Can a radio "Daily Show" work?

For a while now, I had a great idea for a radio show. Or at least I thought it was a great idea.

Here's my pitch: How about a successful radio take on The Daily Show? And by successful, I mean one that, while not equaling the high quality of Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert, can at least get down some of the humor and the timing, pace, banter, etc. And most importantly, do what many credit Comedy Central's shows for doing - creating a lighthearted way of doing the news, one that would be successful in attracting highly desirable younger listeners who tend to shun typical news outlets.

Granted, I am not proposing dumbing down the news. But suffice it to say, younger listeners are mostly tuning out. Through the 1970s, many Top 40 stations around the country had rather large news operations, even more so than many current talk radio stations, which either pipe in hourly network feeds or consolidate their news operations in centralized markets, ala Clear Channel. With the disappearance of news from music stations, save for Hollywood gossip and reality show updates, many have just tuned out what's really going on in the world. Ask many young people, and they probably don't have a clue about what's going on in Iraq. They probably think waterboarding is an extreme sport. The only presidential candidate they could probably name is Hillary Clinton. I'll bet some couldn't even name the current Vice President (It's still Dick Cheney, unfortunately).

Now, I'm not trying to be condescending. I'm just stating that news operations are mostly doing a crappy job of appealing to younger people. Things have gotten better with the advent of the internet, where blogs have risen in prominence. But how can old media, specifically radio, capitalize on this?

I'm also not suggesting that the media 'dumb-down' the news. They're already trying to do that, with all-day stalking marathons of Paris Hilton's jail stint this past summer and more information than we really care to know about Britney Spears' legal woes. But a light-hearted presentation of serious news is at least one way of informing the public. And this could likely attract consumes to more straightforward outlets. It's been working for Bill Maher, who does biting comedic riffing on the headlines on his HBO show. And the weekly satirical street sheet The Onion has seen their distribution and readership skyrocket in the past decade.

Comedy Central has done a spectacular job with The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, in many cases doing the task better than the so-called news networks, which have grown to rely more on sensationalism and boring pundits screaming at each other. The two shows get ratings that rival FOX News, and slaughter them in much more desirable younger demographics. In addition, other shows such as Countdown with Keith Olbermann have done well incorporating Daily Show-style elements. And wouldn't you know it? People are being informed by watching comedy. A few surveys claim viewers of The Daily Show are more informed on national and world events than viewers of many traditional news outlets. Now you know what I'm getting at here.

Granted, pulling off something like this on the radio is not a task for the faint-hearted or impatient. Late night comedy shows on TV have the advantage of being brief and employing the best writers, along with some of the funniest personalities, in the business. What works in short-format television can't possibly be easy to pull off in the longer audio-only format of radio.

Take The Morning Fix. Now, this was an ambitious undertaking. The show was the brainchild of Emmis Communications' WKQX (Q101.1) in Chicago. A year and a half ago, Q101 parted ways with longtime morning presence Mancow Muller. Over time, Mancow shifted from Howard Stern-style shock jockery to right-wing FOX Noise-style punditry and AM talk radio influences. Eventually, the show became a poor fit with Q101's younger-skewing alternative rock format. In addition, station management felt that Mancow was paying more attention to building his syndicated network than serving his home base of Chicago. Q101 decided to "take control of the morning show" and gave up its position as Mancow's flagship station. A few months later, in September 2006, the station rolled out a replacement. Dubbed The Morning Fix, the concept of the show was sort of a radio knockoff of The Daily Show. To this end, the new program instituted a tight schedule, built on the "clock" of local all-news radio station WBBM. The show was heavy with satirical news, comedy bits, features, interviews, commentaries, gossip segments and occasionally music, all in a very tight television-style format. It was also a very crowded studio, with eight people contributing on-air to the proceedings.

Okay, it's not earth-shattering. But cut 'em some slack. I got a chuckle out of it. And the process of pulling off a Daily Show knockoff is not easy. Just ask FOX Noise. While the inspiration for The Morning Fix was obvious, and they made clear what they had in mind, making it work was something else entirely. It was likely that the endeavor could run the danger of more closely resembling Craig Kilborn than Jon Stewart.

The Morning Fix wasn't a bad show. Much better and more original than Mancow, anyway. After some early fumbling, the show started to to get on the right track. Sure, many of the jokes were groaners. Then again, even polished professionals like Stewart and David Letterman misfire quite often. Over time, it was evident that the personalities on the radio show were getting the timing down, a key component of comedy. Eventually, it actually became somewhat funny, much funnier that anyone really expected. Unfortunately, it was probably a bit too different a concept for typical radio listeners to wrap their heads around. This was a far cry from Morning Zoos, American Idol updates and "Battle of the Sexes" bits, and many radio listeners are used to predictable routines.

