Why are there almost no conservative comedians?

[Slybak]

Suggesting South Park is right wing seems rather strange.

South Park is often functionally right wing, because its core ideology is that anyone who cares about anything is either a fool or a scoundrel. Apathy always serves the status quo.

[Blobfish]

Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfield)

[Theodarzna]

Well, yeah, but that's because hatred and venom usually doesn't make for great humor, not because of some arbitrary designation of punching up or down. Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter aren't great at humor either for the same reasons - they're organized around bitterness and antipathy, it doesn't tend to go well with good cheer and humor.

Tis' why Social Justice types aren't really funny either. You can tell their jokes come from a place of genuine and actual hate. Comedy is a delicate act, and genuine bitter disdain usually leave the venue of funny and enters uncomfortable to watch really fast.

Like I can't see a Neo-Nazi to be a good comedian. Maybe he or she is funny, but a comic? No. I also can't see a Feminist becoming a really good comic, well there are some I'm sure, but its unlikely.

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You never know, maybe trump will resurrect the UN-American Activities Committee.

Considering the fevered panic about Ruskies, and Foreign Influences, I suspect the Democrats will be first out of the gate on that one.

[matt4pack]

None of those people are really funny anyway. They're just are able to make a living off of telling jokes that aren't funny mostly.

Very little of the stuff today is genuinely funny.

[May90]

This is a weirdly objectivist view of humour. I was under the impression comedy is subjective, but maybe since we're "moving forward" that means the jokes are constantly getting better too!

They aren't getting better, but the jokes that don't keep up with time are getting obsolete and receiving less and less attention from people. If you support, for example, the ideas of the Confederacy, then your jokes will look rather lame to everyone who does not and who realizes how much pain to people those ideas have caused throughout the history, which is the overwhelming majority of people in the US.

[zorkuus]

Tis' why Social Justice types aren't really funny either. You can tell their jokes come from a place of genuine and actual hate. Comedy is a delicate act, and genuine bitter disdain usually leave the venue of funny and enters uncomfortable to watch really fast.

Like I can't see a Neo-Nazi to be a good comedian. Maybe he or she is funny, but a comic? No. I also can't see a Feminist becoming a really good comic, well there are some I'm sure, but its unlikely.

One of the secrets of comedy is the ability to laugh at yourself and people who see the world in a very black and white kind of way usually fail at this feat.

[matt4pack]

I really couldn't disagree more. Stewart, Colbert, and Oliver were all funny on their respective shows, though Trevor Noah and Samantha Bee are fairly bad. Colbert isn't as funny on his new show, but that's likely because he has to tone it down for that one.

Steve Carell along with a lot of others from the daily show are far better then stewart or cobert.

[Slybak]

Bill Maher is so smug.

Smugness is Bill Maher's core competency.

A few years ago he had to change his audience (through different advertising venues) because his regular crowd weren't laughing at his jokes anymore, I guess because Bill thought jokes about Asian people being bad drivers had a longer shelf-life than 1993. Good comedians usually change their material up to combat this. Carlin, for instance, tossed his entire set and wrote a new one every year.

What's truly galling is that he's still a better comedian than he is a social commentator or interviewer. His commentary is all affectation - "religion is for dumb rubes, not smart people like me" - and he consistently demonstrates that he never does his homework on interviews.

[Theodarzna]

Steve Carell along with a lot of others from the daily show are far better then stewart or cobert.

Carell and Rob Rigel are very funny actors, they do comedy in movies very well. I've not seen any of them do stand up.

[PC2]

Bill Burr isn't conservative but often does a good job with anti-PC humor.

[Spectral]

I really couldn't disagree more. Stewart, Colbert, and Oliver were all funny on their respective shows, though Trevor Noah and Samantha Bee are fairly bad. Colbert isn't as funny on his new show, but that's likely because he has to tone it down for that one.

Yeah, Stewart and Colbert are comedic geniuses. I liked Oliver on the Daily Show, but as I mentioned earlier, his histrionics are kind of grating at times.

Trevor Noah is a try-hard mediocrity in my opinion. He's probably a very funny guy, but the effort to be super political and make statements really damages him.

[Fencers]

Bill Burr isn't conservative but often does a good job with anti-PC humor.

He's one of the funniest dudes I have ever seen. We saw him twice live and all his videos. Few make me crack up like Burr, literal pee-my-pants funny. TMI, perhaps. But I think Burr is brilliant.

[Ragedaug]

Bill Burr was talking about this not too long ago. He thinks we are going to see more conservative comedians as time goes on. His point was comedians normally draw their comedy from making fun at the established norms. As liberal ideals become more and more the overriding norm, you'll see more comedians making fun of it and pointing out it's flaws.

