Comments on: Why Are Conservative Writers Funnier?

By: sarinahm

sarinahm — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:34:15 +0000

Seb, you write my favourite blog. And it was indeed Salman Rushdie, in his wonderful book of essays, ‘Step Across this Line’.

By: The importance of not being earnest* « Jessica Anne Friedmann

The importance of not being earnest* « Jessica Anne Friedmann — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:05:53 +0000

[...] Earnestness has been much discussed on Jelly’s blog recently, and in effect on fourth-quarter Seb’s, re: the painfully po-faced state of much left-wing political [...]

By: A Disclaimer « Like Pulling Teeth

A Disclaimer « Like Pulling Teeth — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:36:54 +0000

[...] In light of how popular my last post about conservative writers has been with a certain Herald Sun columnist and other conservatives, I [...]

By: Jack Soames

Jack Soames — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:16:20 +0000

In addition to the above, the ability to be humorous of people on the left is blunted by:

1) Earnestness i.e. they take themeselves much too seriously – quite a handicap to humour, if you consider that one of the principal roots of English humour is the ability to laugh at oneself

2) Anger – it’s hard to be funny if you are genuinely angry, as so many on the left are (though Ben Elton came quite close with his ‘anti-Thatcher’ rants in the 80s)

3) Hatred – it’s not easy to demonstrate a sense of humour if political conviction is overtaken by hatred e.g a hatred of ‘injustice’ or ‘oppression’ becomes hatred of the perceived perpetrators of injustice/oppression; hatred of ‘privilege’ becomes hatred of the privileged etc.

4) Moral superiority/Righteous indignation (which are poor bedfellows for humour) i.e. if you consider you are morally superior, say, because your concern for ’saving the planet’, nuclear weapons or foxes makes you a better person than someone with an opposing view, then you become very indignant – hectoring even – at which point any possibility of humour or the ability to be light-hearted goes out the window

By: Gerard

Gerard — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 09:08:09 +0000

Hi Sebastian,

Are you sure you aren’t a Libertarian ? They support Gay Marriage, Abortion and so on.

I don’t see any difference between your views and theirs.

Maybe some introspection is in order ?

By: Peter Olszewski

Peter Olszewski — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 05:24:58 +0000

Often conservatiev writers are free of the constraints placed on many left-centric writers, in terms of political correct dictates which tend to dull inividual views; often it means there’s a certain self-concsious sort of righetoeusness which makes for dull copy. Often too such writers are afraid to fess up to personal failings and foibles.
There is often a ‘nouveau-soviet’ attitude by editors applied to copy which may trangress some presumably universally understood and accepted pc point of view.
Conservative writers often don’t have such constraints. I worked in Australia with Hunter S Thompson and was surprised how often he was attacked for either not writing enough about women or for the way he wrote about some women, partic women of “ill-repute.”
For example, he told critics in Australia that he wrote that he saw a woman in Las Vegas trying to fuck a polar bear because that’s what he saw. Plus at the time he was covering US politics, women didn’t have much of a role. Plus when he wrote about the Hell’s Angels he presented material of how they treated women, which was not exactly wholesome and certainly not pc.
Please excuse spelling – I don’t know how to spell check in this format.
and I agree clasic liberals probably better defines some writers you mention
peter olszewski

By: Peter Briffa

Peter Briffa — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:29:41 +0000

This is all the wrong way round. These lefties aren’t humourless because they are lefties. They’re lefties because they are humourless.

By: Sebastian Strangio

Sebastian Strangio — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:13:14 +0000

True. But then there are left-wing writers brimming over with nastiness and moral superiority (though perhaps not cattiness — only the Right are catty) who can only spout, say, trite Nazi analogies. (Witness Monbiot on global warming in The Guardian a while back).

Of course, you’re right about Jon Stewart: there is a middle-ground to be had here; and there’s no reason why a dedication to free expression should imply overt meanness (Kimball) any more than healthy respect should imply a cowed reverence for political correctness (Catherine Deveny). As for respect, I think it was Salman Rushdie who wrote that the one thing Oxford (?) taught him was to respect his opponent, but never to respect their argument — a valuable distinction. As soon as attacks are directed at the person rather than the argument, a line has been crossed, in ethics if not in law.

By: Jessica Anne Friedmann

Jessica Anne Friedmann — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:04:21 +0000

Hmm. To be totally relativist on yo ass, the internal logic of this post rests heavily on the assumption that what you find funny IS funny. I mean, it is, but let’s face it – your particular sense of humour, one which spawned ‘deaf-tards’ and many an anal-rape joke, is predicated on skewering notions of ‘correctness’, political or otherwise.

Someone like Jon Stewart does that incredibly well, while still maintaining decently progressive political credentials. I guess he’s the exception, rather than the rule, though. Maybe it comes down to your idea of Vidal’s ‘effete bitchiness’ – O’Rourke and Kimball can take potshots that the left, under it’s rubric of tolerance, cannot. Nastiness, cattiness, superiority complexes – these are what we find entertaining, and they’re difficult to reconcile with a politics that espouses everyone as equally deserving of respect.

By: Sebastian Strangio

Sebastian Strangio — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:29:39 +0000

You’re right, Yosh. With, say, Roger Kimball, I only agree with him about half the time, but the writing is so amusing that I can enjoy it whatever argument he’s making. Letting politics get in the way of a good read — how daft!

And you weren’t wrong — it was Wittgenstein. So much for my short-term memory…