Why are there almost no conservative comedians?

[starlord]

conservative comedy is generally, much as the name implies, ancient jokes passed down from generation to generation, and very "grassroots" (?) in nature instead of being centralized around comedians (with some notable exceptions).
when applied politically it seems to be in the form of country mouse vs city mouse jokes, poking fun at the "lack of common sense" liberals have, jokes about race, and about how liberals want to take everyones money.

that is all from my personal experience.

[Adam Jensen]

Because they aren't funny. They tend to simply make angry statements that are just insulting without humor.

[Wells]

Punching down generally feels pretty gross and punching up doesn't work when your ideology is heavily based around admiring up.

[Ivanstone]

John Oliver isn't funny though

He's very successful. Many people including myself enjoy his show. What does your opinion of one comedian have to do with the topic?

There are some conservative comedians although many are really libertarian. Both Penn Jillette and Dennis Miller have been mentioned in this thread but they're both pretty libertarian. Neither has struck me as people who are socially conservative at least. I like both of them although Miller has been a bit unhinged since 9/11. I can't quite blame him for being angry about it although I think neo-conservatism a pretty shitty worldview.

Jim Gaffigan is a devout Catholic who eschews profanity in his comedy. Where does his politics lie?

[Nihilanth]

Nobody says Stump the Trump seriously.

Of course not; it's a meme, dummy.

Infracted - Minor Flaming

[Stelio Kontos]

Greg Gutfeld, Andy Levy, Colin Quinn (not sure if he's conservative but he seems to lean that way), Jeff Foxworthy has had his funny points back in the day, same with Tim Allen. I find Jackie Mason funny, but haven't heard much from him. He's probably way too old and stodgy for the cool internet kids.

[Amarao]

Parker and Stone are libertarians.

Libertarian is neither left nor right.
www*politicalcompass*org/images/bothaxes.gif

[Zyster]

Because the tolerant left isn't so tolerant when the butt of a joke.

Joking aside, if you go to the previous thread that blew up about Hollywood, you can understand more why a Comedian would either "joke" about not being a conservative as to not deal with the ill tolerance, or why they wouldn't take a political position. Say goodbye to your career unless you are already well established like Adam Sandler.

[Spectral]

Punching down generally feels pretty gross and punching up doesn't work when your ideology is heavily based around admiring up.

Comedy doesn't require a target for ridicule.

[baskev]

Where are the likes of Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee or Trevor Noah?

Simple...conservative's do not have a funny bone in them.

But real response:

- Real conservative's are a small part. Yes there are people who have 1 or more conservative feeling about women or gay people etc. But they might have liberal feelings on other things. And if you are not a full conservative you are a free thinking hippy .

- Comedy's is not just telling jokes. But its also creating the right atmosphere and feeling the audience. For that you need empathy...that means you need to be able to place yourself in someone else his/her shoe's and agree that they have different opinion. Never met a real conservative who is open to discussion or agree that something else might be right to.

- A conservative comedian needs to talk about conservative stuff. Aka make jokes like anti gay jokes etc....otherwise he or she is not a conservative comedian...he or she is just a comedian. But making racist etc jokes will even offend conservative people...

- And to do comedy you need to know about norms and value's and how to make fun of them without going to far. And seeing as their line is way far away from most people....enough said.


But there are comedians who are conservative.....look at all the trump voters....biggest joke ever

- - - Updated - - -

John Oliver isn't funny though

He does not need to. His show is a satire show. making fun of something weird or insane.

[Tsar Bomba]

Simple...conservative's do not have a funny bone in them.

But real response:

- Real conservative's are a small part. Yes there are people who have 1 or more conservative feeling about women or gay people etc. But they might have liberal feelings on other things. And if you are not a full conservative you are a free thinking hippy .

- Comedy's is not just telling jokes. But its also creating the right atmosphere and feeling the audience. For that you need empathy...that means you need to be able to place yourself in someone else his/her shoe's and agree that they have different opinion. Never met a real conservative who is open to discussion or agree that something else might be right to.

- A conservative comedian needs to talk about conservative stuff. Aka make jokes like anti gay jokes etc....otherwise he or she is not a conservative comedian...he or she is just a comedian. But making racist etc jokes will even offend conservative people...

- And to do comedy you need to know about norms and value's and how to make fun of them without going to far. And seeing as their line is way far away from most people....enough said.


But there are comedians who are conservative.....look at all the trump voters....biggest joke ever

Literally, none of this is accurate.