Otherwise, you can see even know that there are a lot of good comedians who are already starting to poke more fun at liberals and liberal ideals. Bill Burr being one. For me personally the ones I find the more funny tend to be comedians who don't push a political slant. Matt Stone and Trey Parker were brought up earlier and I wouldn't say they are conservative comedians, though they regularly mock liberals, but they mock anything and everything that is mock-worthy, including conservatives as well as themselves and things they believe. That's the type of comedy that I often find most funny, when you can not only make fun of yourself, but you can also make fun of some of the stuff that you believe.

[Crissi]

Yeah, Stewart and Colbert are comedic geniuses. I liked Oliver on the Daily Show, but as I mentioned earlier, his histrionics are kind of grating at times.

Trevor Noah is a try-hard mediocrity in my opinion. He's probably a very funny guy, but the effort to be super political and make statements really damages him.

Id say his funniest moment came when he took a real life health scare and then shared it as a criticism of our healthcare problems. Which means I think if he were more genuine, he'd probably work out a lot better.

I'd trade all of my stuff for Stewart to come back though.

as to the actual topic: I think all those that would fall under the conservative label do southern and redneck jokes, like Larry the Cable Guy (who I love actually). Probably because its easier and you have a ready made audience who like to laugh at themselves, as opposed to politics based which is harder and people take more serious.

[Ragedaug]

Yeah, Stewart and Colbert are comedic geniuses.

Stewart could have been much bigger if he wanted to. When you hear him talk outside of the confines of the Daily Show studio, he's very moderate and reflects about the problems with the system and both major political parties. When he was on his show there's an overwhelming slant to the left, which grates on half of the country.

Colbert is a liberal comedy fan's wet dream, but I don't know hardly any conservatives who find his shtick funny. But as far as picking his audience and pandering to them, he definitely has that down and is probably the best at it.

[Theodarzna]

Id say his funniest moment came when he took a real life health scare and then shared it as a criticism of our healthcare problems. Which means I think if he were more genuine, he'd probably work out a lot better.

I'd trade all of my stuff for Stewart to come back though.

as to the actual topic: I think all those that would fall under the conservative label do southern and redneck jokes, like Larry the Cable Guy (who I love actually). Probably because its easier and you have a ready made audience who like to laugh at themselves, as opposed to politics based which is harder and people take more serious.

I think that blue collar niche will always be a niche for conservative humor only. Usually the redneck jokes you get from the Bill Maher crowd go quickly into the outright derision and disdain area fast.

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Stewart could have been much bigger if he wanted to. When you here him talk outside of the confines of the Daily Show studio, he's very moderate and reflects the problem with the system and both parties. When he was on his show there's an overwhelming slant to the left, which grates on half of the country.

Colbert is a liberal comedy fan's wet dream, but I don't know hardly any conservatives who find his shtick funny. But as far as picking his audience and pandering to them, he definitely has that down and is probably the best at it.

In Comedy that is honestly not a bad route to go. If you know what your audience wants, you can be pretty damn successful off it.

[Ragedaug]

In Comedy that is honestly not a bad route to go. If you know what your audience wants, you can be pretty damn successful off it.

I would agree, it's not a bad path - but it is limiting. I think for Colbert, that was probably the best route for him. I don't think Colbert has the chops to be more moderate and funnier to more people (as the current talk show points out). Stewart on the other hand, I believe could have gotten even bigger, and would have drawn more people if the Daily Show could have been more middle-of-the-road.

[Theodarzna]

I would agree, it's not a bad path - but it is limiting. I think for Colbert, that was probably the best route for him. I don't think Colbert has the chops to be more moderate and funnier to more people (as the current talk show points out). Stewart on the other hand, I believe could have gotten even bigger, and would have drawn more people if the Daily Show could have been more middle-of-the-road.

I wouldn't say its "Middle of the Road," that wins, but with Stewart and Colbert you could tell there were no go topics and they would never transgress against their own "side," which did limit them in the end.

To be fair most comedians, most comics, are like that. Very few have a "nothing is sacred," attitude and I think even Daniel Tosh ect. has a line somewhere we just haven't seen it.

The problem of Stewart and Colbert is that we could know that some topics, especially now would never be covered, or to stay hip and relevant they would increasingly become SJW like John Olivier has become and his hypocritical foibles are easily revealed on the internet. I am glad they got out when they did, it was probably for the best. But yeah, Stewart could have tweaked it a bit and rode that train to the grave.

[Hashtronaut]

South Park is probably your best example of social satire from the right wing.

South Park, right wing? Huh?

[Kraenen]

They aren't getting better, but the jokes that don't keep up with time are getting obsolete and receiving less and less attention from people.

George Carlin is still funny, and he's been dead for almost a decade now. It's not about keeping up with the hip kids and the latest jokes, it's about making good comedy.