Fox’s Right-Wing Alternative To Daily Show Fails

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/08/14/half-hour-newshour-fails/

Fox’s Right-Wing Alternative To Daily Show Fails

In January, Fox announced that it would begin airing the “Half Hour News Hour” on Sunday nights, the so-called “right-wing answer to ‘The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.‘” “You can turn on any show and see Bush being bashed,” said creator Joel Surnow, producer of Fox’s 24. “There really is nothing out there for those who want satire that tilts right.” As Fox has learned, that’s because no one wants to watch that kind of satire.

TVNewser reports today that the HHNH has been canceled. In a memo to senior producers today, Fox News Corp.’s senior vice president Bill Shine announced:

Joel Surnow and I have mutually decided that we will not continue the Half Hour News Hour beyond its current 15 episode run. The last show will be presented on September 16th.

Shine claimed the reason for the shelving of the show was that Fox is “considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs.” He held out the chance that the show would air again: “There is still a chance you will see the program at some point in the future.”

The first show guest-starred right-wing all-stars Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter as President and Vice President. Watch a clip from a preview of the first show at link~

The reviews for the program were consistently dismal. Its very first review, from the Orlando Sentinel, decried the “aughter, of an awfully canned variety, greets all the gags. Nothing happening on screen justifies these outbursts. … If we’re lucky, we’ll never hear of this dreadful show again.” “Sometimes the humor is so heavy-handed that it seems almost like self-parody,” said the New York Times. “The 1/2 Hour News Hour is slow torture all by itself,” said the Philadelpha Inquirer.

What the right-wing failed to grasp is Jon Stewart is funny not because he spins falsehoods but because he tells the truth.

[jgraz]

1. "considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs."

And for future smearing and propaganda needs. :puke:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Conservatives' "humor" fails because they are mean bastards

and mean isn't funny.

[Warpy]

5. Right, it's pie in the face and prat falls

It isn't funny to them unless someone is being hurt.

[jgraz]

10. Correction

It isn't funny to them unless someone poor or brown or female or gay is being hurt

[Liberal In Texas]

15. "considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs." is code for ...

the thing is dead in the water. For good.

[pepperbear]

23. It's time to break out the cute kid like Oliver, the cousin who "comes to stay for a while".

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2006/08/catching_up_with_robbie_rist.html

[JuniperLea]

2. Gay Penguins?

Ugh.

[Cha]

4. Jon tells the truth about bushit

and they call it "bashing".

I think there's a reason there's no 1/2 show that "tilts right"..it's called fauxnoise that's on 24/7..for those that can stomach that chimphouse propoganda shite.

[Patsy Stone]

6. That should have been gone

before it began.

In other news: Republicans -- still not funny.

[tom_paine]

7. The humor of both Bushies and Nazis are both very cruel

and lacking in any understanding of irony.

I will say this: of course, Bushie humor is not nearly as hideous as Nazi humor was, but they are of the same family of leaden, dull-witted, un-funny humor by Authoritarians.

[Disturbed]

9. Where are those pesky WMDs? Under my couch? HeHe

Yeah, a laugh riot.

[Initech]

8. You cant expect satire from people who think Larry The Cable Guy is funny.

It would go right over their heads.

[MrSlayer]

11. No shock there. Did you ever see that show?

I watched it just to see how it was and it was terrible. Not necessarily because it was left bashing but because it just wasn't funny. It was painfully bad. The court jester and comedians in general are funny because they tell truth to power and point out its absurdity. There really isn't anything funny about the power ripping the little guys. Nobody roots for the robber barons.

[mudesi]

12. The fact that a so called "news" channel had a right wing "comedy" show should say it all (nm)

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dalaigh lllama]

17. Wow! You're right! That hurt!

I'm not a Hillary fan, but I'm not swayed by videos with nothing but ad hominem attacks against her. That ploy might work with the 26%-ers, but it won't work here.

Enjoy your stay here.

[ToeBot]

20. A winger telling the truth, painful or otherwise?

That'll be the day.

[bleever]

21. I watched with an open mind.

But there wasn't any info there, just more of that same old "I don't like her" kind of humor, plus the spurious suggestion that she wants to ban tobacco and legalize cocaine.

Sharpen it up, man, you can do better than that.

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. There just aren't enough "Mallard Fillmore" fans out there

(From "America - the Book")

[Babsbrain]

18. Careful, Americat-The Book is on the banned list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_books

The Wikipedia entry was edited by the CIA to add Jon Stewart's book

[lonestarnot]

16. Pretty soon their dumbass viewers will be farts in the whirlwind.

Ruppert kiss my ass.

[struggle4progress]

19. How way-we way-we sad!

[AwakeAtLast]

22. Ann's head will explode

She will want to hurl insults at Fox News for cancelling, but she can't do that, because it's Fox News. The ensuing battle within her pathetic little mind will cause the inevitable.

Conservatives have no sense of humor, that's why they are CONSERVATIVES!

[Yael]

24. Stewart can get the audience in stitches by just

reading the headlines. As written. Fox has to make up stuff to be "funny".

I caught this show one night after hearing about it -- and thought it was cheap and Sophmoric. To compare the two would be to compare the original SNL to the end run of MadTV. One was classic comedy and the other was spaghetti on the wall -- throw it up there and see what sticks (and then build an entire season around what got a half of a laugh).