[Nathreim]

Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Rodney Carrington, Bill Engvall, Jeff Dunham, Ron White, Nick DiPaolo, Dennis Miller

[Jimmy Woods]

No one mentioned Adam Sandler?!? Granted his comedy isn't political but he's a republican.

South Park is NOT right-wing. Just because they mock SJW's and liberals occasionally doesn't make them conservative. Using that logic, Lena Dunham would be a right-winger because she's made fun of college kids and trigger warnings on her show.

I think it's hard for right-wing comedians to be politically right-wing and be funny because conservatives view themselves as victims and won't tolerate anyone on their team not conforming with the party line.

[apepi]

Comedy and satire require the ability to criticise established norms and the social order, which is something conservatives generally do not excel at.

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

South Park is right wing? I don't see that at all. While sometimes they are balanced, but I have never thought they were right winged.

[Tsar Bomba]

Literally some of it is. For instance, comedy isn't just about telling jokes, which is why simply reciting a few knock knock jokes off the internet isn't going to pave a path to success for anyone.

Clearly true, don't need a patronizing shit-post to see that, but that's not what baskev was saying.

You need empathy to tell jokes? Many comedians are funny precisely in their apathy - so there goes that argument.

Conservative comedy would consist of telling anti-gay jokes or racist jokes? Bill Burr is considered a conservative comedian and he does the opposite in his routines. I don't know a single "conservative" comedian who goes on racist diatribes yelling gay slurs.

Doing comedy requires not crossing social norms and values? That's actually the opposite of what great comedians do, I hope you'd agree with me on that.

[baskev]

Literally, none of this is accurate.

Everything is.

What is not accurate according to you??

- there is a difference between real conservative's and some who do half the stuff/say half the stuff/think half the stuff.

- To get joke you need a sense of humor and you need be able to "feel" the joke. Otherwise you will take everything literally and you will not get that joke.

- And conservative jokes will be about conservative subjects otherwise its not a conservative joke. And conservative belief/think allot of things that even conservative people think are not fun...Lets ask a average conservative person if he like's the "jokes" the baptist church makes?

[May90]

- And conservative jokes will be about conservative subjects otherwise its not a conservative joke. And conservative belief/think allot of things that even conservative people think are not fun...Lets ask a average conservative person if he like's the "jokes" the baptist church makes?

There is a reason conservative people tend to be so serious about their beliefs, holding them to be sacred. They need some point of reference, some basis behind their beliefs. But since they cannot explain their beliefs logically (since then they will have to admit that they support those values just because they cannot view them critically, which is a very painful thing for a person to admit), they have to resort to divination/"sacration" of them. And everybody knows that joking about sacred things it a big no-no.

While this kind of "sacration" is sometimes encountered in progressive people as well on certain issues, it is more of a problem of being not progressive enough, rather than that of being progressive.

For example, I am an atheist. I can take a joke about my atheist beliefs just fine. Now, take, say, a faithful orthodox Muslim, living by Quran and Sharia and believing in them. How will he take me making a joke about Allah? Let alone, will he dare make a joke about Allah? Probably not.

And a comedian not able to laugh at his/her own beliefs really isn't going to get anywhere. Comedy built around bashing your political opponents gets old fast, you need to be willing to mock yourself and your part of the political spectrum as well, and conservative people have an inherent problem with that.

[Zyster]

South Park doesn't take a political affiliation. They have made that clear. Both the creators hate both left and right. They just hate the left more. They however are many pro rights.

Interesting quote,

Matt Stone sums it up, "I hate conservatives, but I really (expletive) hate liberals." Stone acknowledges that he and his fellow 30-something Coloradoan colleague Trey Parker are "more right-wing than most people in Hollywood" -- though, he cautions, that's the case partly because Hollywood types are so out there on the Left.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

They're not good at comedy I guess?

South Park doesn't take a political affiliation. They have made that clear. Both the creators hate both left and right. They just hate the left more. They however are many pro rights.

I'd assume lately it's the very crazy overly offended Left that I'm not a fan of either and I'm a liberal.

[Slybak]

Libertarian is neither left nor right.
www*politicalcompass*org/images/bothaxes.gif

In the American context, Libertarianism is right-wing. The entire corpus of American Libertarian ideology is a critique of the state as a means of remedying inequality. Not a whole lot of Anarcho-Socialists in the U.S..

And PoliticalCompass is a garbage site.