Fox News tests ‘The 1/2 Hour News Hour’
Cory Bergman February 13th, 2007
Coming this Sunday, Fox News Channel will air the first of two episodes of The 1/2 Hour News Hour, a concept show that pokes fun of the day’s news events. It’s looks remarkably like The Daily Show, which you’ll see in the preview clip below, and you’ll also be reminded that the talent is nowhere close to Jon Stewart…
Soooo, what do you think?
98 Comments Add your own
1. Anonymous | February 13th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
What’s with showing a bunch of Africans when talking about Obama? Also, it doesn’t bode well that that segment needed a laugh track.
2. Michael Gorman | February 13th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
I hear subtlety kicks in sometime during the second episode.
3. jeff | February 14th, 2007 at 2:19 am
This feels more like bad saturday night live than the daily show.
4. Pablo Don | February 14th, 2007 at 4:13 am
The thinnest book ever published was The Encyclopedia of Rightwing Humor. And the jokes from this pathetic tv-show will not make it to the second edition of that book. Why do people with a conservative or Republican mindset has no sense of humor at all? Is it something in the genes?
5. Michael Rosenblum | February 14th, 2007 at 5:09 am
About as funny as Dennis Miller.. which also is not. Nice racist undertones however. Gives a good sense of what the Republicans are going to pull in ‘08/
6. El Dangeroso | February 14th, 2007 at 5:26 am
That laugh track was horrendous. Like MadTV horrendous.
Also, it would help if the show were funny, but maybe that’s not what Fox is aiming for.
7. Chris Rooney | February 14th, 2007 at 6:13 am
Oh, sure, THIS is allowed on YouTube! But not the real thing.
8. Joe Albano | February 14th, 2007 at 6:30 am
I cant wait to see the program.
from the above — Racist??? Wait till they get Pelosie and the Hildabeast
No Sense of humor - Uhhhh I guess because it wasnt Bush bashing or bashing the troops it’s not funny to you??
to FNC Even the tv ad I saw was a HOOT!! Dont ever become politically correct. You’ll know the show is a success by the amount of Whining you hear……..
9. SS | February 14th, 2007 at 7:10 am
Where did they find the two anchors? Cause, they suck. They’re worse than Colin Quinn on SNL weekend update. And the racist quips and video shots, wow, Fox can’t find anything to attack the guy with so they resort to that. A little second grade, thou I didn’t expect any thing more.
10. theTVaddict | February 14th, 2007 at 7:13 am
I’m pretty sure The Daily Show doesn’t need a laugh track. This clip is simply a horribly executed rip-off of the Daily Show. I can’t wait to see what Jon Stewart has to say about it — no doubt it will be funny.
11. Chad | February 14th, 2007 at 9:11 am
This is terrible.
Conservatives are capable of humor.
I thought Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn was a good show, but it got pulled.
South Park is friggin hilarious, and they’re very right-leaning libertarian. Look up the book South Park Conservatives.
I fall pretty much into that category.
But this show is absolutely terrible.
This is going to strip Fox News of the little credibility it has left. And will make it even more embarassing for young people to admit they are right-leaners.
12. Nonchalant Savant | February 14th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Bleah.
Nobody does topical humor better than the Daily Show or The Colbert Report. South Park is a close 3rd. They all make it look easy because they’re so good at it.
Laugh track? What is this, the 70’s? Hey, Fox - if it’s funny - people will laugh. Novel concept, huh?
13. Jesse Thorn | February 14th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
As a professional comedian and broadcaster… oof, this is an embarassment. Could they rip off the Daily Show any more? Just because your show has the same general concept doesn’t mean it has to be an EXACT copy… with second-rate talent.
14. El Rushbo | February 14th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Wow, is this not funny.
I was hoping to see a little of the Daily Show’s snark used on the left. But this is worse than a Jay Leno monologue.
Anger fuels humor, but angry ain’t funny.
It’s boring and it’s gone in less than a year.
15. El Rushbo | February 14th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Oh, and to the right-wing loon who posted here — please cite, with links and quotes, the “humor” you’ve found that bashes the troops.
It doesn’t exist.
And ripping on Bush is funny. Just like it was for Clinton.
Also: Try English. It’s a wonderful language.
16. aretha franklin | February 14th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
17. Safran | February 14th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Hmmm. About an hour too long.
18. Anonymous | February 14th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Ah yes…racist! That, or bigoted. Or hateful. Or mean-spirited. Meanwhile the left can make fun of Christians up and down all day and it’s perfectly fine. I hope this show highlights this fact, once they figure out how to actually be funny.
19. El Dangeroso | February 14th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
“Anonymous” must really hate “Studio 60,” but then, don’t we all?
20. mike | February 15th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
It’s not that conervatives/republicans don’t have a sense of humor, it’s that lefts/democrats/crazies don’t have a sense of humor about themselves. I think the show is hilarious and will be a religious follower.
21. glenn | February 15th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Awesome! About time there is something out there for us on the other side other than the same nonsense on Comedy channel or Drive-by-media. Wont take long for the Demorcats to run screaming about the Fairness Doctrine and try to get the show cancelled. Still, at least Fox realizes that there are millions of people that are tired of the Daily Show humor and want a little more “right wing” fun.
22. MacDog | February 15th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
“Meanwhile the left can make fun of Christians up and down all day and it’s perfectly fine.”
Talking freakin’ snakes, whilst the creations of your infallible sky-daddy, are doing their best to take over the world against his perfect will, and we’re all at their sway and yet still held accountable for our own actions, such that they are punishable by an eternity in hellfire…and he loves us. Don’t listen to Marduk, Odin, Poseiden, or Quetzelcoatl either…they’re fakes. ‘Nuff said.
23. Eliott | February 15th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
“Still, at least Fox realizes that there are millions of people that are tired of the Daily Show humor and want a little more “right wing” fun.”
This is nonsense. It takes a real mindless partisan drone to think that a show like the “1/2 Hour News Hour” is funny.
