Fox News comedy show opens with skit set in 2009, with Limbaugh as President and Ann Coulter as Veep

LAT: Two liberals walk into a bar ...
And one says to the other: 'Did you hear about Fox News' comedy show? We're the punch lines.'
By Martin Miller, Times Staff Writer
February 17, 2007



....Intended by its conservative creators as a counterbalance to "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, "The 1/2 -Hour News Hour" premieres Sunday at 7 p.m. and will satirize current events and pop culture from a distinctly right of center viewpoint. Much like the 24-hour news channel itself, the show is out to fill a void in the marketplace, which the show's creators perceive as decidedly liberal.

Added Ned Rice, another one of the show's creators and writers: "We're after the half of the country that doesn't think Jon Stewart is the only comedy that is needed."

Their show opens with something unlikely to be seen anytime soon on Stewart's "The Daily Show" or "Saturday Night Live." Limbaugh appears as the president of the United States and acid-tongued author Ann Coulter is his vice president.

The skit takes place in 2009 and is a joke, of course. Limbaugh was corralled into appearing in the skit by Joel Surnow, the show's executive producer and creator. The two struck up a friendship four years ago as a result of Limbaugh's enthusiasm for Surnow's hugely successful action-thriller program, "24."...

***

The "1/2 -Hour News Hour" is structured in a mock news format like "The Daily Show," but instead of a single anchor, there are two. As billed, the first show takes aim at Democratic politicians, environmentalists and the American Civil Liberties Union.

In one bit, an anchor states that, if elected to the White House, Hillary Rodham Clinton has vowed to pick a diverse cabinet — of "angry lesbians."...The show released a clip earlier this week on the YouTube website mocking the media's hyperventilation over the presidential bid of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-fox17feb17,1,2765417.story?coll=la-headlines-entnews

GOD PLEASE BRING BACK THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE SO WE CAN FORCE FOX OFF THE AIR.

The wingnuts are pissing in their Depends about it -- but that's just too bad..

Bernie Sanders is busting his butt on this and it will come before the Democratic led Congress soon enough!

...and I just threw up in my mouth a little :puke:

really unfunny, not offensive just unfunny. I love satire but this really poorly done.

Just a guess here, but isn't comedy supposed to be funny?

Sorry, folks, but that's just the way it is.

:)

Al Franken? Ugh. Ed Schulz? Please.

So far, nobody's been able to do it successfully--get the ratings, the advertising, have staying power. Be entertaining, not just bombastic.

enough places.

There's not AAR or any left-wing anything in the South, outside of the major, major cities (Memphis and Atlanta - there's NOTHING in Nashville or Knoxville or Birmingham or Huntsville) and I'm guessing the same is true throughout most of the mid-West.

Advertisers and radio formatters simply THINK it won't sell - but it would. Nearly half the people in the South (just under half) vote against Republicans. It's a market untapped, but because big advertisers are such weinies and think the fundies will march against them, they won't fund any liberal talk radio where it's most needed.

Randi Rhodes? Jay Marvin?

Lots of hatred and name calling and demeaning of others. Most Liberals do not find that appealing. Evidently you do...

I've seen the clip on Youtube, and it reeks. While the Daily Show takes swipes at both major parties, this just keeps pounding home the Republican agenda. Its weakness is that its primary purpose isn't comedy-- it's advancing the right-wing message.

looking for them under the furniture. Now that over 3,000 soldiers are dead in Iraq, the Fox News channel's conservative audience will probably find the skit even funnier.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YjIfaMwIFxU

The obviously canned laughter is offensive enough. Don't even get me started on the latent (or blatant?) racism of the "BO" magazine bit.

was the best example of what makes him the biggest hypocrite (a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, esp. one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements) in the repugnican camp. If the rest of the show concentrates on the 'pugs shooting themselves in the foot (or face, if they can convince Cheney to show up), then I'm all for it. Sounds like the success of the show depends on whether it's funny or not. Proably won't be successful, as repugs aren't funny, they're frightening - more of them need to be sent under their rock in '08.

from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/16/MNGF5O5ND31.DTL

(snip)

"Much like "24," Surnow's latest project is not for the politically retiring. He and his co-creators are tired of hearing the same Bush-bashing jokes coming from notoriously liberal Hollywood. While no Republicans or conservatives are on the butt end of jokes in the first episode, writer Rice promised that the show will goof on the GOP "when it's appropriate, sure."

