Comedians and Politics
I wonder why more comedians don’t rise in politics. Have many tried? Perhaps it’s just that they don’t want to mess with the mess. Maybe they’re too controversial, and lose voters one crack at a time. With our tendency to typecast, maybe people refuse to believe comedians could ever hold non-comedic thoughts.
But, great comedians are some of the smartest, most observant, and most communicative people around. When they get serious, they often say some amazingly spot-on things, with clarity that only the best thinkers and communicators could deliver. Forget the presidential debates. Let Jon Stewart and Dennis Miller go at it. It would be more substantive and more entertaining.
Instead, as I listen to Congress-types excuse themselves from ANY role in the financial mess or explain their blame only in partisan terms, it becomes more apparent that we do tend to elect jokers, just not the funny kind.
But, great comedians are some of the smartest, most observant, and most communicative people around. When they get serious, they often say some amazingly spot-on things, with clarity that only the best thinkers and communicators could deliver. Forget the presidential debates. Let Jon Stewart and Dennis Miller go at it. It would be more substantive and more entertaining.
Instead, as I listen to Congress-types excuse themselves from ANY role in the financial mess or explain their blame only in partisan terms, it becomes more apparent that we do tend to elect jokers, just not the funny kind.
posted by steve u. at 10/04/2008
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13 Comments:
Stewart Smalley is running for U.S. Senate in Minnesota.
Throughout history, the royals and nobles hired "fools" (aka jesters) to entertain them.
Like many of today's comedians, the fools were very sharp people that were able to make accurate observations, but were also able to coin them in such a way as to tickle the funny bone. They were frequently the only ones that would (or safely could) actually tell the truth to the royals and nobles about themselves.
I'm not sure that many of the fools in old times coveted an important position in the royal court, for they were often able to discern the truth about these kinds of positions.
Change the term 'royal court' to that of any current political body, and the same probably holds true today.
There is a comedian that is running for the us senate in Minnesota and he is a democrat. His name is Al Franken and by all accounts the is going to win over a republicans incumbent. I guess that the republican has just been much more of a clown that Al has.
So Steve if you want to get re-elected start clowning around. OH my, I see that you have. It is called school voucher. How much of that money did you get? Was it 50 grand?
Is any one going to cover the culture of corruption that is going on at capitol hill. I heard that the hearing will start to morrow at 9:00 am. This should be a dosssy.
Greg Curtis is running for re-election and his web page tells all about how this is election year politics and no corruption at all. just take a quick look, I beg of you.
http://www.speakercurtis.com/
The real question, Steve, is why don't more politicians enter comedy? I can hear the audiences laughing at your "combo plate" punchlines from LA to New York!
See the back room deals-
Thanks for letting us know about this comedian in Minnesota named Al Franken. You should click on that first link in the blog post to read more about him.
Since you start out your comment so completely unaware of what is going on, it makes you wonder if the second part of your comment isn't equally uninformed.
Speaking of comedy and politics, today we're seeing a preview of coming attractions. Parody of the left will apparently no longer be allowed once "The One" is elected. As one purely hypothetical example, SNL skits about Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, George Soros, and others on the left and their role in the Fannie/Freddie mess are no longer allowed. All in the name of "fairness", of course.
anonymous-
Are you joking? There was a skit on SNL this week with Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and George Soros.
Uh....that's the point, Josh. It got yanked from the NBC website and they won't allow it on youtube. Sent down the memory hole, no longer available.
That SNL video was pulled by NBC, but after an uproar it is again available (for now).
as cooter points out, the video is online here
http://tinyurl.com/49sp7s
It seems SNL appropriately scrubbed "in need of killing" or something like that it used to label 2 culprits in the financial mess.
I didn't mind that "should be shot" scrubbing as much as the scrubbing of the references to buying off Barney Frank.
From the LA Times of all places, "In the original skit Sandler addresses Frank, saying, "And thank you, Congressman Frank, as well as many Republicans for helping block Congressional oversight of our corrupt activities.'To which Frank replies enthusiastically, "Not at all!'"
Hits too close to home and it's getting close to an election, so the MSM had to axe it.
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