Full disclosure: The first two-liner about Obama’s approval rating was well-crafted and funny. Nothing else in this clip was, as evidenced by the laugh track.
Chad,
Amen. Conservative-slanted thought can be funny, but usually only when it has a libertarian bent. Sometimes I feel like the libertarians are the only reasonable people in the world. They actually laugh at themselves sometimes.
And to the Fairness Doctrine guy,
There’s a difference between having a political satire on Comedy Central and running a comedy propaganda show on a “news” station. I’m personally really rooting for this show. It should be the final nail in the coffin of Fox News’ credibility. And the same will go for CNN if they try a similar stunt.
One more note: Reasonable people realize that Daily Show only became “left-leaning/liberal” in response to the ridiculousness of this administration.
And I guarantee you, once Obama (or god forbid, Hillary) is president, they’ll make fun of him just as much. Look how much they ripped on Kerry in 2004.
Yes, TDS leans slightly to the left. But at least it’s on Comedy Central and never purported to be “Fair and Balanced.”
24. dd | February 15th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
there is a difference in satire/comedy and propaganda. this is just more bill oreilly without the falafel.
25. Mike D | February 15th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Typical Left wing responses. The show will be great!
26. HellField04 | February 15th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
This was so bad it was like a hug from Jesus … just kidding … about the hug from Jesus.
27. Jakefool | February 15th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
It’s taken me a long time to come to the realization that the right-wingers really don’t get the humor on the Daily Show; they’re not angry, they just don’t have a sense of humor. This show will do fine because Fox know that their audience has no sense of humor. This is exactly what their audience thinks is funny.
28. asdjfkl; | February 15th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
fox cant hang.
29. A Libertarian who studies Mass Communication | February 15th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
If you can’t beat them, join them.
1/2-Hour News Hour won’t beat the Daily Show at their own game. But that doesn’t matter. This is a calculated tactic to make people sick of this style of television program, thereby weakening the popularity of the programs it tries to immitate:
The Daily Show
The Colbert Report
Countdown
etc.
This move is a gamble, and probably a move to try to help the neo-conservative movement gain lost ground in 2008.
Don’t forget that the Daily Show started out rough too back in 1996 with Craig Kilborn. Back then the show had no studio audience and no competition.
If I had to bet money, I would say this experiment is doomed to fail. If the heads at Fox have any brains, which they do, they realize this, and don’t care, as long as the program’s short run hurts the competition.
There’s no doubt in my mind that 1/2 Hour News Hour will make some people laugh, but obviously not everyone
A lot of Americans need to learn that there’s more to this country than two political parties.
30. lol | February 15th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
I could only think of 5 funny conservative comedians and all 5 are libertarian. I do think that Republicans can be funny, in a very non-pc, look-both-ways-before-you-tell-the-racist-joke kind of way. I chuckled a few times during h-o-n-h, but its only because I laugh at offensive and poorly done stuff.
However, this show will stay on the air and will only need to attract 10% of Bill O’Reilly’s Audience to match TDS’s ratings. My guess is that they’ll get more than 10%. There are a lot of hardcore conservatives that don’t get the Daily Show, and those people will enjoy h-o-n-h. Whats sad too is that knowing Fox they’ll make a big deal out of their show doing better in the ratings too.
The Daily show isn’t just funnier, its fair, factually accurate, open-minded, silly, and thought provoking. I do think that TDS was left leaning pre-Bush, not that I disagree with their politics, but they practically licked Bill Clinton’s nutsack on his last day in office. But that doesn’t excuse propoganda and drum beating in this case though. As far as the 99.9% joke, thats typical conservative guestimating, saying the way something feels instead of what it is. If the Primaries were held today Obama would probably get 20%.
31. God help us all | February 16th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Comedy is comedy people…if it’s funny, it’s funny…
Racism can be funny…a dead aborted fetus can be funny…this show isn’t funny…and it looks like they shot it in a high school gymnasium with a set made out of tin foil and sequins…
However, the “Marion Barry” joke was quite hilarious…if you can’t admit that…then you are lying…
32. stanman | February 16th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Apparantly anytime anybody has any jokes about Obama just like any presidential candidate endures people will cry racism. Pathetic, but oh so predictable.
33. Michael Gorman | February 16th, 2007 at 8:37 am
The Daily Show pokes fun at the absurdity of the system. That included the Clinton Administration (do we really have that short-term of a memory?), the six years of a Republican White House and Congress, and it’s already included digs at the Democratically-controlled Congress.
I agree with “Libertarian,” TDS started off rough. Let’s hope this evolves into more of a political satire, because this clip is just Talking Points with a laugh track, and not very funny.
34. brian | February 16th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Well I think this proves conservatives condone torture…..
35. mike t | February 16th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
sadly this show might actually do well because fox news viewers eat up garbage like this. gotta hand it to conservative leaders for being aware of the average mental capacity of their viewers and knowing exactly how to manipulate them.
36. tracy | February 16th, 2007 at 1:49 pm
This show sounds great, I’m stoked waiting for it. If just 2% of Rush’s audience tunes in, it will be successful. All these whinny liberals criticizing it ,indictes that it will be enormously good.
37. Zoroaster2000 | February 16th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Oh man, this is sad.
And I consider myself libertarian-leaning (though I mostly hate politics.)
A few of the jokes COULD’VE been funny…if they had talent. As far as right wingers being “unfunny…” look no further than Doug Stanhope or even Bill Hicks. (Granted Hicks might’ve been a liberal, but then again, you need to understand the political spectrum…technically conservatives in America tend to be liberal conservatives…except of course for the insane religious right, but they don’t laugh about anything, cuz they tend to be doofuses.)
Ultimately it doesn’t matter because regardless of whether or not this show fails, it won’t fix the “us versus them” mentality of the American polity.
38. Anonymous | February 16th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
tracey above… no matter if your liberal or conservative… this show sucks, so stfu with the “whinny liberal” derogatives. think in terms of quality. not only one idealogy is criticizing this show, so dont turn this discussion into your way of saying your political stance is less “whinny” than others
39. PC Scared | February 16th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
It’s about time the lefties eat crow, this might work right now… but it will!
