BRAVE PAST, TIMID PRESENT IN TV POLITICAL COMEDY.Byline: David Kronke Television Critic While Alan Spencer
intr.v. im·pend·ed, im·pend·ing, im·pends 1. To be about to occur: Her retirement is impending. 2. DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. release, the distributors have made a modest request: that he ``explain'' the show's comic digs at Republicans. ``It was satire - a comedy about a psychotic police detective who speaks to his gun wouldn't get past the pitching stage today,'' he notes. ``It's surprising to some people to see such political shots being taken, so they kind of require comment. To a new generation exposed to this material, it's, 'Wow.' '' Wow, indeed. The days of social and political content in prime-time comedy - well, now that ``The West Wing'' will tone down its politics, in prime-time network TV, period - are on the ropes. Significantly, it's occurring just as America finds itself of dueling mind-sets. The last time the country found itself in a war that both many within and outside its borders found difficult to justify and featured an administration advocating wholesale spying on its own citizens, TV comedy came of age with hard-hitting social comedies. Comics thrive on society's edges of acceptability. That's why Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce are legends and why Carrot Top  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled. is a
lame punch line punch linen. The climactic phrase or statement of a joke, producing a sudden humorous effect. punch line Noun the last line of a joke or funny story that gives it its point Noun 1. relegated to TV commercials. As Spencer notes, ``Satire is fearless. Right now, though, with the noted exception of ``The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Not to be confused with John Stewart or John Stuart. Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz on November 28,1962) is an American comedian, satirist, actor, writer, and producer. ,'' there's an element of fear, of self-preservation.'' Fear is here Tommy Smothers, one of TV's satirical pioneers, today opines Opines are low molecular weight compounds found in plant crown gall tumors produced by the parasitic bacterium Agrobacterium. Opine biosynthesis is catalyzed by specific enzymes encoded by genes contained in a small segment of DNA (known as the T-DNA, for 'transfer DNA') , ``I wish we weren't so afraid. There were not so many people afraid in the '60s. Today, if you don't agree with the majority, you're considered unpatriotic.'' Comedy and America's evolving cultural climate is the subject of an ambitious, monthlong programming block on the pop-culture and arts cable network Trio dedicated to controversial comedy of the past, highlighted by a documentary airing Sunday, ``Uncensored Comedy: That's Not Funny!'' Trio president Lauren Zalaznick, who conceived the project, observes, ``As with (earlier comics) Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks, there's a fear of an active suppression, that you'll lose your career through political humor - and that seems to be a danger. ``While that material once had a place in prime time, the floor's not open for that kind of humor,'' Zalaznick continues. ``You just can't be political. If you look at a horrible set of events like Bill Maher William Maher, Jr., (pronounced: /mɑɹ/) (born January 20 1956) is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. (did), you're fired. People are not allowing any dialogue, that's the scariest part.'' Kurt Andersen Kurt Andersen (born August 22, 1954) is an American novelist who is currently a columnist for New York Magazine ("The Imperial City"), and host of the Peabody-winning public radio program Studio 360 , host of Trio's ``Face Time,'' focusing this month on controversial comics, as well as author of the best-selling media satire Media satire refers to works which satirize the activities and effects of mass media. Examples include The Day Today, Brass Eye, Drop the Dead Donkey, The Colbert Report and Newshounds. External links
``You could still invent characters who could speak on outrageous, controversial issues - why isn't that around? Because network executives are wusses - it goes with the job description,'' Andersen adds, answering his own question. ``When bad-boyism or truth-telling does so well in other parts of the media world, such as magazines and radio, it's odd that network TV decides not to go there.'' ``It's a very sanitized san·i·tize tr.v. san·i·tized, san·i·tiz·ing, san·i·tiz·es 1. To make sanitary, as by cleaning or disinfecting. 2. world,'' agrees Hollywood Reporter TV critic Ray Richmond Ray Richmond (born October 19, 1957) is a globally syndicated critic and entertainment/media columnist. A longtime fixture on the Los Angeles journalism scene, he is best known for his years with The Hollywood Reporter. . ``Everybody's scared about offending everybody. It's not even like watchdogs are around - it's become institutionalized in·sti·tu·tion·al·ize tr.v. in·sti·tu·tion·al·ized, in·sti·tu·tion·al·iz·ing, in·sti·tu·tion·al·iz·es 1. a. To make into, treat as, or give the character of an institution to. b. censorship.'' Robert Small, producer of ``Uncensored Comedy,'' observes, ``When (Fox News Channel commentator) Bill O'Reilly Bill O'Reilly may refer to:
