Here's some clips from Fox News's new satirical show 'The Half Hour News Hour' which they are billing as 'The Daily Show for conservatives'.

Clip #1
Clip #2

I'm a conservative and uh ... I found that show god awful. What were the Fox News executives smoking when they approved it?

My hate for FOX News has risen from annoyance to full-on loathing. The point of the Daily Show is to make fun of the news, FOX News is a news network! It's not news, it's entertainment...how can people...they so obviously have a bias and they're pushing....ARGH!!!!

I don't think its so bad. The most annoying thing is the laughing. It sounds so fake.

I didn't see the actual show, just read the review by our local tv critic-guy.
Good comedy is based on time-lyness. So why is the show written and taped so far ahead of airing? Nothing on Anna Nichol or crazy astronauts. A bit about the neo-nazis at Skokie... that happened 30 years ago? Jeeessh!

Good title wasted on a lame show.

I suppose that I was supposed to be offended...or something. Obama is a political newcomer and has done drugs in the past...yeah?

Personally I found that clip too lame to be offensive, but maybe the rest of the show has more bite.

They practically cribbed This Hour Has 22 Minutes for the title. And This Hour Has 22 Minutes is Canadian--isn't that hypocritical or something?

Wow was that lame. OK the actors are just annoying in their fakeness and the laughter sounds like the laughter from the interns watching The Soup when it is taped. At least there it is meant to be part of the joke. They don't even have the smoothness of the SNL Anchor people.

Why the obsession with gay pengiuns?

Maybe they should watch teh Colbert Report or the Daily Show to see why they are funny.

The Obama bit was just a rip off of TDS's "Obamania!" pieces. Except, of course, not funny. And BO as a punchline? So, so lame.

The veiled racism of the Obama piece was telling. I guess it's pretty unbelievable that a Nee-grow went to Harvard. It's also very sad that the funniest thing was the title of the magazine "B.O."

I'm fairly certain this show will come crashing down either from general unfunniness or when one of them slips up and decides to do a skit in blackface or something horrendously offensive. There are plenty of ways to skewer liberals and make it funny. Lame "Obama/mama" rhymes are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There used to be a show (either on MTV or VH1, can't remember) called the Half Hour Comedy Hour.

The "banter" between those two was like a bad SNL sketch. Another thing was that (from a distance shot) didn't the set look like The Daily Show set?

That was almost painful to watch. If they can't make the clips funny that doesn't bode well for the show.

Orlando Sentinel critic does not speak well of the show calling it "dreadful" and "a botch." Also from that article

Limbaugh/Coulter? Gah. That would be justification to violate 18 U.S.C. 871 and 18 U.S.C. 1751.

This mess was created by Joel Surnow? Now I know why 24's political storylines are so poorly done, dude doesn't know much about the political system and he sure does not know funny in the political system.

I saw the promo on FNC last night and immediately set my DVR.

Then, I started thinking about it and did a search on their website. The only thing I found was the promo video. I didn't see a new show announcement, (of course, I could have missed it) and it doesnt show up on the schedule for Sunday.

Could FNC be pulling some sort of joke?

Faulty intelligence concerning a program that might actually not exist?

Beyond offensive, and also just plain stupid. Limpballs and mAnne Coulter? What the heck does that tell you. Faux Noise just proves that it is only infotainment and not NEWS.

I question if it's even appropriate to air a comedy show on what is supposed to be an all-news channel. Wouldn't a show like this be better suited for the Fox entertainment network?

Bingo, Mary Jane.

Hmmm, my tv section said it's to air at 10 pm for the next two Sundays. Could they be pulling it already?

Geez...all of this talk about how offensive and horrible it is makes me actually want to watch the episode. I saw only the clips there, and I thought that they were relatively toothless in comparison to pretty much everything that I have seen that has gotten labelled "politically incorrect". I want to see what Rush would do as president, dagnabbit.

Perhaps the mere existence of a show like this on a network designated for news should outrage me, but I just cannot bring myself to be passionate about it. At least not yet.

hmmm...Nope, still not provoking any real emotion.

I watched the Obama clip and it was pretty bad. The anchors were like the fake news people in an infomercial. I kept expecting maybe some english guy or perhaps Ron Popiele to come out and tell them about an amazing product he had discovered.