40. adam collins | February 16th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
i laughed at how embarassing this was to watch….I feel bad for Fox News
is this their lame attempt to be a part of the “cool kid crowd”
I wish FNC would jsut drop their dresses and start calling themselves tabloid news…
holy shit could this have anymore racist undertones?…
FNC itself is funnier then this hunk of shit attempt at satrical comedy
41. Anonymous | February 16th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Funny how liberals will all jump in and call this racist for even joking about a black man.
Please, just go back to watching The Daily Show. Have a good time laughing at anything that could even slightly be interpreted as a joke from him and clapping in unison whenever he jumps on his soap-box and criticizes Republicans. Seriously, I’ve never seen such an idiotic crowd. They’ll laugh at damn near ANYTHING Jon says.
Plus when he pokes fun at an African American, it isn’t racist!
42. will | February 16th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
This is sweet haha down with democrats!
43. Kevin | February 16th, 2007 at 7:31 pm
I have to say that I think its cool. I like how goofy it is. It pokes fun at the stupid Daily Show and the many faults of so many democrats. So democrats might not find it funny…Who cares? I don’t find the daily show funny. I find the drive- by-media funny at times but only because they claim to be fair. So I think its about time that republicans have a comedy show making fun of the other side. Now bring on the spam!
44. Lauren D. | February 16th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
It reminded me of those sci fi movies where aliens take on human bodies and pass for us, except their missing the mental stuff inside that would have enabled them to actually “click” with other humans socially — and constantly hinting at some weird agenda (”HA. WE ARE LAUGHING NOW, LAUGH WITH US FELLOW HUMAN, HA. NOW THAT WE ARE FRIENDS, YOU WILL HELP US, YES?” — or, well, something like that).
But then again, maybe I just don’t “get” conservative humor?
45. Sexy Detective | February 16th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Yes, there is such a thing conservative humor - read some PJ O’Rourke or Christopher Buckley sometime. Like all great satire, it has a sense of the absurd, draws an interesting and nuanced picture. and displays an awareness that the writer judges themselves at least as much as their targets.
This show just looks like more Fox News finger pointing and name calling. This discussion, however, is hilarious. Conservatives are excited about this show just because the liberals don’t think it will be funny.
Well, I’m a liberal, and I don’t think eating shit sandwiches, even on texas toast, would be tasty. Conservatives, feel free to disagree and chow down!
46. Randy H. | February 17th, 2007 at 6:08 am
Aren’t comparisons to the Daily Show a bit premature? Its the pilot episode! I’m sure the Daily show took a little while to get its stride.
As a conservative, I thought it was a bit weak, but will get better with time. The laugh track is awful. Get a live audience.
Liberals just cant laugh when the joke is on them.
47. BmorePunk | February 17th, 2007 at 10:42 am
The Daily Show (TDS) comparisons are kind of odd to me. From the two videos I’ve seen (Limbaugh/Coulter and Obama) this almost seems like I’m watching Mad TV sketches. TDS, which in case you weren’t watching before 2004 like myself, contains political jokes but it is not primarily a politically motivated show, it’s comedy. It really traces with whatever the major media is covering with some small stories that don’t get much coverage. Since politics are front-and-center a lot, a lot of this does get covered, but from the sketches I saw and reading the review of the other sketches on the show, the pilot episode seems to be completely about political issues.
The format of TDS is “news”, “commentary”, featurettes, and interviews. The “news” and “commentary” section is where you will see most of the political jokes, along with other current events. While the writers and producers of the show are obviously liberal (some far less than most would think), they will relentlessly bash just about anyway. President Bush gets hit a lot, but this is mostly due to his poor speech skills (at least as far as Presidents go). The entire Bush Administration gives the show a lot of material just because of the interviews they have done over the last few years, and they way they present themselves (very firm on their issues, then they change their mind about something, then they say always felt the new way). I actually feel like it’s too easy to pick on The President and his Adminstration at times (since they are so overexposed in the media), but that stuff is usually funny. Please note that ever since John Kerry ran for President, TDS has been mocking him consistently to this day whenver he says anything publicly.
The featurettes are typically my favorite part of the show. Recently, “reporter” Jason Jones went to Laguna Beach and mocked the Laguna Beach MTV show by re-shooting his own version with him in it (this was a two-parter). They did the same camera filters and work from the show, with the same editing styles. The featurettes during political election season do tend to be more political, but I remember one quite vividly from 2004 where they went to some rally for Kucinich and were harrasing him for being a crazy uber-liberal. TDS is not a show where they feel liike they can (and do) harrass anyone to make good comedy
Interviews (especially as of late) are also interesting most of the time. They include people in the entertainment business selling their latest product, to authors, TV personalities, and politicians. I’ve seen Bill O’Reilly on there a couple times, and as brazen as he comes across on his own show, I really got the feeling like he didn’t really beleive what he was saying on his show was always how he felt, he was just making an entertainment product (which is how I look at his show).
TDS has also had other conservative political guests like Rick Santorum, Bob Dole, Ken Mehlman, John McCain, Trent Lott, Mike Huckabee, John Ashcroft, Ari Fleischer, Colin Powell, and Tom Ridge. When these guests are on, the interviews are not like something you’d see on CNN or FOX where the interviewer of political persuasion A is there to combat the interviewee of political persuasion B. Stewart is honest with this guys, but is not mean or disrespectful to them. Most of his questions are things like “Okay, I really feel like this issue is like this, but you’re completely on the other side, why is that?”. You rarely see interviewers in any format doing that when there are political guests on, which is interesting since it’s a comedy show and a comedian performing the interview.
While I mentioned many political guests, if you look back at the people they’ve had on the show, most of them are not in the business of politics.
