Glen Beck "Unelectable"--a GREAT review of it here

[underpants]

http://trueslant.com/childers/2009/05/23/i-watched-glenn-becks-entire-comedy-special-and-all-i-got-was-this-stupid-blog-post/

I watched Glenn Beck’s entire comedy special and all I got was this stupid blog post

Economist George Stigler once quipped that the plural of anecdote isn’t data. I’d like to propose a comedic corollary to that: The aggregate of whine isn’t humor. It’s annoyance - at least for me. Most comedy specials are a merciful ninety minutes or less, but Glenn Beck’s brings the same lack of empathy to his ‘entertainment’ as he does to his politics. Unelectable has an unconscionable two-hour running time and it’s hard not to be claw-your-eyes-out bored by ten minutes in. It’s a plodding slog, a never-ending parade of every single thing that gets Beck’s easily gotten goat. The main thread of Unelectable is how – you guessed it – unelectable Glenn Beck would be as a politician because he just can’t stop telling so much damn truth. Humble, this one. Then there are the threadbare themes like liberals love terrorists, liberals hate America, liberals want to protect widdle owls over jobs, liberalszzzzzzzzzzz. Remember the 2004 Bush campaign? Good, you won’t need to rent this, then.


(Above: an unfairly timed screenshot of Texas governor Rick “I Love Secession” Perry in the audience saluting Beck)

The remaining – I don’t want to dignify them by calling them ‘bits’ – well, ‘filmed portions of Glenn Beck speaking’ consist of little fables in the form of personal anecdotes and news items that illustrate how out of control government/the legal system/political-correctness has gotten. We can put them all under the broad taxonomic umbrella of “Total Bullshit”, but it’s handy to further differentiate the different brands of piffle, hogwash and claptrap the right-wing traffics in for future reference:

Glenn Beck’s Airtight Case Against Big Gubbment

1) Wacky 100 Year-Old Laws Still on the Books for Some Reason
“In city, there’s actually a law that says you can’t shave goats/bathe donkeys/walk backwards on Tuesday! Big Government is out of control!”

2) Popular Misconceptions/Urban Legends
“In California, you have to get a hunting license to set a mousetrap now! Big Government is out of control!”

3) Unpopular Misconceptions
“In San Francisco, they’re trying to pass a law to ban praying in public. Big Government is out of control!”
Like the second category, but doesn’t even rise to the level of urban legend.

4) An Unbearably Long and Boring Anecdote from Glenn Beck’s Own Life
“I had trouble building a fence! Big Government is out of control!”
There’s only one of those in the show, and it involves Beck building a fence around his house, his pesky liberal neighbor, and some regulatory red tape or something. I’ll spare you the details. I can’t exactly accuse him of lying since it’s a personal story, but it’s one of those flattering-to-the-narrator tales full of obvious stairway wit and too-perfect villains that is bound to raise some red flags with anyone who’s ever been friends with a serial exaggerator.



The White Pander Party

Lying is deplorable, obviously, but to my mind, something far worse than a shameless liar is a shameless panderer. And from tip to tail, Unelectable is one great big sloppy kiss to ‘Real America’, Palin’s famous fictional land consisting only of the white, rural, and conservative. And you can tell the audience believed it was present company included. People that would, in their personal lives, turn beet red at having so much smoke blown up their ass cheerfully grab both cheeks and hand the man a funnel without blinking an eye. When Beck’s not presenting liberal leaders as the second coming of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao combined, he’s singing praise songs to his audience’s limitless virtues. These salt-of-earth, true-blue, jes’ folks can overcome any obstacle – except, somehow, spineless tree-hugging girly-men. This is the archetypal conservative cognitive dissonance – railing against the rise of victimhood as our default national posture in one breath and detailing how the audience itself is being endlessly victimized in the next.


When Unintentional Laughs are the Only Kind

In fact, the irony-deficient audience provide the sole shreds of entertainment in Unelectable. At one point, when leading into an anti-immigration rant, Beck references “the border issue”, and says, “To be honest, I just hate those people”. The predictable punchline is that he’s actually talking about Canadians (Har!), but what’s hilarious is that the Texas audience cheers and claps before he reveals that he’s not actually talking about Mexicans. Oops.


And if you were wondering, yes, he cries on cue. On four separate occasions

[rurallib]

1. What was the PT Barnum quote?

"A man will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." or something like that.

[marmar]

2. Do right-wingers have any concept of how UNFUNNY they are?

n/t

[underpants]

3. Beck obviously doesn't know his audience

I don't know why but conservative simply don't "get" sarcasm and irony