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September 21, 2002
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I just noticed something, as I was bookmarking another blog, The Bloviator, from a link by InstaPundit. You notice how the anti-warblogger types seem to use very serious, literary, and/or pretentious names -- Atrios at Eschaton, Demosthenes at Shadow of the Hegemon, Hesiod Theogeny, and of course, he-who-shall-go-unlinked, "Eric A. Blair" of WarbloggerWatch? (For those who don't know, that's the real name of George Orwell, against which standard Eric the Half-a-Wit falls woefully short.) But the "warblogger" crowd -- what kind of names do they use? VodkaPundit. Happy Fun Pundit. A little Groucho Marx here, a little Peter Sellers there, some Firesign Theatre for flavor. We are, by our own declaration, clueless, inappropriate, unqualified, insolvent, and without qualities of any kind, and, oh yeah, lazy, too. Some of us don't even qualify as human, but are bears, coyotes, rabbits, and even inanimate objects. At best, we will admit that we're better than nothing. From all that, you can't honestly tell who's right and who's wrong. But I think you can tell who's taking themselves too seriously, and who's having more fun. Posted by Kevin Shaum at September 21, 2002 10:44 AMComments
Kevin: The side that is having fun is the side that is winning. Go back to the 50's and 60's, the liberals had Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl and the guy, who did the Kennedy White House parodies. Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin were the last gasp of liberal/leftwing humor and mark the downturn of the left. Today, where's the political humor: Rush Limbaugh does on radio 5 days a week, what Mort Sahl did at the Hungry Tiger. PJ O'Rourke, Dave Barry, Christopher Buckley, I'm drawing a blank now, but I'm leaving (Jackie Mason) many others out. Name one liberal humorist. (sound of crickets chirping) Posted by: Jabba the Tutt on October 4, 2002 08:36 AMGood point, Jabba. there are sure a lot of people on the left who *think* they're funny, like Michael Moore and Molly Ivins. But, against all odds, even Robin Williams gets shrill and tedious when talking politics (from the leftist point of view). And George Carlin just sounds bitter. I think, too, it's a matter of whose views have become dominant, and are embraced and put into practice by those in power. Humor is a means of subverting the power structure by making it look ridiculous, and people who have a vested interest in the status quo can't afford not to appear serious. Posted by: Kevin on October 4, 2002 11:11 AMPost a comment
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