The Star-Ledger asks: Are establishment liberals funny?

There is a reason why Jimmy Kimmel manages to get just around 3 million viewers a night while -- back when America had a much smaller population -- Johnny Carson got 19 million.  Jimmy's humor appeals to a much smaller audience, even though that audience owns everything, runs everything, and tells us what to eat, what to wear, and how to think.

In a recent opinion piece published in the Star-Ledger -- the house organ of the Newhouse Media Empire -- a dreary, oh so earnest lady, by the name of Jennifer The Moe, passed an insight in which she claimed that liberals were funny.  Forget the "funnier than" bit, we couldn't get past the "liberals being funny" piece. 

Sure, they used to be.  When they were actually "liberals" -- but not now, not today, they're not allowed to be.  In the world of the "establishment" liberal, humor (like everything else) is highly regulated.  And the list of "safe" things to be humorous about grows smaller every year.  And if you don't know that list by heart, you might just end up having to make an apology tour, or face social exclusion and public shamming, the loss of status, job, income, the means of life even.

Think of a guy like Phil Murphy trying to add a little humor into a speech.  Pity the poor bugger as he bounces around checking it with everyone he can think of who might be offended.  No wonder he has that thousand-yard-stare of someone with PTSD.  Trying not to offend can be debilitating.

Now here is a guy who is funny, effortlessly so, and who has made quite a career of it (and an international career, mind you).  Here, he is speaking seriously on a topic, while poking some fun at the censoriousness of modern "establishment" liberals (i.e. those who have actually forgotten what being a "liberal" means).

Here is another funny guy making the same point, but in a more directly comedic way:

Writing elsewhere, Jennifer The Moe provides this insight into the creative process:  "I mean, get real: you think that Henry James or Edith Wharton or Leo Tolstoy or Alice Adams wrote all those great books by themselves? Call it what you will—creative inspiration, God, Jesus, Buddha, the muses, Satan, flow, presence, or Zen—but the great stuff always comes out only when 'you' get out of the way and allow it to come."

Satan, huh?  What is it with Satan and these new liberals?  Hate Nazis but love Satan.  And the difference?  Didn't they realize that conservatives were just kidding when they teased them about being Satan-worshippers?  Who would have thought that they would double-down and now include Satan in all their lists of "supreme" beings?

We miss the old liberals.  They were a lot of fun -- and they joined with us in dissing both Nazis and Satan.  They weren't much good at balancing budgets, but damn did they make us laugh.  They were the yin to our yang.  We'd love to have them back -- instead of this hateful, prudish, stick-up-the-bunghole crowd that calls themselves "liberal" now.

There still are a few around though.  Bill Maher is still carrying on the tradition.  And wow does he ever nail it...

And how about this guy?  Monty Python anyone?