Dennis Miller once described his role in Murder at 1600 as the “exposition eunuch”, and now he’s becoming just that when it comes to satire.
We just watched “All In”, his latest HBO special. Sure, he can still crack wise when it comes to cultural issues, and he can still turn a phrase (his observations about obesity are particularly funny). But he’s kind of lost it on the political front by giving Dubya and company a pass. So, watch the first half, for sure, but you might lose interest in the second part. Seriously. Given the mendacity of the White House, the best he can do is make tired jokes about French cowardice?
Saddam was funnier last week when he started a hunger strike after lunch and ended it before dinner.
Also, one of them has to change their look. Of course, that’s just our opinion, we could be wrong.
I thought it was interesting though that he did kinda make reference to the fact that he’s deliberately putting a conservative slant on his humour, not just because he’s really conservative (which he is, but only on select issues… he’s actually more libertarian, with a heavy right lean on defence and security…. which a lot of people are….) but also because, well, how many (funny) conservative comics are there???
I particularly liked the moment, I think it was when he was talking about Global Warming, when he went pretty out there, lost the crowd a bit (though what he was saying WAS funny, if you didn’t take it as though it was a Kyoto conference lecture instead of a stand-up bit…) and he said, basically, “you know, a lot of these are just jokes…”. Meaning, both “hey, don’t take me TOO seriously, I’m just a comedian” and “hey, you know, on some of these issues I could be craking wise just to make you THINK… a conservative can be ironic too… (i.e. don’t assume because I’m making fun of something, that that necessarily means I really feel this way or that in my heart of hearts…they’re just jokes…). I think when he mentions that he asked his kid if he minded that he was passing this disaster (climate change) on to him, and his kid said “shit no, I’m gonna pass it on to my kids too” it could be heard as an indictment of that passing of the buck, so he’s showing his true feelings a bit there perhaps…
Admittedly, it’s pretty tough for him to defend Bush and co. anymore (and again, I think a large reason he does it is just ’cause no one else does, so he’s just pushing the envelope, as much as because he thinks they deserve defending. But his “none of the other losers running for office are any good either” bit is pretty true. You may not like whoever’s running your country right now (there, or here) but option B is hardly JFK or Wilfrid Laurier either…..
Fair enough, all I’m saying is that he used to be a lot funnier when he let EVERYONE have it.
I did like that line, “a lot of these are just jokes” too. m.