Given a lot of time and patience, and a bit of money, the whole idea could have worked. And with the current Writers Guild strike killing almost all topical humor on television, it could have filled a serious niche. But The Fix was not meant to be, particularly in the impatient 'results now' world of radio. Yesterday, WKQX killed the show, firing five of the show's staffers and adding a lot more music in the morning, while keeping only main host Alan Cox and the primary news/sports/traffic elements.

"The research we have recently completed clearly tells us that our music focus is in sync with audience demand, and that our listeners really want to listen to our alternative music in all day parts," wrote Tisa LaSorte, brand manager for Emmis' Chicago stations in a staff email yesterday.

All in all, could a concept like The Morning Fix work in the bland world of radio, where generic prep sheet bits, banal banter, reality show updates, lesbian strippers, contests and silly stunts rule the day? I still think it could, even with radio's impatient nature and lack of initiative to allow things to blossom. Irreverant, younger-skewing news programs are tough to pull off, and they do require commitment, which exists in short supply in radio.

And there have been other attempts and promises at Comedy Central-style news parody on the radio, and new concepts are pitched from time to time. Air America Radio had this in mind when they were gearing up to go on the air in 2004, going so far as to hire comedians such as Al Franken and even Lizz Winstead, one of the creators of The Daily Show. Over time, the on-air presentation of Air America became much more serious in tone, and the closest they got to it, Morning Sedition, was eventually gone. BBC Radio 4's The Now Show has also attempted this approach, but is on and off the air sporadically. The Stephanie Miller Show gets much closer to the concept than others.

More often than not, topical radio comedy shows tend to revert back to ordinary radio-style banter, such as Next!, a "Free FM"-style take on the idea. They promised to be similar to The Daily Show and Keith Olbermann but the show I listened to consisted mostly of gossip about syndicated shock jocks Opie and Anthony.

Most other variations of younger-skewing news programming rely less on humor, and are indeed more straightforward in the approach, which is perhaps a bit easier to pull off. The Bryant Park Project is a new offering from National Public Radio, aiming toward a slightly younger audience that likely finds the network's flagship offering, Morning Edition to be stuffy and boring. BPP is a mix of serious news, water cooler topics, movie and CD reviews, lifestyle interviews and relaxed banter between hosts Luke Burbank, Alison Stewart and Rachel Martin - stuff uncharacteristic of the network's typical talk fare. While not intended as a laugh-fest, it's a noble attempt at creating the next generation of news consumers, via the addition of breezy and tasteful morning radio elements. And it works. Affiliates of NPR have done well with weekly comedic takes on the news, including the witty quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and Harry Shearer's Le Show.

But does radio in general have the patience to really make a Daily Show-style radio concept work? Unfortunately, no. Perhaps when they've grown tired of prickly primadonna talk show hosts with big salaries and big egos, or when they quit going through the motions of doing the same old morning show thing over and over again and decide to try something really unique, a show like The Morning Fix would have time to gather steam. As it stands, perhaps it was before its time.

'Foxopedia' and the comedy of errors

Fans of the old DC Comics books may be familiar with a character named Bizarro. He's a strange cat, who's persona is that of being the exact reverse of the world around him, most notably arch-nemesis Superman.

Bizarro comes from a planet called Htrae (spell it backward), which is worth mentioning in that it is cube-shaped. It is often referred to as Bizarro World. Everything there is opposite of Earth. Ugly is beautiful, beautiful is ugly. Black is white, white is black. You get the idea. Basically, everything in Bizarro World is the opposite of reality.

The same could almost be said for FOX News Channel. One suspects that they seem to live in their own little Bizarro World, where just a little crafty spin can create a sort of artificial reality for their jaded viewers, who seem to feel out of place in the real world. A Republican does something bad? That's okay, he's branded a Democrat. Things going bad in Conservoworld? No problem, they just turn that frown upside down. Nothing a little creative spin doctoring can't clean up. The people of Bizarro World spoke in simple, nonsensical grunts. Hey, so do the people of FOX News!

I've often given FOX News a little more slack than most. I recognize them for what they are, namely a feel-good fantasy channel for crabby conservatives who feel paranoid that the alleged 'librul' media is out to brainwash them and steal their children. Right-wing fantasy porn. But let's face it, FOX Noise is only as offensive as one makes it. Besides, while they do well in the cable news subculture, they're really only watched by a small percentage of the overall viewing public. Kinda like AM talk radio. Most people could care less about cable news. And many of the people who watch it either take everything with a grain of salt or are already guzzling the proverbial powdered drink mix. This basically makes them further irrelevant. If conservatives want to live in their own little virtual reality, hey, let 'em. It's easier to poke fun at them.