How does this tie into the 1/2 Hour News Hour? The only sketches I’ve seen and what I’ve heard seems to make it a sketch comedy show where a constant sketch is a “news program”. Will they have guests? Featurettes? Or will it continue to look like Mad TV? Are all topics okay (making fun of anybody/anything) or will the fact that it’s on Fox News keep it from doing that?
The comedians they have writing/playing the anchors are Kurt Long and Jenn Robinson are essentially unknowns. TDS started out with Craig Kilborn, and he didn’t really work out, and they moved to Jon Stewart (who had had his own show before on MTV), and had their writing/”reporting” team already in place. The show has been really good for a lot of years, but can get a little irritating when they talk about politics too much around elections.
I’m down with the Trey Parker/Matt Stone way of things, which is “equal opportunity mockery”, which the Daily Show pulls off fairly consistently. I know a lot of people that consider themselves hardcore liberals have branded TDS as their own, but I don’t think it is a show that was created for them. I know quite a few Reaganites that wach the show, so it doesn’t seem like it is too far down the path of a political alignment.
Since the 1/2 Hour News Hour is on Fox News, it is difficult for me to see how it’s not going to be consistently attached to a political alignment, with it always being about politics. This just seems like the material is going to end up being canned and forced, but I don’t think this show is for general audiences, it is for the people that would normally watch O’Relly or listen to Limbaugh. The humor seems to be really focused on having strong beleifs about the things that are being discussed, and then “ti’s funny because it’s true”.
Obama isn’t “African-American” in the normal sense of the word. Usually the term “African-American” is used, it implies many generations of a family living in the US, usually from former slaves. Obama’s mother (White) is from Wichita. Obama’s father (Black) is from Kenya, directly. TDS actually ran some “commentary” from Larry Wilmore, the “Senior Black Correspondent”, on Barack Obama. Wilmore said that Obama will have a hard time getting the black votes because his father is African. He said “Black people love things that are African, African Music, African Art, African Clothes…..they’re just not that crazy about Africans”. This is particularly funny because there is a lot of tension between people that emigrated here from Africa and Black Americans.
Anyway my point is that this point the 1/2 Hour News Hour doesn’t look like the Daily Show, it looks like Mad TV, and it looks to have a very specific audience with material that is exclusively political in nature with boundries they probably can’t cross beause of the network pressure and viewership.
48. Jeremiah | February 18th, 2007 at 4:57 am
I couldn’t tell you much about liberals or conservatives, nor would i particularly care to attach a political label to myself.
I *can*, however, tell you when something’s funny, and this show is certainly NOT TEH FUNNAY.
Granted: FOX chose a litany of unknowns to open this “response” to TDS, and the unknown writers/hosts are going to have their asses handed to them simply because they’ve not had the same ten years to hit a stride.
Granted: FOX is going to do humorganda: i’m willing to bet there will be NO jokes made of Our Dear Leader, Our Dear Dick, or anyone else anointed by FOX execs.
@ the Holy Alliance of FOX Defenders: If your “comedy” program needs a laugh track………IT’S NOT FUCKING FUNNY, mmmmmmkaaayyyy????
49. brian | February 18th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
Well it just aired, and it was worse than i imagined. It was shit, and i would be able to like it if it was funny. Maybe one or two chuckles.
50. BmorePunk | February 19th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Okay I watched the whole show. We must keep in mind taht this is a pilot and treat it as such, but here’s what I thought:
The two videos taht got “laked” to YouTube (Limbaugh/Coulter and Obama) were some of the least funny material. I can see why they would get pushed as promos, trying energize Fox News’ audience.
It wasn’t ALL political like I feared it would be. It was still ab it heavy on political jokes but they did throw some other stuff in there. One of the things that made me laugh in the show was (Lenny?) the T-Shirt guy, selling T-shirts of muderous dictators with “funny” sayings on them. Actually for me that was the high point of the dhow. The only downer of that segment was that the “anchors” kept spelling out every joke which took away from them.
The first joke about Sen. Clinton was pretty funny. It was well written and delivered. Many of the other jokes were not but the regular “news” jokes were probably about 40% funny, which probably isn’t too bad considering anyone involved in the production of this show has little experience trying to pull off something of this format.
Like I said before, on its own merits, the Limbaugh/Coulter sketch isn’t funny…it was really boring. Actually it was sort of funny trying to watch Coulter deliver her lines, but she’s terrible at it. As a “straight man”, Limbaugh wasn’t too shabby but you would need a funny person to come in that was actually funny, which Coulter is not. She should stick to the talking head realm. Limbaugh makes a good cameo for Fox’s audience.
The Obama thing wasn’t funny. Maybe it could have been, but there is obviously very little material on him, because a lot of it was lame or didn’t even make sense. It probably doesn’t help when one is trying to write material about him that his personality doesn’t automatically produce jokes (as is the likes with Sen. Kerry, President Bush, Sen. Stevens, Sen. Byrd, etc.). The worst part about the Obama thing is it was a huge segment of the show, and it was too long. This is an SNL approach here: take something that might be funny for a few seconds and stretch it out for two minutes. The BO magazine thing could have been funny, but they didn’t need to go over each cover article, becasse most of those jokes weren’t even remotely interesting.
The ACLU segments would have been funnier with a better person doing them. Something about that dude that was doing the segments really took away from those jokes.
The Ed Begley, Jr. running joke was essentially a train wreck. Everything about it, the writing, delivery, images, was severely disjointed. Another huge issue with it is that nobody really cares about Begley, Jr. I know they were targeting a Hollywood greenie, but they could have done better, a lot better.
The fake children’s books they showed were mildly entertaining but it went on too long. They should have done maybe three or four books, which was the chunk of the actually funny ones.
I’m glad the show was far less politically dunked than I thought it would be given the promos. The format of it still isn’t very much like TDS. It’s more like the Weekend Update segment of SNL if it were run on Mad TV (which makes sense because it has Fox level production values). When it comes down to it, this pilot is not very good, but maybe the show will be good enough for Fox News to run given their audience. Here’s some things they really got to fix though:
1) Writing: There were only two writers listed in the credits. A show like this really needs at least something like 10 writers, and they have to be funny. This is no easy task but it is possible.
