That's Not Funny

How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them

By: Matt Sienkiewicz, Nick Marx

Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright

A 2022 Best Comedy Book, Vulture

"Why do conservatives hate comedy? Why is there no right-wing Jon Stewart?" These sorts of questions launch a million tweets, a thousand op-eds, and more than a few scholarly analyses. That's Not Funny argues that it is both an intellectual and politically strategic mistake to assume that comedy has a liberal bias. Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx take listeners—particularly self-described liberals—on a tour of contemporary conservative comedy and the "right-wing comedy complex."

In That's Not Funny, "complex" takes on an important double meaning. On the one hand, liberals have developed a social-psychological complex—it feels difficult, even dangerous, to acknowledge that their political opposition can produce comedy. At the same time, the right has been slowly building up a comedy-industrial complex, utilizing the irony-laden media strategies of liberals such as Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, and John Oliver to garner audiences and supporters. Right-wing comedy has been hiding in plain sight, finding its way into mainstream conservative media through figures ranging from Fox News's Greg Gutfeld to libertarian podcasters like Joe Rogan. That's Not Funny taps interviews with conservative comedians and observations of them in action to guide listeners through media history, text, and technique.

©2022 Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx (P)2022 Kalorama

Kinda boring idk

I don’t disagree but the book was a trudge yawn-a-roni and cheese tbh

Lives up to its Title, Unfortunately

I've become quite a devotee of Gutfeld! since I stumbled on this late-night rumble fest. Not because Greg is good at his craft. He's crass, abrasive, self-congratulatory, often genuinely mean. Many times he dredges up some discredited Liberal from decades past (Howard Dean? Rachel Dolezahl?) for a cheap laugh--if the audience gets the reference. All without a scintilla of humor--even his studio audience barely snickers at most of his one-liners. Yet Gutfeld! gets high viewership. Sienkewicz and Marx start with FOX News's latest effort to craft a cable show that competes from the Right against Colbert, Fallon, Myers, and other comedians who serve as laugh inducers on the day's political and social events. The authors make an attempt to quantify Greg Gutfeld versus the other late night hosts. However, they fail to draw comparisons between Gutfeld's attempts at joking and the "genuine" laugh lines offered by "left-leaning" hosts. Having analyzed Gutfeld's style, I believe a contrast between how he and Colbert (or any other late-night network or cable host) handle the same current events would help the reader understand the difference between landing a solid laugh and coughing up a hairball.

From Gutfeld!, the authors journey down the cellar stairs that lead past sexist, anti-science, white supremacist, racist, and even Nazi-worshiping shows (mostly only available as podcasts). Shows hosted by would-be comedians such as Joe Rogan are examined, often by pointing out their marginal guest lists. We explore horrific examples such as "The Daily Shoah", which tries to lighten up subjects like genocide and the Holocaust. The authors wisely exclude original material from such sources. Unfortunately, despite the frightening aspects of these extreme Right "humorous" websites, discussion of their perverse nature is often dull and dry in the authors' hands.

While this story as told is worth the read, I feel some genuine comedy writing is necessary for us to understand why Right-wing attempts at humor often resemble the bully's classic "joke" of kicking away an amputee's crutch, or worse, throwing a puppy in a wood chipper just for grins.