In effect, FOX Noise has tried to carve out its own niche as the last resort for right-wing political wonks. And they usually have a pretty good idea of what they want. And I'll be the first to admit that they are very good at what they do, when one considers what they are in fact really doing.

Lately, they have tried to expand the FOX News brand. Take for instance their recent attempt at comedy. No, I'm not talking about Hannity and Colmes. I'm talking about their own bizarro version of Comedy Central's highly popular news parody The Daily Show, a rather weak effort that was unleashed on the public earlier this year. The Half Hour News Hour was envisioned as a more 'fair and balanced' version of Jon Stewart's show, which I imagine they felt was vulgar, subversive 'librul' fare. Well, they likely thought, what about a cheap knockoff crammed with a bunch of stale Hillary jokes?

So off to the drawing board they went. The producer is the guy who brought us "24," a rather mundane, overrated spy yarn that mostly featured civil servants standing around arguing in control rooms. To spice it up, they shot it with hand-held cameras and had the actors yell and emote a lot. News flash - Alias was better. Much better. So, the producer, Joel Surnow (also well-known as Rush Limbaugh's Dominican Republic wingman) helped craft a direct ripoff of The Daily Show and the 'Weekend Update' feature on Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately, in FOX's version of bizarro world, what's intentionally serious is often funny, and what's intended to be funny is usually far from it. The FAUX News 'comedy' show looked more like a really bad version of SNL in one of their bad years than the hilarious Jon Stewart show. It got horrible reviews. The first sketch was something about Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter being president and vice president, no doubt giving the children of America disturbing nightmares. The hosts of THHNH were bland, amateurish, dorky, plastic-looking and rather unfunny. Then again, so was the rest of the show. Hey, at least SNL's Charles Rocket dropped the F-bomb on live network TV.

The initial ratings were adequate, probably better than any of the leftover fare often found in the Sunday Night News Channel Deathslot (let's face it, the lame-ass hosts with the fake names are definitely not ready for prime time). But the show fizzled over time, and now, it's being dropped. Yesterday, FNC's programming chief Bill Shine announced that no further episodes will be produced following its current 15 episode run. They are, however, considering a revamp of the show for future use.

As I mentioned months ago, THHNH had a serious uphill climb ahead of it. First of all, conservatives are often not that funny. As stated previously here, the best topical comedy often pokes fun at the 'establishment' or 'authority.' And let's face it, you most certainly can't get anymore 'establishment' than the Republican Party, and they were basically off-limits as far as targets go. There are rare exceptions, such as P.J. O'Rourke, who also possesses a rapid-fire wit. But Dennis Miller? Come on! Oh, and did I mention Miller was a commentator on the failed FOX News comedy show? 'Nuff said.

So, the FOX Noise Comedy Half-Hour Hour or whatever it's called has been fed to the worms, though the door has been left open for reanimation sometime in the future, with a great deal of tweaking. How will it change? Probably for the worse (if it can indeed get worse). Might I make a suggestion? Perhaps instead of trying to carbon copy The Daily Show, why not start watching the even more brilliant The Colbert Report? If FAUX Noise is to resurrect their not-so-divine comedy, they need to do something radical. Namely, self-parody. Now, this is a pretty bold suggestion for a news channel as self-righteous and pompous as FNC. They'll lie, scream and cry before they let anyone diss their meal ticket, let alone do it themselves. But if there's a subject ripe for parody, it would be FOX News Channel itself. Besides, they may even gain a little respect for having the ability to poke fun at themselves, particularly from the many, many people that think they're full of shit. Why not self-mockery? Sadly, I highly doubt FNC has the humility required to pull off something so radical. But if they do, drop me an email to discuss intellectual property royalties.

So, the intended attempt at humor was discovered to be rather unfunny, and yesterday, the gang at the FOX Nuisance Channel were caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar due to an unintended humorous series of events that turned out to be downright hilarious.

Yesterday morning, the tubes of the internet were all aglow with an article at Wired.com about a new little search tool designed by CalTech grad student Virgil Griffith. This little do-hickey, called the Wikiscanner, was designed for amateur sleuths and Wikipedia addicts to find out just who these so-called 'anonymous' users are that contribute those strange edits and selective deletions.

So far, people at the headquarters of defective voting machine manufacturer Diebold have been outed for providing their own little spin on articles about them and their suspicious practices. Scientology whitewashes their articles, but we already suspected that. We also found out what the CIA is doing on there. Some evil Republican tried to spoil the ending of the new Harry Potter book. And no doubt people are scouring Wikipedia to see what people inside the U.S. Congress are editing, such as the user who added this little difference between Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. On computers owned by the Government. Yes, the skeletons were released from the closet.