In the late '60s, CBS' ``The Smothers Brothers The Smothers Brothers are an American music-and-comedy team, formed by real-life brothers Tom (or Tommy) (born February 2, 1937) and Dick Smothers (born November 20, 1939). They were both born on Governor's Island in New York Harbor, where their father, a West Point graduate and U. Comedy Hour'' took an aggressive anti-Vietnam War stance, battling incessantly with censors until the network did the unthinkable - canceling a hit. ``They were unbelievably cutting-edge,'' notes Syracuse University Syracuse University, main campus at Syracuse, N.Y.; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1871. Syracuse is noted for its research programs in government and industry; facilities include the Center for Science and Technology, the Newhouse Communications Center, and TV professor Robert Thompson Robert Thompson may refer to:
``We were an accident,'' Tommy Smothers says today, laughing. ``We were happy doing our folk music folk music: see folk song. folk music Music held to be typical of a nation or ethnic group, known to all segments of its society, and preserved usually by oral tradition. Knowledge of the history and development of folk music is largely conjectural. . Then they said, don't do (Vietnam material). Never tell a comic not to do anything - that's exactly what he'll do.'' In the '70s, such popular comedies as ``All in the Family'' and ``M*A*S*H'' tackled the war and other social issues with little interference, while NBC's ``Saturday Night Live'' became a counterculture coun·ter·cul·ture n. A culture, especially of young people, with values or lifestyles in opposition to those of the established culture. coun benchmark. A quarter-century later, ``SNL'' is ``trying to be silly rather than edgy,'' Richmond opines. ``They just push to get a recurring character to land a movie deal.'' Thompson says, ``They're no longer politically probing.'' Long before George W. Bush ascended to the presidency, few network sitcoms explored social issues like Norman Lear's '70s series. ``Sitcoms distilled to two forms - the wacky, loud, dysfunctional family dysfunctional family Psychology A family with multiple 'internal'–eg sibling rivalries, parent-child– conflicts, domestic violence, mental illness, single parenthood, or 'external'–eg alcohol or drug abuse, extramarital affairs, gambling, and the workplace show with wacky dysfunction,'' says Spencer. ``I shouldn't use the term 'wacky' - it implies actual comedy.'' Bill Maher's ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. late-night series ``Politically Incorrect'' invited celebrities from across pop culture's spectrum to comment on social issues until the host's observation about Sept. 11 - ``Staying in the plane when it hits the building - say what you want about it, it's not cowardly'' - was widely misinterpreted and even incurred the wrath of the White House. ABC canceled the show; Maher's HBO Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) A form of oxygen therapy in which the patient breathes oxygen in a pressurized chamber. Mentioned in: Ozone Therapy series, ``Real Time,'' features more political commentators than comics. ``Ari Fleischer did what he wanted to do there, he was very successful,'' says Thompson of the Bush administration's squelching of comic commentary. Those who have spoken out against it - including the Dixie Chicks and Ed Gernon, executive producer of CBS' Hitler miniseries - suffered the wrath of patriotic Americans unfamiliar with the First Amendment. After Sept. 11, President Bush, who had been a comic's punching bag, became sacrosanct sac·ro·sanct adj. Regarded as sacred and inviolable. [Latin sacr  s . Two years later, despite a struggling
economy and numerous corporate scandals - Enron, Halliburton and Bechtel
- with tracks leading directly to the front door of the White House,
Bush maintains an approval rating so high that Comedy Central's
``The Daily Show With Jon Stewart'' recently scooped all other
news organizations by declaring him the winner of the 2004 presidential
race.
