Apparently, Conservatives Are Full of teh Funny
By Jamelle Bouie - Nov 4th, 2008 at 12:28 pmOr at least, that’s what a recent study–conducted by researchers at Psychology Today–suggests:
The researchers picked out a variety of jokes — good, bad, conventional, absurdist — to look for differences in reactions between self-described liberals and conservatives.
They expected conservatives to like traditional jokes, like the one about the golfing widower, that reinforce racial and gender stereotypes. And because liberals had previously been reported to be more flexible and open to new ideas, the researchers expected them to get a bigger laugh out of unconventional humor, like Jack Handey’s “Deep Thoughts” about the reindeer effect and Hambone.
Indeed, the conservatives did rate the traditional golf and marriage jokes as significantly funnier than the liberals did. But they also gave higher ratings to the absurdist “Deep Thoughts.” In fact, they enjoyed all kinds of humor more.
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“Conservatives tend to be happier than liberals in general,” said Dr. Martin, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario. “A conservative outlook rationalizes social inequality, accepting the world as it is, and making it less of a threat to one’s well-being, whereas a liberal outlook leads to dissatisfaction with the world as it is, and a sense that things need to change before one can be really happy.”
You’d think that if conservatives were–on the whole–”funnier” (or at least less humorless) than liberals, then you would see that reflected in popular culture. Conservative humorists and comedians would, after all, have a healthy constituency for their unique brand of status quo humor. But, that’s not the case at all.
Indeed, going by recent examples, most conservative “humor” is just about as funny as a urinary tract infection, which is to say, not funny at all. Take David Zucker’s An American Carol, for example. The Weekly Standard may hail it as being on the avant garde of conservative humor, but if its 12 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating is any indication, most movie goers just think it sucks. Here are a few comments from Rotten Tomatoes:
“An American Carol dares to mock the Left, but it forgets to bring the funny.”
“As entertainment, An American Carol ranks below YouTube clips of Sarah Palin.”
“Forget politics: An American Carol sucks simply because it’s ridiculously, painfully unfunny.”
And that’s just one example. Does anyone remember The 1/2 Hour News Hour, Fox News’ “answer” to The Daily Show? If you don’t, that’s okay, you’re better off for it. It was an absolute travesty. The show only ran for 13 episodes, and with each episode, it moved from the familiar realm of the unfunny (you know, like Carrot Top), to the terrifying new frontier of the anti-funny.
Now, further research might end up confirming that conservatives are funnier than liberals. I’d be shocked, but, admittedly, stranger things have happened. Until then, and using mainstream conservative “humor” as my guide, I will continue to believe that conservatives are too caught up in their ideological hang-ups to actually be funny.
There’s a difference between being funny and thinking things are funny. The study, or at least your description of it, seems to say that conservatives are just an easy audience for humor. I say this means that a liberal comedy writer is going to have a higher standard for a joke than a right winger, and thus produce better material.
This also fits my general theory about gay comedians. Gay comedians have typically sucked, IMO, because so many of them play gay audiences that give an easy laugh to any lube or gay sex joke shot their way. The comedian never ends up really honing their craft, because there’s no need to. Compare that to someone like Ellen, for example, that made it on the normal stand up circuit before coming out.
November 4th, 2008 at 12:49 pmI think there are many figures in pop culture that tend to be rather quiet about their politics. For example, you use The Daily Show as an obvious example of a liberal comedian. Except, just the other day, when Stewart was interviewing Bill Kristol, he admitted that if McCain had won the republican nomination in 2000 that he would have voted for him. People like Conan O’Brien and even David Letterman may seem to lean left but that may not necessarily always be the case.
Furthermore, I think that the right is always more willing to flaunt aspects of pop culture and lifestyle that the left. When was the last time you saw anything remotely related to A & C on the cover of The Nation? They do write about such issues. Its never on the cover though. Meanwhile, Palin and McCain are appearing on SNL. Sure, this is a last minute tactic for a couple extra votes, but right-wingers have never been shy to engaging pop culture whenever and wherever in my lifetime. Its just that pop culture doesnt always embrace them.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:09 pmBuilding on Ryan’s thought, how bout counting it up to a lack of exposure to humor? If I’ve never seen a Monet, I may give my art teacher’s paintings a 10. If I never listen to jokes because I’m uptight and self-absorbed and limit my exposure to media to one anti-funny news network, a survey might be the first time I see something that makes me laugh!
November 4th, 2008 at 2:10 pm