For some it is a sign that the conservatives are preparing to move into opposition. For others, it represents the right’s attempt to reclaim satire from the cosy clasp of the liberal elite.
This weekend Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, home of all that is ”fair and balanced”, launches the Half Hour News Hour. As the title suggests, the programme is not entirely serious. Nor is it fair and balanced. Indeed, it is intended to wrench the iron fist of satire away from the liberals on Jon Stewart’s the Daily Show and give the right all the best lines.
Regardless of the merits of the gags in the Half Hour News Hour, its appearance may represent something of a cultural shift. With a waning presidency, a drawn out war and an over-familiar group of political targets, viewers may be tiring of jokes about the Bush administration.
The programme is the brainchild of Joel Surnow, the man behind the hit Fox series 24. A self-confessed ”right-wing nut job”, Surnow recently told the New Yorker magazine that ”Conservatives are the new oppressed class”.
Surnow says he wants to counter what he sees as the dominance of left-leaning comedy. ”You can turn on any show and see Bush being bashed,” Surnow told Variety. ”There is nothing for those who want satire that tilts right.”
Satire’s perceived liberal bias has already spawned such internet hits as Redneck TV, in which two good old boys sit around denigrating liberals. The creators of that website were recently signed up by a major Hollywood talent agency.
Fox will be hoping that the Half Hour News Hour meets more success than the attempt by the left to muscle in on the right’s traditional domain of the radio talk show. Air America, a self-consciously liberal riposte to the right’s dominance of the medium recently filed for bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, Comedy Central, the channel behind the Daily Show has risen to the challenge presented by the Half Hour News Hour, describing Surnow’s venture as, ”A giant stinking turd of an excuse for political satire.” the Onion, another bastion of liberal humour, has taken a bash at the newcomer, saying, ”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 rip-off on the Fox News Channel.”
Surnow explained the thinking behind the show to the magazine TV Guide this week. ”You can turn on any comedy satire show, but you’ll never hear a Hillary Clinton joke or a global-warming send-up. It’s just not out there. Let’s face it, people are funny on both sides of the aisle.”
Surnow said he intends to play clean. ”It’s not a mean-spirited show. The one thing we target more than anything else is hysteria. Hysteria over global warming. Hysteria over Barack Obama. College kids’ hysteria over Che Guevara T-shirts. This is funny. This is irrational behaviour that has lodged in our culture, and no one stops to go, ‘This is kind of absurd’.”
Marty Kaplan, of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, said that it would be easier for the right to poke fun at politics in opposition. ”It’s easier to make political jokes when you’re out,” he said. ”A flea can bite a king and make us laugh. It’s not funny to watch the sovereign swat a gnat.” However, Kaplan doubted the potential for comedy on the Fox News Channel.
”Comedy is usually a weapon wielded by the underdog,” he said, ”not the establishment, and you can’t get more cosy with power than Fox. The right’s typical comfort zone is piety, not parody.”
Two clips released by Fox in advance of Sunday night’s premiere suggest that the Half Hour News Hour may not be enough to trouble Stewart. One features a pretend president addressing the nation with the vice-president at his side. But these are no ordinary actors playing politicians. The president is played by conservative darling Rush Limbaugh, whose best gag comes when he refuses to take a call from Nancy Pelosi. ”How did she get this number?” he asks.
The vice-president is another right-wing heartthrob, the commentator and author Ann Coulter. While her acting abilities may not be up to those of her co-star, Coulter gets the best line. As Limbaugh tells viewers to stay tuned for the Half Hour News Hour, Coulter warns, ”if you don’t, we’ll invade your country, kill your leaders and convert you to Christianity.” Dick Cheney couldn’t have put it better. – Guardian Unlimited Â