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Author Topic: Are leftists funny...
al-Qa'bong
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posted 01 April 2004 01:06 AM      Profile for al-Qa'bong   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
...or are we dull and earnest, as this article suggests? Mind, the writer is referring to Yanks, who take everything too seriously.

Two angry Arabs walked into a bar...


From: Saskatchistan | Registered: Feb 2003  |  IP: Logged
Adam T
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posted 01 April 2004 01:25 AM      Profile for Adam T     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It's a pretty broad generalization. I don't know who these funny American right wingers are?

Ann Coulter? She's a hate filled freak
Bill O'Reilly? He's about as earnest and serious as you can get
Bob Novak? His picture is in the dictionary besides the word dour
Rush Limbaugh? I suppose he is who they are referring to. If feminazi has you rolling in the isles I suppose the 'right' is funny. I've listened to his show a few times and I just find him tedious and boring.

Michael Moore is pretty funny, so is Al Franken and Mark Shields.


From: Richmond B.C | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
Adam T
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posted 01 April 2004 01:27 AM      Profile for Adam T     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
BTW, the most left wing of the Democratic Presidential candidates, the ever earnest Dennis Kucinich, has a pretty good sense of humor too. I didn't agree with him on many things, but he seemed to take himself lightly while taking his issues seriously.
From: Richmond B.C | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
Rufus Polson
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posted 01 April 2004 02:33 AM      Profile for Rufus Polson     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well, I guess we don't need to be offended; it makes quite clear that it's only accusing *American* leftists of being dour and humourless, while pointing out that leftists everywhere else are quite funny and irreverent. As a Canadian and card-carrying anti-American chauvinist, I'm cool with that.
(OK, so I don't actually have a card. But nobody asks to see those things anyway; if they do I'll just say it's in the mail)

And I can see why it might be so--the left in the US is particularly ground down and marginalized, for one thing. And they're also "in the belly of the beast" as they say.
But certainly it's a generalization, and "No generalization is true--not even this one!"

There are some funny American leftists now (Bowling for Columbine makes me suspect Alice Cooper is one), but Al Franken doesn't make my list. Not because he's not funny, but because he's not a leftist. He's a centrist, which means that in the US he looks like a leftist.

Actually, in my opinion the United States has one major leftist whose subversive humour has infiltrated their country on a top-rated show for years and years now without anyone seeming to notice, by and large, that he is one. That would be Matt Groening of The Simpsons, which always strikes me as a savage leftist satire of America. If the Americans ever noticed what he's saying or took it seriously, he'd have been lynched ages ago.


From: Caithnard College | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
dnuttall
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posted 01 April 2004 09:44 AM      Profile for dnuttall     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Rufus, if you had the card, you'd see it is "Canadian Chauvinist Pig" (or CCP for short), not 'Anti-American'. The difference is in the delivery, but it's important. It's not that everything the US has is bad, it's just that what we have is better. And we are sorry for that, just like Colin Mochrie said. Not sorry enough to give it up, granted.
From: Kanata | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged
Sisyphus
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posted 01 April 2004 11:45 AM      Profile for Sisyphus     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Bowling for Columbine makes me suspect Alice Cooper is one

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I think you mean Marilyn Manson, though I saw an interview with Alice, circa 1982, and he was pretty funny and self-effacing, though I'm not sure he was/is a Lefty.

P.J. O'Rourke and H.L Mencken are both pretty funny for right-wingers.


From: Never Never Land | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Jimmy Brogan
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posted 01 April 2004 11:54 AM      Profile for Jimmy Brogan   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
My trip to cynicism speeded up significantly when, in the early '70's I discovered the apparently iconoclastic 'Alice Cooper' was in reality a beer swilling Republican with a 9 handicap.

[ 01 April 2004: Message edited by: JimmyBrogan ]


From: The right choice - Iggy Thumbscrews for Liberal leader | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Sisyphus
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posted 01 April 2004 12:08 PM      Profile for Sisyphus     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
My trip to cynicism speeded up significantly when, in the early '70's I discovered the apparently iconoclastic 'Alice Cooper' was in reality a beer swilling Republican with a 9 handicap.

"Welcome to My Nightmare", indeed.


From: Never Never Land | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Hinterland
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posted 01 April 2004 03:58 PM      Profile for Hinterland        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The best humour comes out of conflict. Whether American lefties or righties are humourous is moot, as middle-America (where the vast majority of Americans are found) doesn't have a whole lot of conflict (...or hasn't traditionally) and consequently, middle-Americans are hardly ever funny. (...generalisation, yes, I know...but I've got my Canadian chauvinism card and what's more, it's LAMINATED). The funniest Americans are from the minorities (ethnic, regional, etc.). Interestingly, I've noticed an increase in humour among your average white-bread middle-American liberal the last few years since they've been under siege by the Naz..er, the Conservatives. The proverbial silver lining, as it were.

...Utopia will be grand, but no one will be coughing up a lung laughing, that's for sure.


From: Québec/Ontario | Registered: Apr 2003  |  IP: Logged
Rufus Polson
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posted 01 April 2004 05:21 PM      Profile for Rufus Polson     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Sisyphus:

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I think you mean Marilyn Manson

Oops. Yeah, reached into my brain, pulled out a file that said "Heavy metal rockers with girl names", and got the wrong one. And while he wasn't actually being very funny on B for C, I just got the feeling that he had a good sense of humour.


From: Caithnard College | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Sisyphus
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posted 01 April 2004 05:46 PM      Profile for Sisyphus     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
RP, have you seen any of his videos? He's gotta have a sense of humour!
From: Never Never Land | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged

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