WHAT IS FUNNY?

One thing I was thinking. I used to work in the "news humor" business. And that's an industry that rose again over the past 8-10 years. News humor grew into a mainstream news source. The audiences grew as the shows became more controversial.

I now say that "industry" is about to stall.

The industry's growth can be credited to two things:

The final years of the Clinton administration, and, more importantly, the 8 years of the Bush administration. They were a Greek Opera mixed with a situation comedy.

You had: a President who's supporters had to constantly assure the nation that he wasn't a total idiot; his evil henchman Vice President; his vaguely lesbian yet creepily devoted foreign policy expert who also happened to have a weird funny name.

And, more imporantly, they were conservative so they prompted the hatred of smart learned people (you know egghead intellectual liberals). And those people are attracted to humor as an antidote to their anger.

I know it's a generalization, but it's not a big stretch to say that liberals are attracted to humor in a way that conservatives aren't. I learned this at the 1996 GOP convention where I saw that the party's idea of humor was bumper stickers that read "HINCKLEY SHOT THE WRONG BRADY."

It's kinda like British cuisine. It just doesn't add up as good food.

Conservatives are attracted to aggression as an antidote to anger. Look at Ann Coulter; that's her schtick...anger as comedy. And it's generally not funny. Just mean.

Now let's say that we have President Obama next year. The audience of the news industry, while willing to laugh at him, won't be eager to do so. They won't look forward to the prospect of laughing at their hero every week/night like they do now with the Bushies.

Plus, the "news humor industry" generally is, well, white.

I think it's gonna be tough for Maher, The Daily Show, and the like to do their thing. I think it doesn't help that they all pretty obviously want Obama to win too.

I don't think these shows will collapse or anything; I think their audiences will stall and drop, and their impact will diminish.

I know others have done articles about this (NYT WashPost, Telegraph etc) but they all have this hopeful patina that the shows will find a way to make fun of him. I think they're whistling in the wind.