use bully humor, where one attacks someone's weakness, then laughs at their pain.
Libs point out the absurdity of cons claims to being superior by pointing out that they're basically the same as the rest of us.
A line from an NCIS episode reminds me of why humor doesn't work among cons: "Nobody laughs at the boss." If you absolutely can't laugh at the boss, you're in an authoritarian situation. 