Perhaps the funniest thing uncovered so far, besides the CBS staffer who changed Clinton's birthplace to 'Hot Dog, Arkansas' comes from our friends at "The most powerful name in noise." Allegedly, when they're not creating revisionist news fiction, and when their pundits aren't screaming at each other, they're being pretty ferocious online, trying to make the rest of the world look like the false reality so vividly displayed on their television property. Artur Bergman made a fascinating discovery when he uncovered what colors the gang at FOX were using to paint their own candy-coated world. Witness this little short-lived change on Al Franken's article, as the original text up to that point looked like this:

The lawsuit focused a great deal of media attention upon Franken's book and greatly enhanced its sales. Reflecting later on the lawsuit during an interview on the [[National Public Radio]] program ''[[Fresh Air]]'' on [[September 3]], [[2003]], Franken said that Fox's case against him was "literally laughed out of court" and that "wholly (holy) without merit" is a good characterization of Fox News itself.

The FOX Noise 'anonymous' user made a few changes:

The lawsuit focused a great deal of media attention upon Franken's book and greatly enhanced its sales. Reflecting later on the lawsuit during an interview on the [[National Public Radio]] program ''[[Fresh Air]]'' on [[September 3]], [[2003]], Franken said that Fox's case against him was liberal [[National Public Radio]] program ''[[Fresh Air]]'' on [[September 3]], [[2003]], Franken said that Fox's case against him was the best thing to happen to his book sales.

Unfortunately for them, this little masterpiece lasted all of eight minutes before being reverted.

And notice the slapping-on of the term 'liberal' in describing Fresh Air? Hey, at least they spelled it correctly there, as opposed to this edit. Oops!

So, who exactly is this person? Well, there is at least a little anonymity left on the net, as this person (or persons, since anyone in the building could have been making edits) is only known as 12.167.224.228. So it may be a big gun like, say Bill O'Reilly. Or it may just be some underling in a cubicle. Nonetheless, the IP number is indeed assigned to the FOX News HQ.

So, how else has .228 (since there's no first or last name, let's refer to this moniker) been attempting to 'Foxify' Wikipedia? Well, one look at the edit history assigned to the number shows some rather interesting revelations. Editing is very heavy on the articles of their high profile personalities. Witness the article on Shepard Smith, which shows an edit by .228 removing a couple bits - one about an arrest in Florida (even removing the Smoking Gun link with his mugshot) and the other about a hilarious on-air gaffe regarding the phrase 'blow job' in a story about Jennifer Lopez. Unfortunately for .228, video doesn't lie. The edits were reverted by the next day. In addition, references to Greta Van Susteren's facelift were deleted.

In addition, .228 was also trying to scrub articles on 'talents' such as Carl Cameron and Brit Hume (though, to be fair, some of the edits involve his son's alleged suicide, so best not go there). They also removed a paragraph from Chris Wallace's article that used a reference from long-time FAUX nemesis Media Matters for America.

Lots of fluff was added for the various FOX Noise comedy all-stars, but a bit of vitrol was reserved for their 'enemies list'. Keith Olbermann got slammed a bit by .228, ironic in that the network seems to disavow Olbermann's very existence. First, .228 removed a couple sentences about a well-received book Olbermann wrote about baseball coaches, one that was even recognized by the Baseball Hall of Fame. Next, .228 removed a cited source praising Olbermann. And then, .228 added a vague statement chastised a time when Olbermann, in reporting the death of Peter Jennings, told his own personal story about his battle with smoking. They also cleaned up a sentence reading, " Some conservatives feel that Olbermann's reporting carries a liberal bias" to remove the word 'some.' References to O'Reilly's infamous sexual harassment lawsuit were removed from the article. Within an hour, all these additions were reverted.

Remember that on-air gaffe by CNN that resulted in Dick Cheney's face being 'X'ed' out for a split second? That was expanded on by the fine folks at FAUX (they claim it was for 1/7 of a second rather than 1/15, if you're dying to know). Oh, the little things.

So, what is FAUX's deal anyway? Do they really think we're that stupid? Have they spent so long snookering the American public with their own brand of infotainment they really think they are living in Bizarro World, where they can fool all the people all the time on all the internet? Who knows. Will the newly revamped Half Hour News Hour bring this up? Doubtful.

FOX's 'Daily Show' knockoff unleashed on unsuspecting public

Okay, don't say you weren't warned.

Yes, after all the stories and all the rumors, the television-viewing masses can see for themselves the FOX Noise... er, 'News' Channel's attempt at intentional comedy.

