the turning of the political tide and political comedy

Today, listening to Randy Rhodes on Air America, interesting media effect is revealed to me. Her monologue is really good today; it's loaded with information and she's effectively linking together tons of the horror stories of the right-wing over the last little while. No pauses, no repetition, just Limbaugh-esque railroading, lefty-style.

It's interesting that Rhodes is supposedly a "comedian", or at least that her show is for "entertainment". I never found her all that funny before, but it seems like today she's not too worried about being funny, she's just ranting like Limbaugh.

It strikes me that all of the so-called satirists out there right now, are totally subject to the political tides. Now that Bush has been returned to the White House, all the droves of lefty comics will likely continue to slide away from satire and towards punditry. Remember when Janeane Garofalo was funny? I do like her, but I don't remember the last time she made me laugh. And it's not her fault either, it's just that the stuff she cares about just isn't funny anymore.

I noticed before that the political environment has turned comics into pundits, but it is striking how much further into punditry these comics continue to drift. It seems like the pattern is following very closely behind the growth of right-wing punditry during the Clinton years. People like to hear that kind of extreme opinion, because it makes them feel more normal. Extreme opinions make slightly less extreme opinions acceptable.

So as the political tide turns back to democratic values (which I think is inevitable, given our current trajectory) I expect to see a continuation of this pattern. We'll know when we're getting back on track when people crack jokes they heard on the radio about conflict of interest, government waste and corruption, corporate criminals and presidential nepotism. Checks and balances. Freedom of speech and social justice.

I don't know what would have to happen for us to be able to talk about that stuff honestly again.