Conservatives just aren’t funny: Why the right will never have its own Stephen Colbert

[babylonsister]

Tuesday, Dec 23, 2014 01:44 PM EST
Conservatives just aren’t funny: Why the right will never have its own Stephen Colbert
Stewart and Colbert are passing the torch to John Oliver and Larry Wilmore. Where is the right's breakout star?
Eric Boehlert, Media Matters



After nine years at the helm of The Colbert Report, where he turned his brilliant right-wing persona into a sprawling marketing empire (see your grocery’s freezer section), explained super PACs to everyday Americans, enlightened us about divinity, and added “truthiness” to the nation’s vocabulary, Stephen Colbert said his farewell to the Colbert Nation this week to become CBS’s new Late Night host. (Sans persona.)

For nearly 10 years and more than 1,400 episodes, Colbert remained a constantly amusing and insightful part of our national dialogue. “Fans of the show and its indomitable host (only now defeated by the real-life lure of late-night respectability) have good reason to mourn,” noted The New Yorker earlier this year, while Salon recently crowned Colbert “one of the most important figures in U.S. political comedy of all time.”

By embracing the absurd and truly embodying it, Colbert has made politics and public policy uproariously funny, while providing much-needed bouts of sanity for devoted news junkies.

His satirical voice won’t be gone completely, of course. Colbert’s late-night colleague Jon Stewart continues to soldier on with The Daily Show, that show’s alumni John Oliver is doing fine work at HBO, while another, Larry Wilmore, readies his turn to take over Colbert’s late-night Comedy Central slot.

But there’s no denying Colbert’s exit from Comedy Central marks a cultural and political milestone of sorts. The exit is disheartening not only because the genuine laughs will be missed, but because Colbert’s satirical work has been instrumental in spearheading progressive arguments and critiques for years.

Colbert’s departure also reminds us how hollow conservative comedic efforts have been, as they fail to play catch-up in the cultural war of political satire. Humor remains a rhetorical weapon that American conservatives simply cannot harness.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/12/23/conservatives_just_arent_funny_why_the_right_will_never_have_its_own_stephen_colbert_partner/