2) Appeasement: While I understand that Fox News is trying to hit a particular audience, the show cannot be funny with these Limbaugh/Coulter and Obama sketches. They need to focus on making good comedy, and the “ooooh you zapped the dude who is totally on the other end of the political spectrum from me” material will wear off very quickly for most of Fox News’ audience. They’re going to have to find a mmiddle ground between fulfilling the network’s requirement of being a conservative fake news show and the reality of making things funny with freedom to write whatever you need to.
3) Talent: Kurt Long isn’t too bad, but he’s a little lacking in the charisma department. Jenn Robertson seems very out of place. The two didn’t work together well. I don’t know how they adjust these things but they are definitely a problem.
4) Budget: This show ill need one. Not a huge one, but they’re obviously struggling with what they have.
5) Timeslot: I know they’re just testing the waters with this, but late Sunday night is not a good time to be airing this. First, some people wouldn’t be down with watching this on Sunday night for religious reasons/family reasons. Second, most hard working people aren’t staying up late Sunday night. Yes I know shows like TDS are on late weekdays but their demographic typically stays up late (college kids, etc).
Overall though, I was impressed that the show wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be but the unfunny leaked sketches. We’ll see if this show actually gets picked up.
51. Jerry Elliott | February 19th, 2007 at 7:48 am
If you did not think the show was funny, you are having trouble seeing past your liberal, biased nose!
52. Rodney | February 19th, 2007 at 8:45 am
I thought Libs were spose ta be smart… but none of them seem to get it…The “1/2″ was Brilliant ..but way over leftys head……..
53. alan | February 19th, 2007 at 8:51 am
i am a teenager and watch the news a lot but the 1/2 hour news hour is so great because it is so funny. hope to see more of it soon.
54. alan | February 19th, 2007 at 8:57 am
1/2 news hour is very funny and reading the other comments makes me wondering why people can’t just have a laugh. racist or not, islam or catholic, liberal or conservative, people just need to put that aside and laugh at what is funny. THE 1/2 HOUR NEWS HOUR!!!
55. m | February 19th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Watched it and it was hysterical. Jon Stewart is played out and annoying. I hope this show is a success!
56. m | February 19th, 2007 at 9:53 am
And just got thru scanning the multitude of left wing responses on here…whaaaaa. Grow up and get a sense of humor-you have to know that you all sound the same. I love that Fox is not afraid to call out and make fun of the mainstream political correct crap that is wrecking this country.
57. m | February 19th, 2007 at 10:07 am
The dictator t-shirts were awesome
58. Frank | February 19th, 2007 at 10:32 am
It Rocked!!!!
59. Rodney | February 19th, 2007 at 11:48 am
Some of the liberal comments here just prove how the liberal media works. They make up their minds about something being bad before it even hits the air, then use Youtube clips (rather than spending the time to watch) to justify a position that was set in stone before the first joke was told. Given that the show is still in it’s infancy (2 eps) I think it was a good effort. Sure it needs a little polishing, but keep in mind IT’s THE PILOT PEOPLE. Star Trek didn’t get off the ground until the second PILOT was shot. The first one was “too cerebral”. So lighten up already.
Libs don’t think Limbaugh is funny because he is so often right (no pun intended). If a little satire is rubbing them all the wrong way after only 2 eps, I’d say it’s a success.
I thought the ACLU guy was a riot. The deadpan delivery on the “Pregnant women are free to snort all the coke they want…” bit was hilarious.
60. rzrback032 | February 19th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Outstanding! Finally, a little medicinal video therapy for red diaper lefty and the countless Clintonipelosi zombies writhing in agony. Just what the doctor ordered to counteract the years of drugged-down, mind numbing at Kool Aid U. As usual, good work from Rush, Anne, FNC and Mr. “24″.
The comments found here resonate of locked-in success for this satire-from-the-other-side programming; long awaited and welcomed.
61. matt | February 19th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I didn’t get a chance to see the show, which I was interested in seeing. Dems can in fact make fun of themselves. As so many people have already said, TDS makes fun of lefties too.
I think both sides of this conversation probably had their minds made up to an extent.
I think “m” up there unintentionally said when he characterized FOX as not a mainstream news channel. It’s rather right-wing.
Also, I know where supposed to be here to debate comedy, but I find it rather depressing that so many people (such as rzrback42 or whatever) follow the Karl Rove line of thinking that the more education one gets, the more likely one is to be a democrat. Aside from many reports showing how most college students are apathetic and right wingers are slowly bludgeoning their way to academic legitimacy, I would say that college lefties are merely people who have the time to research what is going on in the world and what ideas may be used to fix them.
So by Kool Aid U, you really mean “I stopped being self centered for long enough to care about someone earning shitty pay and living in a hut to make stuff for Wal Mart” or something like that. I’m sorry for being long winded about it.
Also, for you FOX news watchers, the real movers and shakers of the republican party want you to watch h-o-n-h so you continue to solidify your worldview of ingnorance and they continue to work their back room political strategy. It’s not working so much anymore, but they can still try.
62. matt | February 19th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
And this didn’t even come from me, a classmate of mine who is going to be an up and coming black republican politician believes this. He knows the secret is to hook you on your ‘christian values’ and judgements, shake your hand, and laugh his way to congress. and he laughs. and I laugh, but not as much as him. because I know it’s somewhat the same on our side too.
63. Ted | February 19th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Fox has some of best comedy writers with “The Simpsons” and some of them have gone on to well written shows like Conan O’ Brien. If they are thinking having idealogues writing comedy will work, it won’t. Much like the Communist Party wasn’t exactly known for its sense of humor.
If they want a comedy show, they need to give it autonomy. Viacom at times has gotten involved in some of “South Park” scenes and shows like the Bloody Mary episode. However, they have protected it from the lots of critical slack.
