Analyzing the Lack of Conservative Comedy in the Media

The White House Correspondent�s Dinner was last Saturday and if you are like me, you were very interested in which comedian would be performing. The WHCD has been known for decades as the hardest gig in the comedy world. And this year the stakes were even higher as the tensions between the press and the president boiled over with the president�s boycott of the entire event. Hasan Minhaj, this year�s performer, had a very difficult task ahead of him.

            And he outdid my expectations, as well as the expectations of the audience. Minhaj was quick to address the �elephant not in the room.� However, Minhaj continued by saying, �That�s because he�s in Moscow. It�s a long flight. You can�t just expect Vlad to make it on a Saturday. It�s a Saturday!�

            That combination of wit and bravery really helped establish my confidence in Minhaj right from the beginning. He went on to target each media outlet including MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN. He also bashed USA Today towards the beginning of the monologue. It was a perfect speech that was memorable and cunning. However, my analysis pales in comparison to the speech in its entirety, so I encourage you to go check it out.

            There was one thing that slightly confused me about the whole situation though. Why during a conservative presidency would someone like Minhaj be hired for the job? I know that the president does not actually control who is nominated for the gig, but it seems logical to find someone who supports the president, rather than a person who is known to be critical of him. One would assume that the White House Correspondents Association would be able to find a more conservative comedian to go along with the conservative president and vice versa for a liberal president.

            Then I got to thinking, are there any conservative comedians? Well, besides the president (ba-dum-tss). The only person that came to mind was Jesse Watters from Fox News. He seems like a suitable candidate for the job. He�s young and energetic, and if political views were put aside, he could probably blend in pretty well with the other late-night comedians in the country. But, there is one drawback for Watters: he is just not that funny. I�ve tried watching �Watters� World� and I�ve tried to find something to laugh at, but it�s just not there. It also doesn�t help that he has done segments that were quite racist (specifically the episode where he traveled to China Town in New York City and proceeded to mock the people there). And as Hasan Minhaj pointed out on Saturday night, �He�s on a break right now. Right, he�s on a break. Just like my childhood dog is staying on a farm upstate. I get it. I know that move.�

            The reason Watters is on a �break� right now is because of a lewd comment he made last week towards Ivanka Trump when he said that he, �really liked how she was speaking into that microphone.� That statement was in reference to a female entrepreneurship conference that Ivanka Trump spoke at in Germany last week. I think the comment speaks for itself. Jesse Watters is not a viable candidate as a good conservative comedian.

            Larry the Cable Guy is a self-proclaimed conservative, is funny, and free of controversy. He would fit the criteria except for the fact that he avidly avoids political topics. His act focuses on mocking rednecks, not Democrats. That would be an awkward Correspondents Dinner, considering the majority of the audience has little to nothing in common with rednecks or redneck humor. While I do enjoy Larry the Cable Guy as a comedian, he�s not the conservative comedian that the right needs to respond to the left-leaning, more popular comedians.

            There are a few lesser known comedians that are conservative on the internet. The most sophisticated is a man by the name of Michael Loftus who hosts a show called The Flipside. It�s set in a studio that looks like a typical American garage (I guess he is trying to show how conservative he is) with a host that wears jeans. He has potential, but his jokes are outdated and out of context. For example, he once asked, �What�s the deal with Harry Reid? You either hate him or you hate him, am I right? The man is in the business of telling people how greedy they are� and he lives in the Ritz Carlton� (Ha ha?). I think that joke was enough to cross him off of the list.

            The main rebuttal I can foresee in response to this blog is that the �mainstream media� controls comedy and is the reason behind the lack of conservative comedians. And that is a good point, at least for networks like CBS and NBC. But for channels like Fox News and organizations like Breitbart, which are popular and highly-viewed, that�s not a reasonable excuse. In the world of comedy, liberals are dominating conservatives. Between Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Bill Maher, John Oliver, and Samantha Bee, the late-comedy industry is completely controlled by liberals who enjoy massive audiences. If conservatives can figure out a way to employ a smart, scandal-free, and political comedian that can maintain relevancy, they have a shot. But like the president, many of these conservatives can�t seem to take a joke. Until then, political humor will remain in the hands of the liberals.