Stevieslaw: Finding Funny
If Scotty Rand, the self-styled master of ceremonies for the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference, has his way, conservative politicians will be a whole lot funnier this year. Scotty has hired more than a dozen stand-up comedians to give workshops and lectures on the “nature of funny.” “When you think conservative,” he said with a sigh, “You think angry and outraged, you don’t think funny. Finding a candidate with an intact funny bone—one that can be taught to be occasionally humorous, would be a huge advantage in the 2016 Presidential election.”
Yo Yo Schwartz, one of the comedians employed, said that making Conservatives funny will not be easy. “Their timing is lousy,” he complained, “Often they try to excuse something awfully stupid that they’ve said by saying it was a joke. Suppose Sarah Palin had actually meant she had a feel for foreign policy because she could see Russia from Alaska as a joke. It would have changed the campaign.” Anne Vitale, another comic continued, they have no sense of juxtaposition—the fine art of comparing a to b in a way that warrants a belly laugh. That’s a humor essential. For example, Scott Walker might have made a biting satirical remark about ISIS, but comparing his future campaign against them as a continuation of his war on labor unions just comes off as mean—in the sense of both small and bitter. And, it made no sense—there is no nugget of truth there.” “Perhaps Scotty could have used some “Common Core,’ schooling—having to answer questions like a is to b like c is to an elephant might have been helpful to him.”
“The worst thing,” both comics agreed, “Is that many of people in this group don’t understand what is not funny.” “More than 70% of the people in my class thought it was theoretically possible for a middle-aged congressman from Oklahoma to say something funny about rape,” said Yo Yo.
Both comics certainly agreed that this was an opportunity for conservatives. “Hillary is not funny either,” they said “Though Bill is a real mensch.”