No, the "Bill O'Reilly Variety Hour" is a no-go.

Rather, this is that 'Daily Show' imitation that readers of LTR have been warned heard so much about. And the confident honchos at News Corp. are so proud of their new product that they will debut "The 1/2 Hour News Hour" in that prime slot of Sunday night at 10PM ET (a.k.a. the 'dead zone' for all-news channels).

And hoo-boy, what a lineup they've got for us. The whole thing starts out, naturally, with (drum roll please)... a Hillary Clinton joke! Yee haw!

A bad sign of things to come is when a network gives away the jokes in advance, in the hopes that some may actually consider it funny and want to check it out. So anyway, in their Sen. Clinton bit, the pseudo-talking head intones that, seeking to dispel myths that she'd appoint a bunch of political cronies if elected, Clinton promised to appoint "a diverse, multiethnic, multigenerational group -- of angry lesbians." Damn, my sides are hurting! Make it stop! Please!

So, if you guessed that the following gags will include topics like global warming, Barack Obama, the ACLU, Cindy Sheehan, hybrid cars, and Al Gore, yes, you are correct! You win a cute stuffed animal!

The whole thing is spearheaded by Joel Surnow, the guy behind the hit show "24," a rather mundane spy yarn consisting mostly of people standing around in control rooms while the hero beats the snot out of terrorist thugs. I tried to like the show, but it's a bit of a snore. For spy flicks, give me Jason Bourne or James Bond (especially the new Daniel Craig badass Bond) anyday.

And yes, that strange opening bit that imagines Surnow's Viagara-fueled Dominican wingman Rush Limbaugh as the president, with Ann Coulter as vice-president, will be there. No, Stephen King is not one of the writers. Urging viewers to tune into to the rest of the show, Coulter intones, "If you don't, we'll invade your countries, kill your leaders and convert you to Christianity." Funny, that line is straight from one of her books.

But the question deserves to be asked. Is this thing really 'fair and balanced'. Well, in the FOX 'News' definition of the phrase, it appears to be.

Will they just skewer the left, or will they jab at their own, like TDS does? Although no Republicans or conservatives are on the butt end of jokes in the first episode (keping with the whole 'fair and balanced' theme), writer Ned Rice did promise that the show will goof on the GOP "when it's appropriate, sure."

"But that's not the premise of the show," Surnow quickly added. "The premise of the show is: Let's balance out the 50 other shows that go after Bush and Cheney each week, that hit all the same talking points and all the same 'white Republicans are racist idiots'" material. But aren't they all racist id... oh, never mind.

So, will they talk about the war in Iraq? Seems everyone else is, right? Hey, Jon Stewart even has a name for it - 'Mess-o-potamia'. Surnow predicted his show would mock the media's reporting of the war. Or how Democrats handle it.

"We actually do a piece in the second episode about the ultra-sensitive reporting of terrorism," Surnow said. "It's sort of a piece against the way the media is so careful not to racially profile any suspected terrorists or terrorists themselves. I don't think the show will take a position, like 'We're for the war.' 'We're against the war.'"

Ahh... that whole 'liberal media' thing. But wait! Isn't FOX 'News' 'part' of the so-called 'liberal media'? Well, that logic went out the window long ago.

But what about Bush jokes? Hell, David Letterman gets great mileage out of those "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" bits. As far as THHNH is concerned, don't hold your breath. After all, there are sacred cows, right?

"Liberals are endlessly entertained by jokes about how George W. Bush is stupid and ignorant," Rice said. "Despite the fact that he has a master's degree from Harvard University. He's been a governor, a president. He's had a massively successful life. But those jokes about him being dumb, they just never fail."

So, who do they make fun of instead? Yep, you guessed it. Keeping with the 'kick 'em while they're down' manifesto, they go after Air America Radio (!!). In other words, if you ever wanted to see the televised equivalent of the endlessly whiny Radio Tranquilizer, here's your chance. Help me, my sides hurt!

Nonetheless, FOX 'News' is so confident in this silly little product that they ordered two episodes and scheduled them in the death slot of Sunday late nights. The show will be surrounded by a few other comedy shows from the likes of Geraldo Rivera, Sean Hannity and Chris Wallace.

And if you'd like to see a sneak preview, the kind folks at FOX 'News' have put up a preview, introduced by the milquetoast Alan Colmes (though it's hard to tell if his mouth movements are being controlled by Hannity's hand in his back). See for yourself. On viewing it, I felt the jokes were so-so, and the hosts were stiff and awful. The pacing and elements are a direct rip from TDS. A bit more barf bag than popcorn bag, but to each their own.