Today, Fox's ``The Simpsons'' salves satirical punch lines, and ``Wanda at Large'' couches occasional wan social commentary within the parameters of a typical workplace sitcom. This fall, NBC's ``Whoopi,'' starring Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg, promises ethnic humor - but no political sensibility. Only cable network Comedy Central offers social commentary. ``South Park'' shoehorns occasional cultural insights amid its gross-out gags. ``Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn'' reprises REPRISES. The deductions and payments out of lands, annuities, and the like, are called reprises, because they are taken back; when we speak of the clear yearly value of an estate, we say it is worth so much a year ultra reprises, besides all reprises. 2. Maher's show, with Quinn japing with comedian pals, usually devolving to good-natured ethnic slurs. Most crucially, ``The Daily Show'' pointedly examines not only issues but the toothless fashion in which the mainstream media covers them. All interviewed pointed to the Peabody Award-winning ``Daily Show'' as TV's brightest, smartest satirical series. In Wednesday's Television Critics Association The Television Critics Association (or TCA) is a group of approximately 200 United States and Canadian journalists and columnists who cover television programming. They meet in the Los Angeles area twice a year, in January and July, in conferences known as Winter and Summer Awards nominations, ``The Daily Show'' received four nods - the most of any show - for Program of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, host Jon Stewart for Outstanding Achievement in Individual Comedy and even - believe it or not - Outstanding Achievement in News and Information. ``I can't believe it exists - it's so subversive and brilliant,'' says Trio's Zalaznick. ``It's not only good but in this moment, it's particularly amazingly good,'' marvels ``Face Time'' host Andersen. ``'The Daily Show' is really hitting its stride now,'' exults Syracuse's Thompson. Surprisingly, given the paucity of such material elsewhere, the show's comic masterminds insist they've encountered no network tampering. ``We've never felt any kind of pressure,'' says Stephen Colbert, who appears as one of the show's faux ``correspondents.'' ``The news format gives us a forum on which to hang our comedy - it makes our commentary recognizable. We say outrageous things, but they're grounded in reality. Our positions are defensible - we're not making this stuff up. ``We've never felt we're going to be attacked because we have an iconoclastic i·con·o·clast n. 1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions. 2. One who destroys sacred religious images. way of delivering our jokes,'' he continues. ``We don't take ourselves seriously. We're not here to speak truth to power, or whatever puffed-up way to say it. We tell jokes. Jokes, by their very nature, will tear down status symbols. We express opinions and get passionate, but we distill dis·till v. 1. To subject a substance to distillation. 2. To separate a distillate by distillation. 3. To increase the concentration of, separate, or purify a substance by distillation. those emotions into jokes. If entertainers do that, they're essentially unassailable. If someone does that without putting it in the context of entertainment, they're rightfully going to get boot-stomped. But if you're entertaining, you're safe.'' `Daily' grilling Adds head writer and co-executive producer David Javerbaum, ``A joke that's funny and based on a serious point gets a more satisfying laugh. We have no illusions that satire changes anyone's mind about anything. If at any point we thought we were converting people to any point of view, we'd be dead.'' Censorship ``doesn't occur to us,'' he adds. ``We don't go after things that don't have it coming - we've developed a pretty good barometer for that.'' Colbert notes that the show's benchmark criticism of the war with Iraq (a line of which prefaced this story) ``came from our amazement that you can't say things that are anti-government. We were amazed at how restricted the rest of the nation was to certain aspects of the war that were reasonable to criticize.'' ``The Daily Show'' gets away with it, but few see others getting similar passes. Tommy Smothers points to this week's FCC (1) (Federal Communications Commission, Washington, DC, www.fcc.gov) The U.S. government agency that regulates interstate and international communications including wire, cable, radio, TV and satellite. The FCC was created under the U.S. ruling allowing media corporations to grow exponentially larger as evidence that alternative viewpoints are endangered. ``I see only doom and damnation,'' he says. ``Freedom of speech is one thing, but maybe freedom of hearing is more important. When you limit the microphones, that's how you muzzle a society.'' But Susie Essman, who narrates ``Uncensored Comedy'' and appears in Larry David's HBO series ``Curb Your Enthusiasm,'' hopes the trend is cyclical. ``Right now, renegades are few and far between,'' she says. ``The norm tends toward the more palatable and homogenous homogenous - homogeneous . But remember - the court jester was the only one who could tell the king the truth. That was only one person. Maybe that's how it is now, and maybe that's how truth will prevail.'' David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke(at)dailynews.com UNCENSORED COMEDY: THAT'S NOT FUNNY! What: Documentary on controversial TV comedy. Where: Trio. When: 9 p.m. Sunday. SICK HUMOR What: Jokes in really bad taste are placed in a sociological perspective. Where: Trio. When: 10:30 p.m. Sunday. OUTLAW COMIC: THE CENSORING OF BILL HICKS What: A subversive comedian's TV travails. Where: Trio. When: 9 p.m. June 15. FACE TIME What: Author Kurt Andersen interviews controversial comics. Where: Trio. When: 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Sundays. THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART What: Satirical news program. Where: Comedy Central. When: 7:30 p.m., repeated at 11 weeknights. THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS What: The comedy duo performs live. Where: The Comedy Corner, 8433 W. Sunset Blvd. When: 8:30 tonight. Tickets: $25. Call (323) 656 6225. CAPTION(S): 6 photos Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) LAST MAN STANDING Jon Stewart, Trio cable network among the few keeping political humor alive on TV Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage.com (2) BRUCE (3) PRYOR (4) SMOTHERS (5 -- 6) Bill Maher, left, saw network support for his ABC show ``Politically Incorrect'' wither after 9-11. Colin Quinn, above, now hosts a similar roundtable on Comedy Central. |
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