"But that's not the premise of the show," Surnow quickly added. "The premise of the show is: Let's balance out the 50 other shows that go after Bush and Cheney each week, that hit all the same talking points and all the same 'white Republicans are racist idiots' " material."



:cry: Boo fuckin' hoo. If the shoe fits...

(snip)

"Liberals are endlessly entertained by jokes about how George W. Bush is stupid and ignorant," Rice said. "Despite the fact that he has a master's degree from Harvard University. He's been a governor, a president. He's had a massively successful life. But those jokes about him being dumb, they just never fail."

And then he goes on to say:

(snip)

Surnow told The Chronicle he was "fairly apolitical" until he attended college at UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, where "I started hanging out with all these rich-kid Marxists, and I thought they were absurd.

"They were supported by their parents -- from wealthy families -- these upper-middle-class kids who were espousing the great communal experiments of Marx and Hegel. I thought they were idiots and hypocrites."

Surnow said he's had jobs since he was 12, and paid most of his way through college. Disgusted with his fellow students, he left UC Berkeley after 1 1/2 years.



Oh, okay. So *, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, who is basically the "boss' kid", who got a "gentleman's "C" at Yale, who has screwed up every business venture he's ever participaed in, who went AWOL, is "massively successful". But kids from Liberal families going to a public college, they're "idiots and hypocrites".

Sure, I get it. :sarcasm: So disgusted that he left Berkeley because of the so-called hypocrasy of his peers? Something tells me Surnow has issues over something else.

No wonder he works for Faux. Honesty is not a requirement.

Once they do so, the show will be over (not that it already isn't now, before it even airs).

comedy?

I doubt there's that many conservatives, period, but, even if there is, they wouldn't know funny if it hit them in the face.

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

Actually if I filled this entire board with :puke: symbols it wouldn't be nearly enough.

Then again Limbaugh WAS nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize...
:shrug:
:sarcasm:

Notice how scrupuloulsy the article avoids mentioning that IT'S NOT FUNNY. It does mention that the producer "had a hard time getting the show on the air." MAYBE THAT'S BECAUSE IT STINKS!!!

And where does Fox News get off complaining about Obama's media hype when they published a flat out LIE about him and have yet to retract it? This is a perfect example of why the show can't work. While the Daily Show illuminates how fake the real news is, The Half Hour News Hour illuminates how fake Fox News is! The only thing it satires successfully is itself!

More

:puffpiece:
rocknation

Whether it's because of he admitted cocaine use or the color of his skin - either way IT'S NOT FUNNY!

Obama's real nick-name in college was "Barry" - which, for me at least, congers up images of bad 70's sitcoms.

Now THAT'S funny!

as head of Harvard Law Review? And when, I wonder, did he decide to go with the intriguing sound of "Barack Obama"?

...it sounded foreign and exotic. Now it sounds American to my ear. Funny how that works.

On conservative humor: There is no such thing. It's an oxymoron. Closest thing they have is outrageous hyperbole (redundant?) Like whan Coulter says, "Let's kill all the liberals. -- That's a joke!"

--IMM

We've just had 2 terms of Bush/Cheney. Do the morons not realize that?

nt.

:rofl:

it's on faux, and it's the work of joel surnow.

not interested.

Will they now counter-balance FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, NPR, & CNN?

Added Ned Rice, another one of the show's creators and writers: "We're after the half of the country that doesn't think Jon Stewart is the only comedy that is needed."

Uh, doesn't he really mean one-third of the country?

:bounce:

that conservatives just aren't funny.

looks like they told every single Conservative "joke" that exists in the first episode. They can't last long at this rate.

And a whisky swilling barfly for a VP.

How will the President explain so many secret trips to the Dominican Republic?

Will he be able to get the scrips in his own name when he's President?

and apparently neither are writing for that piece of shit

She is sort of funny!

Review, but it appears even she has bailed on the the current repoblican agenda.
"Southern Ladies and Gentlemen" really is wonderful (as is her evisceration of Ayn Rand and also her take on the "Jason's mommy syndrome")

edit: meant to reply to xanaduer, not myself
damn narcotics

:puke:

I bet his entire campaign platform would be to reduce the price of Oxycontin for everyone.