So what are the 'real' critics saying? The Orlando Sentinel, after seeing the whole thing, says of it, "If we're lucky, we'll never hear of this dreadful show again." The Onion's AV Club, blasting the prerelease clip, offered, “If you're the least-talented member of your second-rate college sketch comedy group, don't worry. One day you could host a Daily Show ripoff on the Fox News Channel!" A Lost Remote commenter, meanwhile, has this dry observation: “I hear subtlety kicks in sometime during the second episode.” Reviews drastically differ along ideological lines. Bob Cesco at Huffington Post scalls it a comedy show minus the comedy, claiming that Republicans "can certainly appreciate good comedy. They just can't create it." Of course right-wingers like Human Events's Jed Babbin and Michael Medved liked it.

Needless to say, as stated here before, conservatives have an uphill trek in the way of being funny. P.J. O'Rourke is an exception, a hilariously funny conservative writer that, even though many disagree with his way of thinking, is often outrageously witty, and helped contribute to the glory years of the brilliant National Lampoon. Even conservative comedian Larry Miller has his moments. Unfortunately, most conservative attempts at humor tend to look more like the dreadfully unfunny "Mallard Fillmore."

Or, if you prefer really funny topical humor, don't forget that tonight marks the return of the oft-brilliant "Real Time with Bill Maher." Tonight, he welcomes "Late Late Show" host Craig Ferguson, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R-MD) and via satellite, John Edwards. It's on HBO tonight at 11PM ET. There are no sacred cows as far as Maher is concerned - he attacks everyone (unless they're women he thinks he can lure into bed). If you don't get HBO, you can also download the audio of the show later next week at iTunes. As for the FOX Comedy Half-Hour Hour... ehhh, who gives a shit.

UPDATE: The FOX 'News' attempt at intentional humor looks to be a stinker

Radar Online has the latest on the FOX 'News' attempt to create their own "Daily Show" clone. And from the looks of it, it's not that funny.

Back in November, you may have heard about this show, tentatively titled This Just In. Well, AOL owns that title, as they use it on one of their broadband channels, so FOX went back to the recycle bin and appropriated another Time Warner property, swiping the name of an old MTV show by christening their new 'fake news' venture (as opposed to their other 'fake news' shows such as The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes) as The Half-Hour News Hour (my sides are hurting already - make it stop!). So far, FOX produced two pilot episodes of this thing this past weekend in front of an audience packed with gullible wingnuts. Unfortunately, the end result is being described as "more Mallard Fillmore than P.J. O'Rourke." Yikes!

Producer Joel Surnow, whose credits also include 24 and Viagara-fueled romps through the Dominican Republic with buddy Rush Limbaugh, has described THHNH as a cross between Comedy Central's Daily Show and Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update". Radar reports that a source who attended the tapings describes the format as far more similar to SNL's fake news, with a two-anchor setup and skits interspersed with the talking-head segments. "It was hit and miss—some stuff was inspired, and some was droppable, to say the least," says the source. Not surprisingly, in keeping with the FOX 'News' edict of being 'fair and balanced', most of the jokes had a conservative slant.

And in an opening sketch that seems more appropriate in a horror movie, Surnow's Dominican wingman Limbaugh made an appearance, playing (gasp) The President. Even scarier, Ann Coulter was his Vice President, meaning that this show may be a bit too intense for younger audiences. If that isn't enough, they went out and gathered some of the top celebrities in Hollywood for this mess, including comedian Dom Irrera and original Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall (you mean he's still alive?). Also, to hype up their self-anticipated cred, they went out and hired original Daily Show cast member Brian Unger as a correspondent. Of course, Unger was on TDS in the pre-Jon Stewart era, when Craig Kilborn was the host and nobody really cared.

The hosts are still Kurt Long (who's claim to fame is, well, nothing) and Susan Yeagley (who's claim to fame is being former SNL news anchor Kevin Nealon's wife). As for writers, that is not known at this time, though I'm sure they could find plenty of candidates here. I guess Michael Richards did indeed have other committments.

So, when will this thing hit the airwaves? Nobody's saying if and when this thing will occupy the current rerun space on FOX 'News', or if it ever will. So far, it's been just the two pilot shows. Second question, is anyone really going to watch this shit? Who knows? After all, there are indeed people watching FOX 'News' the rest of the day, right?

For more background on FOX Comedy Half-Hour Hour (or whatever the hell it's called), here's a blast from LTR's past.

Unfunny conservatives and "Mallard Fillmore" creator's DUI

From the 'humorless right-wing hypocrites' file comes this little tidbit about unfunny conservative cartoonist Bruce Tinsley.

Tinsley, creator of the conservative comic strip Mallard Fillmore, was arrested in Columbus Dec. 4 and charged with operating a vehicle under the influence -- his second alcohol-related arrest in less that four months, according to the Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department.

