General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why aren't there More Conservative Comedians? [View all]unblock
(51,920 posts)much of comedy involves telling a (possibly very brief) story where social norms lead the audience to expect a certain, familiar conclusion, and then the comedian throws in a curveball and takes it in a surprising direction. done properly, this violation of social norms can be not only humerous, but an interesting commentary on our social conventions.
the modern right-wing has become based on strict loyalty to official catch-phrases and code words. there's ZERO empathy or tolerance for competing views, which amount to blasphemy or betrayal.
the i'm-right-you're-evil mindset doesn't lend itself to exploring grey areas and getting the audience expecting to go one way then taken another.
so, sure, they can have their go at weak, base humor like making joke about obama being a muslim or something. or self-depricating jokes about being of a certain religion or being a redneck or whatever.
so the kind of routine that really gets you going for a full set, an hbo special, that sort of thing, well, right-wingers just don't seem to be good at it.
they're much better at anger, which usually doesn't work well for comedians (don rickles has a good run with it, though i never cared for him; and to some extent lewis black, although he seems to have too much fun with it....)