Also the laugh track was straight out of Scooby Doo.

That's one of the things that's got me thinking that this is a ruse of some sort.

Wouldn't be the first time, would it.

I haven't seen any clips yet, but I think this would have something to do with Michael Medved's assertion that Happy Feet has a gay agenda. They have it written down and carved into a glacier somewhere, I guess. Or maybe he thinks the movie was written by The Apathetic Whores of America.

It's not a ruse, it's Rupert's attempt to be funny. It fails miserably.

Has a show ever had a thread as bitter as this one before it airs?

Also, I find the title of the thread kind of offensive. Not only as a liberal, but as someone who has a fairly good grasp on what 'funny' is.

This show reminds me of this one really conservative kid I went to law school with, while we were trying to have polite discussion on current events, he'd run in and lambast everyone with his "hilarious" jokes that only he laughed at.

I know there are funny conservatives out there... but this show looks painfully unfunny. And the laugh track... ugh. These jokes already have mold on them. It's too bad because the concept itself isn't a bad idea, but Fox News is not the appropriate venue for this. Well, at least Monday's Daily Show should have plenty to snark on.

On Olbermann's show Thursday night, they pointed out that the clips the show used in their Obama piece were of a 100% black crowd. They were filmed in Africa. His crowds in this country are predominately white. Was that a random choice of clips, or a deliberate one?

Quoting myself because I'm answering myself. (I see therapy in my future)

Anyway, it appears that FNC has taped two shows and is testing the waters with them. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

For those of you, like me, who have a full Sunday night viewing schedule, it repeats at 1 am.

I haven't seen the clip yet, but the Orlando Sentinel article mentions that the show will deal with children's books (that's my field, so now I have to watch this thing), so I wonder if they were referring to this book.

I'm just surprised that a thread title can be that long.

Another reminder of why Conservatives really don't get The Daily Show. Stewart already mocks Democrats rather mercilessly. Yes, its coming from the perspective of someone who agrees with them, but he's been very biting in his satire of Democrats. The point of the show isn't to make cheap Republican jokes. Its primarily to satirize the news media and political establishment. THHNH only seems to exist to collect the cheap throw-away slams that already air all the time on FoxNoise. Even if they do some Republican gags, they still need to come up with actually funny Democrat gags. Not just, "haha. BO. Get it? Body Odor?" or "His middle name is Hussain. haha. Get it? Hussain!" or "don't forget he's a scary black man! haha. Oh, but he's not totally black either. That's funny, too. haha!"

CBC Newsworld (a 24 hour news station) in Canada used to air repeats of the Canadian show, "This Hour has 22 Minutes" (kind of like SNL's Weekend Update) daily because it tended to be the highest rated show on the network until the CRTC (Canada's FCC) decided that it was inappropriate for a news channel to show a scripted for-entertainment show, and directed them to stop. Perhaps something similar will happen in this case?

I'd actually like to watch this at least once to form my own opinion, but to my knowledge Fox News can't get a broadcast license in Canada.

The FCC doesn't regulate content on cable channels, certainly not to ensure that it keeps up with its stated genre, so nothing similiar will happen in this case. FoxNoise can air whatever they please. It may raise ethical questions, but there are absolutely no legal implications that I'm aware of.

CNN International has aired The Daily Show for a while. Its worth noting that Jon Stewart has always found that very bizarre.

This show makes Fox News look like the parent of teenagers acting like they are into the latest music and clothes in order to seem "cool" to their kid and his/her friends, but instead makes things awkward and pathetic all around.

Have they made any Lewinsky/blowjob jokes yet? Because that's SO edgy!

I think that was just some misleading media reports. It's been available for a while now, but I think on most cable providers, it's in an extra package (ex Rogers).

Er? I see it as making fun of THHNH; the "without" applies to both clauses at the end, and "liberal" is how Fox would describe TDS, not a reflection of an actual political agenda on the part of Jon & co. So, THHNH is like TDS, except it isn't "liberal" and/but it also isn't funny.

And considering this looks to be incredibly not funny (and was developed particularly to be conservative), it seems accurate enough....