Political Bent aside, the show is lacking in self deprecation, comedic timing and most importantly irony. TDS and especially the Colbert Show use irony to the utmost, which makes them incredibly funny. The 1/2 Hour News Hour had really bad timing with their jokes, the only one that was sort of lukewarm was the 99.9% approval rating for Barack Obama. (I would had added +/- 5% approval rating to it) Half of being the straight man in a joke, is letting the audience in on the joke while the straight man act like he or she doesn’t get it. Both TDS and Colbert mock themselves because they mock the seriousness of reporters in their videos at the scene of the news. (Much like how Colbert mocked Geraldo about his reporting during the invasion of Iraq in 2003)
The “1/2 hour news hour” seems to throwing out pent up rage and bullying rather than actual humor. “You vill like this!” “Laugh Now!” (that canned laughter was incredibly painful to listen to) If I were them, I would hire someone like Bill Safire or John Cleese, and get some wordy, dry well written sketches. Alot of John Cleese sketches were just using synomyns for part of the gag. The ACLU sketch(s) was in my reaction like this, “that was 30 years ago, and why are you still piss off about that?”it is not very topical.”
It is not going to work unless they give the writers autonomy, kick out the ideologues, use irony, even try to use the difficult double irony, which only Colbert right now can master. (Who else can say and get away on TV saying something like, “Girls if your ribs aren’t showing, you’re ugly”)
64. Phil | February 19th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
Liberals - frikking whiners! it was SNL but finally with a conservitive bent. Just as funny and just as on the mark.
65. BmorePunk | February 19th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Ugh, two-party politics. I don’t know if I was being called liberal after the post I made this morning, but if I was, that’s just sad. I don’t belong to either the Liberal/Democrat or Conservative/Republican ideologies. I don’t arbitrarily align myself with particular political parties and their platforms, but if that’s you’re thing, then I respect that.
I neither like nor dislike President Bush, but I do respect him as our President. I recognize that his Administration’s job is very difficult, and I certainly wouldn’t want to be making decisions that affects the amount of people that their decisions do. I also recognize that the Administration, along with Congress down trhough State and local governments are full of career politicians, many of whom either were never “one of us regular people” or at some point forgot about their constituents. This doesn’t go for all of them but this situation is fairly rampant. I understand why we have two major political parties, but I find the fact that people polarize so much with one or the other hard to swallow. The strong-mouthed “conservatives” and “liberals” act like they’re from different planets, but they’re essentially the same and don’t realize it.
Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC are mind-numbing crap Yes, ALL of them. I don’t think if it’s possible to have a 24 hour cable news network and not be crap with money and energizing the political polarities involved. The “news” on these channels is abyssmal. Do we really need 48 straight hours of coverage on Anna Nicole Smith, Natalie Holloway, Terri Schaivo, or Scott Peterson, especially when I’d really like to hear about what’s happening with Islamic Courts in Somalia. You know, issues that actually affect a lot of people, not ones that seem interesting because they are a train wreck or they scare people into worrying about themeselves with the “news” telling them things like “COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?”.
The primetime programming on the cable news networks is even worse, but isn’t so bad if you don’t look at it as news. Blitzer, Cooper, Dobbs, O’Reilly, Hannity and (the worst of all) Larry King are not news. They are entertainment. So when somebody asks whether or not a fake news show belongs on a “credible cable news network” I would say that it doesn’t, but since a credible cable news network does not exist, it does not matter.
Now, back to the show. Funny is subjective, of course, but most of the material from this show is funny in the same way that watching some guy get hit in the nuts on America’s Funniest Home Videos is allegedly funny, or the way those jokes you get in your email are allegedly funny.
For me, there isn’t much humor in jokes that telegraph themselves so bad you know the punch line before the set up is over. Also, it’s not funny to me when the punch line is there but it’s hammered home to make sure everybody gets it. Some of the HHNH jokes fell into both these categories. That doesn’t mean there’s not an audience for these jokes. Jay Leno is the king of obvious jokes and people eat that crap up. Larry the Cable Guy tells jokes that you can see the punch line from a mile away.
I don’t see how any of the jokes were “over my head”. Over my head would be if somebody was watching Larry the T-shirt salesman and saw the Idi Amin, and they didn’t explain why it was funny. I think some people probably would have missed the Chairman Mao joke as well. By the way, did I mention this segment was pretty funny (except for the extended commentary which almost ruined the jokes).
The good jokes from HHNH? Yeah the Barack Obama 99.9% joke was funny (it was spot on quality with the first joke they told about Hillary Clinton), because it was well written and delivered. The Marion Barry joke was not funny because Marion Barry jokes were funny like 10 years ago. It’s like telling an OJ Simpson joke today. You know, that joke that has been told countless time, and may have been funny the first time, but really loses it’s luster the 500th time you tell it. That, my friends, is just poor writing. Like I said before, getting more writers to do this show would help immensely.
The show I saw last night had the SNL Weekend Update setup, where they start with a serious line and then try to twist it. This can work, but the writers have to be on their game. I know Weekend Update has been up and down too, and it’s a short segment. HHNH is a long run of these, comparatively.
The HHNH isn’t as bad as some people say it is and it isn’t as good as other say it is. It was just a pilot though, so time will tell to see if they can build on what they have or not.
Now all you polarized people go back to hugging or throwing darts at your George W Bush cardboard cutout (depending on your party affiliation).
66. Kyle | February 19th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
Great Show! I hope it stays on the air! Looks like the left can’t take a joke! We tolerate the bush Bashing to a certain extent. What goes around comes around…
67. liberals stink | February 19th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Ha ha democrats!!! The time has come where we’ve put up with enough of your propaganda from Comedy Central. It’s time to re-evaluate the playing field and actually back up your worn down tacky jokes that have no value towards the politician intended other than the fact that they have been dumbed down so you will understand them. Republicans are educated, working class people from many different cultures. We do not believe race has a social status only for one side of politics. Finally, there is a place to watch both sides of the story. Thank you Fox News.
68. Will | February 19th, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Not the funniest show to ever grace the face of the earth, but amusing.
