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TV review-Fox Half Hour News Hour
02/18/07
The new Fox Half Hour News Hour (FHHNH) is a conservative counter to the left-leaning SNL News and more recent politically-themed comedy shows like Colbert and the Daily show. I was aware of the show from having attended the Liberty Film Festival where attendees were shown a clip. I liked the idea then, but wasn’t particularly bowled-over. I feel the same way today having seen the first official installment of FHHNH tonight. The show isn’t horrible, but it isn’t overwhelmingly funny either. In fact, the funniest moment in the half hour may have been the Mac commercial poking fun at Microsoft Vista.
Imagine
This first FHHNH has some good ideas, but the ideas are executed in an obvious fashion. The problem, as I see it, is the show’s self-conscious conservatism. Rival liberal shows are obviously liberal, but don’t make a point of saying so, giving them a sense, at least, of neutrality.
With that in mind, let’s look at the show: The newscasters are competent. The lady in particularly is very attractive, but the looks of perplexity they sprinkle throughout the broadcast grate as the show wears on.
The show opens in the year 2009 with Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter as president and vice-president respectively- surely a nightmare for liberals- but not a joke in and of itself. Perhaps if the skit had included some liberal reaction, it may have been funny. As it is, it comes off as a certain type of conservative wet dream with no comedic value.
The opening newscast contains some mildly funny jokes.
The ridiculous Obama phenomenon is dealt with effectively if not hilariously.
Some of the mock ACLU ads correctly point out that the ACLU almost exclusively fights the public will, but the ACLU is probably proud of that fact. If the ACLU has such ads, it’s funny and should be a regular feature.
FHHNH brings up the leftist fascination with mass-murderers such as Che Guevara. The skit has the newscasters interviewing a t-shirt salesman. The concept is solid, but the joke goes awry by having the t-shirts make unfunny jokes instead of relying on the mere fact that the shirts exist in the first place.
A running joke on Ed Begley Jr. may have been funny if an actual Begley impersonator were interviewed.
The global-warming skit is OK.
I hope the show does better next week.
13 comments
First of all, the fact that they obviously had a live audience in the studio, but also just as obviously had to rely on a 2nd rate laugh track the entire time, speaks volumes about the level of the humor here.
Next is the jokes themselves. The only word that comes to mind here is mean. These are mean jokes with nothing substantial behind them. This is not satire, it's name-calling. A prime example is their very low blows made at the expense of Ed Begley Jr. If you want to make fun of the entire environmental movement's stance on issues, fine. Heck, I'll even support having a laugh at something crazy or silly Ed Begley Jr. has said recently. But to just single him out out of nowhere to get a cheap laugh out of making his car break down and turning him into a bum, that's just mean spirited for no good reason.
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report make fun of primarily silly things people in the public eye say, and the absurdity of the news coverage that follows it. And yes, there is some low brow humor thrown in the mix, but they never just simply sit back and rely on name-calling.
I’m all for a republican based comedy show. That’d be great. This show, however, is not worth the effort. If I had to give some advice about what to change in the Half Hour News Hour, it would be this: Get genuinely funny people who now how to craft some clever humor and who actually have things to say about politics. All I see here is a mean spirited attempt to force some humor back into the republican party.
As for the show, I didn't see it but that opening skit you posted is lame-o. But SNL has a lot of lame-o skits. It takes time for shows like this to find their stride. Hopefully they'll be able to do it. I'm sure there are a lot of conservatives that can write funny satire. They just need to find them.
The delivery is fair, the writing subpar. It seems to go too much for the bludgeon rather than the rapier. In this, it was of a piece with the Fox show "If Hollywood Ran America" or somesuch.
Rush and Ann and the global warming comic were OK, as was the Hollywood "hottie" doing good for the world. The ACLU ads and some of the other humor seemed crude, angry and rather unfunny. There's lots out there to parody - the self-righteousness, the celebrity self-importance, the tendency of people to tie themselves into intellectual pretzels.
But the comedy seemed too much a part of the bludgeoning smugness that afflicts Fox News much, but not all, of the time. For sharp wit with a "conservative" perspective, I still like P.J. O'Rourke and the sharp eye of Tom Wolfe. The comedy would also be a little more credible if
it poked some occasional fun at the righ, as Colbert and Stewart do at the left. The premises of the jokes sometimes presume the person appreciating them has drunk the Bush Kool-Aid, making the "satire" appear moree angry and reactive.
, no pun intended. The comedy show is no exception and should be abandoned immediately. if Fox wants to do something like this, they should put it on FX or the standard Fox TV network.
Fox is treating what is supposed to be a COMEDY show like it's an editorial, and rather than trying to generate laughs is trying to advance a political view.
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Bravo Ted. Boy, did you nail it.
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