I didn't find the clips to be funny, but I think its probably to early to judge the show. I think the real test for them will be how many jokes they tell about President Bush. Jokes about the president have formed the foundation for almost all political humor in the US and if they think they can have a relevant show just ragging on the Democrats, I think they are sorely mistaken.

Bush jokes are funny, Pelosi jokes, not so much, Reid jokes even less so.

( Also, if they are going to go after presidential candidates, it's a Republican candidate who has been know to dress in drag.)

There's been extensive talk of this in the TDS thread, but one of the reasons why Jon Stewart just plain works (and Colbert, too) is that the joke is, nine times out of ten, on society and the media.

This isn't sophisticated humor. BO magazine? Quoi?

I'm glad I don't get Fox News - otherwise I might be compelled to watch this tripe and throw things at the TV, and my neighbors already think I'm crazy enough from what they hear every week when Prison Break is on. But anyway.

Seems like this is kind of in the Mallard Fillmore vein, isn't it? (Not a compliment.)

Those clips need a new word, lame doesn't do it justice.

And if there is a joke against President Bush I would be surprised. The most I would see Fox doing is repeating one of his lame jokes, or giving people dumb nickname like Bushy does.

But we all know saying a joke against the President would mean the terrorist have won.

If Newt Gingrich jokes were funny during the 90's, why are Pelosi jokes suddenly off-limits? Gingrich was made fun of so much, he was practically like the co-president from what I remember.

I don't remember Pelosi organizing the Dems around a Contract with Godless Commies or anything like that. If and when that happens, sure.

Et tu, Dom Irrera and Deal or No Deal Model # 13?

A current-day Weekend Update - which is pretty awful - stretched out to a half-hour, and with really bad infomercial level production and writing.

"There is a stereotypical notion that minorities in prison like to rape white men. It would be funny if Ed Begley Jr. - who actual champions [i]being more environmentally conscientious (crazy!) - suffered such a fate! We think that is funny. That's our show, goodnight!"

Does this replay? My DVR says no, but I'd really like to put it on a DVD, so I can watch it and laugh, again and again. Though probably not for the reasons Surnow and co. hoped for.

Jeez, Ed Begley jokes? What's next, a searing evisceration of women drivers? Mother-in-law jokes?

I think the biggest problem, apart from the thunderous unfunniness, is that this isn't at all topical. In addition to Ed Begley, they were brave enough to take on the Skokie court decision, Che Guevara t-shirts, and PC children's books. All important and divisive issues-10 or 15 years ago. Has conservative humor gotten to the point where all they can joke about is stuff no one even remembers anymore?

And male anchor guy whose name escapes me and I couldn't care less about anyways: stop mumbling. There were some lines I couldn't even understand at all. On second thought, they probably sucked anyways.

All I can say is that I just witnessed a horrible, unfunny trainwreck.

I caught only snippets of it during commercial breaks of another show. It didn't really remind me of The Daily Show at all, and perhaps it wasn't meant to. I would guess that it was based partially on the Weekend Update, and in the tradition of "fake news" shows such as CNNNN, as opposed to fake "news shows" such as The Daily Show.

I didn't find it all that amusing, but I still wasn't offended. I guess that it just rolled off of me. I did find it somewhat amusing to see one of John Hodgman's Mac adverts during a commercial break.

I saw more clips, and boy that was beyond lame. They completely missed the mark trying to re-create The Daily Show's success.

There HAS to be funny conservatives, but I think this show was focus-grouped to death in order to appeal to a wide demographic and the result was what we got.

You would think so, but the only one I can think of is Bush. Because I have to laugh at him or I would cry.

Ed Begley Jr, does have some little reality show on but it isn't been big news or anything.

I think the offensive things is to the intelligence of the view. I can't believe even if you agree with what there were saying that you could think it was funny. No timing, canned laughter, a middle school could do better.

And I think that's being generous--though the children's books issue remains important to people, the Skokie court decision came down in 1978, and Che Guevara was considered a bit obvious when I was at college in the early 1980s. What next, poking fun at the New Deal?

The book one is actually in the news today. Librarian's won't to keep a book out of the library cause it has the word scrotum in it. But I think this thing was taped before that story hit.




The Civil War, is it really a Civil War? With a picture of Abe in the background.