The opening teaser with Limbaugh and Coulter was great. A bit more time on a few points and a bit more diverse points might have helped. The global warming guy who did the global warming circle, rather like the Elvis circle, was hilarious.
As it’s fine-tuned over a few episodes, it should be fine.
It’s rather copying Comedy Central, rather like Comedy Central copied Saturday Night Live, and so forth.
It’s the right-wing version of Stewert or Colbert. Crap about it being more propaganda is than aforementioned is, well, crap. There is a type of conservative that will sit solemn-faced in horror while watching the Comedy Central just as there is a type of liberal who will sit solemn-faced in horror while watching FNC. Fortunately, I consider myself one who can laugh at both (while I happen to agree with FNC), and laugh at people who can’t laugh at both.
69. Daniel G | February 20th, 2007 at 12:25 am
This really makes me nauseous. This racist swill is an embarrassment to the corpse called credible reporting that FOX left in its wake.
I guess this is just FOX admitting that it is just a cartoon of a news network. I just want somebody to give the news without commentary, without cherry picking, without selling me “infotainment” all the time. FOX is never, nor has ever been “news.” It has always pandered to people who want to be entertained, and that idea in itself shows that they have no concept of fairness or credibility, just profit.
But I can’t really blame them, they are just giving a voice to all the poor, ignorant, racist Americans who just want things to go back to the way things were, before civil rights, the Muslim religion, and democracy of ideas.
God help us,
DG
70. gladdy | February 20th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Poor liberals!!! Hate it when the conservatives play your game? This is what liberal entertainment has been doing for years and now the conservatives are pushing it in your face. I guess they got ya. Good for Fox News!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
71. gladdy | February 20th, 2007 at 12:44 am
by the way daniel G. did ya fail your history class. The republicans passed civil rights and the democrats were against it. Pay attention!!!!!!!!
72. brit humorless | February 20th, 2007 at 1:55 am
seriously though, the show was really lame.
it seems to have been modeled not on TDS but the
Rush Limpbaugh show, which is never funny( clever, maybe). It’s a sad pathetic attempt at humor.There’s nothing to get because there’s nothing there but the ususal conservative claptrap.
And the racist undertones were not surprising. Funny thing about conservatives; if they’re not burning crosses on somebody’s lawn they think they are not racist.Just another complexity they can’t understand.
The only thing funny about HONH is their attempt at humor. Fox needs to stick to their purported ” news” coverage which is a joke enough.
Wake me up when the talent arrives. I’m ready to laugh at myself…
73. MATMAN | February 20th, 2007 at 5:10 am
It’s about as factually accurate as the rest of the stuff on the Fox Noise network. The only thing new is the laugh track.
74. cbass | February 20th, 2007 at 10:14 am
“I think the show is hilarious and will be a religious follower.”
….surprise!
75. Spurrman | February 20th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I didn’t think much of the show, but I guess conservatives can do and make whatever they want to push their beliefs, like Al Franken (whose politically biased humor is more similar to what I saw on this show than that of Jon Stewart).
My question is, however, will FOX now finally dropped its “Fair and Balanced” slogan? The slogan indicates that what appears within the network itself is “balanced,” and although we all know this is crap, this show, that appears on a “News” channel, is clearly pushing a one-sided agenda and makes no attempt to hide it.
76. brian | February 20th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Wow conservatives are eating this shit up like its a ribeye, guess i shouldnt be surprised though. If liberals really had an equivalent of this show, conservatives would be bitching non-stop. The daily show is nothing like this. And anybody who says it is doesnt get it.
77. Dan | February 20th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I used to have a problem with Fox’s calling themselves “Fair and Balanced”. They present a very conservative viewpoint. Definitely not centrist. However, the balance of the network is that they counter the mostly liberal viewpoints presented by all the other shows on TV.
Conservatives like this new show because it confirms their viewpoints on the hysteria and double standards that are presented in some of the more liberal media. Even if the show is not that funny, they like it because it agrees with their viewpoints.
If you love Pizza, but all 20 restaurants in town dont serve pizza, you are going to flock to the new pizza joint that opens. This is tha case with Fox News.
Fox serves a political audience that does not have voice or representation in most TV.
My personal qualm with the libs is their double standard. In this case, the issue is free speech. The media is proven to be 90% liberal. This is too one sided. If it were 90% conservative, it would be just as bad. We need open discussion and debate.
But I hear a large number of liberals lament the existence of Fox news, that it is too biased. Liberal politicians want to legislate the content of shows like Fox. No discussion of balancing the content of the other 90% liberal biased media. Only the conservative viewpoints need to be “Balanced”. From a conserative viewpoint, it appears that they cant stand the fact that even 10% conservative viepoints are being expressed. They cant allow the conservative viewpoint to have an outlet. It outrages them that this conservative viewpoint outlet exists. I dont think they can see how left biased the media is in general, because if supports their viewpoint. That is NOT supporting freedom of speech. That is supporting censorship of political viewpoints. And that is un-American.
78. kenny | February 20th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
the funniest thing about HONH is that even with such a lame start it will get more ratings than Jon Stewart does on his best day. Once the writers grow into the job, it’ll be a big hit.
79. 303 | February 20th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
FOX puts on a right-wing ‘comedy’ show?
But I thought they were a NEWS channel.
?….and what happened to ‘fair and balanced’?
80. Jim | February 20th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
At the heart of the humor is liberals being liberals …of course you liberals don’t see the humor in it.
Reading all of the responses from liberals in the above. I’m laughing almost uncontrollably. I hope they read some of your post on the air in keeping with the liberals being liberal theme.
Please understand this concept is not meant for us to laugh with you. Were clearly laughing at you.
81. 303 | February 20th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Don’t get your hopes up, Jimmy-boy.
Everyone knows conservatives suck at comedy.
This show won’t last half as long as ‘Tough Crowd’ did.
LMAO!
