Saturday, February 05, 2005
The Biggest Super Bowl Sunday Question
Will American Dad be funny? The linked article discusses Family Guy, which the author enjoys. In the article, the author says American Dad suffers from Seth MacFarlane's political ideology.
Injecting politics into comedy is very tricky, and not because you end up alienating a third or more of your audience. Johnny Carson was able to pull it off because he based his jokes out of neutrality. He was an equal-opportunity jokster.
When you start joking about the other side, it can then turn into mocking. Instead of making funny jokes, you end up with barbs that can be made lazily and aren't actually funny. "Bush is dumb. Michael Moore is fat." Not very funny.
I think the Simpsons does the best job of joking in a politically neutral manner.
Will American Dad be funny? The linked article discusses Family Guy, which the author enjoys. In the article, the author says American Dad suffers from Seth MacFarlane's political ideology.
Injecting politics into comedy is very tricky, and not because you end up alienating a third or more of your audience. Johnny Carson was able to pull it off because he based his jokes out of neutrality. He was an equal-opportunity jokster.
When you start joking about the other side, it can then turn into mocking. Instead of making funny jokes, you end up with barbs that can be made lazily and aren't actually funny. "Bush is dumb. Michael Moore is fat." Not very funny.
I think the Simpsons does the best job of joking in a politically neutral manner.