Tinsley, 48, who lives in Columbus, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.14 -- almost twice the level at which an Indiana driver is considered intoxicated. He posted $755 bond.

On Aug. 26, Tinsley was arrested for public intoxication, according to the sheriff's department.

Mallard Fillmore, about a conservative duck, appears in almost 400 newspapers nationwide, including The Indianapolis Star.

Well, I guess that explains why "Mallard Fillmore" is the biggest laugh-free comic strip since "The Family Circus" (though this version is hilarious). For those not familiar with Tinsley's atrocity, this feeble attempt at a cartoon is positioned as a wingnut answer to "Doonesbury". Only difference is that while Garry Trudeau's strip is often funny and ironic, "Mallard Fillmore" is neither. Often, the thing reads like a moronic wingnut whinefest with cheapshot attacks aimed at Democrats, tired political correctness cliches and liberal celebrities. Essentially, it's kinda like a comic strip from Ann Coulter, but she's actually mildly funny, albeit in an unintentionally tragic and pathetic way. Tinsley's work is simply just crude and ill-informed.

One of the problems with "Mallard Fillmore" is that conservatives, by nature, are really not funny. Often, conservative 'humor' comes off as just plain mean spirited and whiney. They also seem to just simply tread tired gags and stereotypes. Clinton blow-job jokes were a staple of late-night television in the 1990s, now they're pretty worn out as conservatives still use them. Same with the hippie and tree-hugger jokes. They seem so hard-up for material, they're even trying to dig up the grave of shamed commie-baiter Joe McCarthy.

Humor and satire work much more effectively when directed toward those in power, or rather unpopular subjects. Poking fun at 'the establishment' is effective, while ribbing the disenfranchised comes across as bullying.

Humor also has a self-depricating quality to it. Without it, the budding jokester comes across as a shallow hypocrite (as Tinsley has in his mocking of Sen. Ted Kennedy). Many on the right claim that "The Daily Show" has an outright liberal bias toward it. Even FOX 'News', as well as a few others, are planning their own answer to it. But "The Daily Show" often mocks those on the left as well, such as the funny bit about Nancy Pelosi replacing the Pledge of Allegiance with a passage from The Vagina Monologues. The creators of "South Park" have a distinct advantage, as Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been very vocal about their strong dislike of both conservatives and liberals. Maintaining a political viewpoint rarely takes precedence over a good joke. Even the occasional funny conservative such as P.J. O'Rourke realizes this. While Rush Limbaugh enjoyed some success ridiculing the party in power during the 1990s (Democrats), his show has sounded much more whiney and apologetic since the Republicans took over. Ever hear Limbaugh mock Republicans? Of course not.

All in all, when conservatives try to be funny, they most often come across as a straight-forward version of Frank Burns from the classic TV series "M*A*S*H", even though the late, great Larry Linville brilliantly played the ultra-conservative war hawk character for laughs as a satire in itself. And the character was embraced by millions because of it. Stephen Colbert gets this too, as he brilliantly satirizes conservative commentators every night.

Most of the time, conservative humor comes across as unintentionally funny. Recently, a University of Texas student group called the "Young Conservatives of Texas" created a parody Christmas nativity scene, complete with a gay couple called Gary and Joseph standing in for the expectant parents, a terrorist shepherd with a bomb strapped to himself, Marx, Stalin and Lenin as the three wise men, incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as an angel and no baby Jesus in the manger. It was an ill-informed protest directed at the ACLU, who are obviously a non-partisan group (they even defended Rush Limbaugh, for cryin' out loud!). Now, if this nativity scene parody were done by a left-leaning group, it would have been much funnier. Instead, as a conservative protest, it's mostly met with groans and eye-rolling. The last laugh came from the ACLU, who have taken the whole protest in stride: "I think it's fairly festive,' said ACLU executive director Will Harrell. "We want to make sure they have a right to freely exercise their First Amendment right. But keep in mind, nothing in the First Amendment requires that you be accurate about the information. The First Amendment protects parody as well."

Now that's funny!

Even funnier is the thought of the letters of adoration that are soon to come in over this article. Such as this one from "Peter Mccabe" (his spelling, not mine), who obviously is a big fan of this site:

From: "Peter M Mccabe"
To: ltradiomail@yahoo.com
Subject:
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:14:38 -0600

you people are full of hate

Full of 'hate'? No way! We're full of loooooove! Now, if you would have said "full of shit", then you may have a point...

Fox News to do their own "Daily Show"

In case you don't already think the programming on the FOX 'News' Channel is a joke, The Hollywood Reporter says that the "Fair and Balanced" network has taken an interest in a "Daily Show"-like program with their own patented 'fair and balanced' approach (read: wingnut whining) come late January. They're shooting for a test run on a few Saturday nights, with the possibility that it could become a weekly series.

