Gutfeld! is Fox News’ weekday late night show hosted by Greg Gutfeld that promises to “look at the news of the day through a satiric lens fused with pop culture” and “feature refreshing, light-hearted takes on the day’s top headlines” from various guests. The show debuted in April, and it’s been an undeniable success since then, rising above almost all other late night comedy programs in the ratings, according to Nielsen. It was also among the ten top rated cable news shows in November (all the other programs with higher ratings were also Fox shows, reinforcing the right-wing outlet’s status as the country’s most-watched TV network).
I’m sure, for the FNC fans/crowd, this show is hysterical and funny and an answer to SNL for the Right. No one said we had to like it, but it’s earning Gutfeld a boatload of money and that’s all it is destined to do.
I get satire. I even write satire. When material intended to be satire resembles the prurient views of your Weekly World News consuming audience, believing it to be fact, then it’s time to retool your schtick.
To wit: “Say, did you hear the one about the pedophile ring being run out of a pizza restaurant basement… ?”
Like the so-called news lineup, it’s mostly about saying the ugly parts out loud: That was the first crime, the permissiveness Trump championed and the license he granted; enactment came after.
Yeah, it’s all fun and games until similar language is returned. Then it’s a RW freak out that, “How could you on the left say that? You’re repressing us!”
Shame and humor are two things the new GOP is trying to kill. They want a society of Paul Gosars — people for whom they have been replaced by paranoia and grievance.
I think that the evidence shows that the 2 groups that are incapable of effective comedy are conservatives and authoritarians. Good comedy requires a certain degree of openness and introspection that are almost constitutionally lacking in both groups. Left-leaning and liberal comedy works because those comedians realize that at some level they are also part of the joke!