82. Andrew Kelley | February 20th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
Isn’t it funny that in the minds of you closed-minded “liberals” (oxymoron) you can’t find anything funny about this show. Obviously it had racist tones (not) and the skit about evil dictators was terribly unfair… right. Look, those of us with brains put up with your crap on TV (basically everything in news except Fox News), so let us enjoy some of our humor. What’s wrong with letting the other side be heard? Leave Fox News alone, if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. Oh, but that wouldn’t make any sense…
83. disappointed | February 20th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
FYI: They shot the show in front of an audience, an audience they selected that would laugh at jokes with a “conservative” slant. They STILL had to add a laugh track. And to those who don’t think the show is racist, you obviously overlooked the fact that some of the jokes promote bad racial stereotypes and are mean spirited. This is divisive…not funny. The only joke is that Fox considers themselves a “news” channel. Maybe they mean “noose” channel as they seem to have shown their cracker ass political agenda blatantly by putting this crap on the air.
P.S. Wait for the homophobic jokes to air next week.
84. Spurrman | February 20th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
“Isn’t it funny that in the minds of you closed-minded “liberals” (oxymoron) . . . Look, those of us with brains”
I may not be as brainy as you, but I know what an oxymoron is–and a moron too!
LOL
85. shocked | February 24th, 2007 at 12:13 am
that was so racist it made me want to throw up. And why were the hosts talking in the same tones as 10 year old kids trying to give a report in front of their class? Monotonous emphasis on fake acting is not funny. and btw, there was not 1 fact presented in that whole thing, whereas the Daily Show consists mainly of taking actual newspaper and television stories presented by CNN, Fox and others- and then deconstructing those stories. It’s interesting to see how Fox could find nothing to do but make racist jokes.
86. dobry | February 25th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
news should be news not comedy. would you mix death and distruction with a laugh? That’s what fox is doing….. hipocrites!
87. Steve | February 25th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
This show was as awkward and embarrassing as watching Bush painfully try to deliver a speech. Enjoy your turd sandwhich!
88. EvergreenAcademy | March 3rd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
How dare you assume that Liberals or Conservative don’t have a sense of humor. I would never presume that all memebers of a grup are exactally the same. Its sterotypical and hurting America, this Right vs Left war. Truth is there will always be Liberals and their will always be Conservatives. Sometimes the Conservatives will be in power and sometimes the Liberals will be, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If everyone was the same the world would be a boring place but thank God everyone is not the same and neither is their sense of humor.
Yes I am a Liberal and yes that is funny to me
89. EvergreenAcademy | March 3rd, 2007 at 1:33 pm
How dare you assume that Liberals or Conservative don’t have a sense of humor. I would never presume that all members of a group are exactly the same. Its stereotypical and hurting America, this Right vs Left war. Truth is there will always be Liberals and their will always be Conservatives. Sometimes the Conservatives will be in power and sometimes the Liberals will be, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. If everyone was the same the world would be a boring place but thank God everyone is not the same and neither is their sense of humor.
Yes I am a Liberal and yes that is funny to me
90. Greyson | March 4th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Well, I thought it was pretty funny. Certainly better than SNL has been since, oh, the mid ’90s.
What I think is interesting is how angry some of you people are about it. If you didn’t think it wasn’t funny then don’t watch it, but don’t go insulting everyone who happened to like it.
91. Renee Lohrke | March 5th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Re; “1/2 Hour Hour Show”
Very disturbing bit on children as “predators.” No matter what the intent, it still exploited children.
Renee
92. sonja | March 6th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
This is in such bad taste. I’m a conservative voter and I’ll still vote for the daily show for my fake news channel of choice. At least the jokes are about issues, not petty crap like someones middle name. Jon Stewart is popular with everyone left of center to slightly right of center, because his humor is critical, yet respectful.
93. sonja | March 6th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
I wish being a conservative still meant voting for fiscally responsible government, not for racist, homophobic religious zealots.
94. Al Gore | March 6th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
What’s the matter, you FUCK-HEADS don’t like being laughed at?
95. chels | March 7th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Its about time somebody could tell the truth. We were Afew years ago we were all raised with common sense , now you can’t even give an opinion without the media crucifying any comment they don’t agree with, what happened to reporting the news not policing it. If its not left abuse the right would get no attention at all. 25% of the U.S. is liberal but rule almost all the airwaves. Who says they are the moral police? No wonder Fox ratings are so high, The U.S. used to have free speach, you cant say Gay is wrong or even have an opinion, the nazis come out to destroy you, don’t you think they should have learned from the last nazis?
Finally a show that can at least make fun of the moral police lef. Sat night live has been the only voice allowed till the past few years., but then more commie comedy.
96. Gary Telles | March 8th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Andrew Kelley: “…closed-minded “liberals” (oxymoron)…”
No wonder you like this show. That particular statement is so clueless, I’m guessing you’re one of the writers on this turkey.
97. David | March 9th, 2007 at 9:37 am
The purpose of this show is not about comedy, it’s about bashing anyone not having a right-wing viewpoint, and that’s good enough for the right.
You will never see a Republican assailed on this show, just like Fox News is loath to highlight Republican disasters.
Just GOP propaganda talking points set to a laugh-track.
It’s clearly set up as a tool to smear the opposition (without the inconvenience of accountability) in the run-up to ‘08.
A this is what comedy would look like from a Pravda or Izvestia.
98. Alice | March 12th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
This show is about as hilarious as watching cheese age. Couldn’t they have hired some writers with biting wit? Oh, wait…I understand. When you spell out the jokes, it makes them funnier. Gotcha. Yeah, if I want a ‘conservative’ bent on something, I’ll read Tom Wolfe’s “Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.” Come on. You don’t have to truncate your mental capacity to be hilarious. Rush and Ann could have been hilarious in a different setting. All it involved is “A Democrat’s Worst Nightmare.” They’re going for BITING WIT, I SEE. Yeah, call me, Fox News, when you have someone as funny as Stephen Colbert on your show. Good freakin’ luck. You know why Colbert is funny and this show is not? Because Colbert has a sense of humour about everything, not just politics. That’s what makes his political humour so funny.
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