In other words, a 'fake news' comedy/satire show created by people with no sense of humor for people with no sense of humor. Okay.

And I thought "The O'Reilly Factor" already filled this void, unless that show is really supposed to be serious. Then again, isn't their whole schedule already filled with fake news?

Perhaps they could do a show where a talking head reads John Moody's hilarious talking points memos. Never mind, they do that already.

Anyways, this half-hour Faux News "Daily Show" knock-off will be produced by "24's" Joel Surnow (Rush Limbaugh's Dominican Republic-hopping, Viagara-fueled party buddy), Manny Cota and creator Ned Rice, who previously wrote for "Politically Incorrect" and "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson". This show plans on taking aim at what Surnow calls "the sacred cows of the left" that don't get made as much fun of by other comedy shows.

"It's a satirical news format that would play more to the Fox 'News' audience than the Michael Moore channel," Surnow said. "It would tip more right as 'The Daily Show' tips left."

The "Michael Moore channel"? How come I don't get that one on my cable system? Better call Time Warner Cable about that one.

The show was pitched with the working title "This Just In" (until HBO laid claim to the title) when it first got life as a 20-minute pilot presentation for Fox Broadcasting Co.'s late-night division. But when that network passed, Surnow said it attracted the attention of Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes.

"I showed it to Roger, and he really liked it and thought it could work on Fox News if we could make it conform to some of the restraints" of a cable news channel. Fox News Channel confirmed that talks were going on.

Taped before a studio audience in Los Angeles, the show will feature two co-anchors, actor/comedian Kurt Long ("Cuts," "Games Across America") and bit actress Susan Yeagley (episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and "Reno 911!", and wife of ex-SNL'er Kevin Nealon). It also will feature person-on-the-street interviews and correspondent reports like other shows. No word on any other personalities that are lined up for the show, but I do hear Michael Richards (aka Kramer of "Seinfeld") is available.

But Surnow said that it's not going to be strictly conservative but more in the spirit of the old and rebellious "Saturday Night Live," though I'm sure the "Not Ready for Primetime Players" were a far cry from what FOX News has in mind. Maybe they could hire Al Franken to write for them.

"It's not going to hit you over the head with partisan politics," Surnow said. "It'll hit anything that deserves to be hit."

Of course, right-wingers in search of whiny, angry humor are elated at the arrival of more fake news to their televisions. Some of the posters at Free Republic are even pitching gag ideas. Though, with suggestions like these, "The FAUX News Half-Hour Comedy Hour" could be headed for a quick demise:

One example would be when Katie Couric was interviewing the priest of Mark Foley and asking him about how he massaged Foley with his hands, etc.. I would have presented a parody where Katie goes beyond that and asked if the priest massaged the inside of Foley's thighs and whether he gave Foley a tongue bath. All the while Katie is getting hotter and hotter until she can't even do her broadcast because she is moaning in ecstasy at the images she is conjuring up while questioning the priest.

Another great parody clip would be when Nancy Pelosi (made up like the Joker) announces that Steny Hoyer has been elected Majority Leader while Murtha is angrily standing in the background. Murtha is getting angrier and angrier until he can't stand it any more and wrestles Hoyer to the ground while yelling that they must now all learn to work together.

The incident where Chuck Schumer told Kerry to get lost in the Senate hallway would also be great for parody. Maybe have a hurt looking Kerry in the background scream "PLEASE!" and a somewhat chastened Schumer returns and tosses Kerry a towel in a way reminiscent to that old cola commercial where the football player tosses a kid his towel outside the locker room.

BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! DAMN, THAT'S FUNNY!!!

Okay, not really.

The main obstacle in the way of this would-be "Daily Show" is that conservative humor is an oxymoron. The best topical comedy often pokes fun at the 'establishment' or 'authority', and you can't get more establishment or authority than the Republican Party. Case in point, how many funny right-wing comedians are even out there? No, Dennis Miller is not funny. And the "Blue Collar Comedy" guys like Jeff Foxworthy and the "Git R Done" guy are more about dumb redneck jokes than gags about Nancy Pelosi. Conservative writer and pundit P.J. O'Rourke is an exception, and admittedly one of the funniest political writers in America. But on TV, he's basically a doofus. So what does that leave? An overabundance of Monica Lewinsky jokes? Been there, done that.

Sad thing is, conservative attempts at comedy tend to be whiny, mean-spirited, unintentional, unfunny, or just plain moronic.

Well, I guess all I can say is 'good luck'. They'll certainly need it.