SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2024
Tired old has-beens find work: In recent weeks, we've been writing about the new messaging regime which is being implemented at Fox.
Under this new approach, the red tribe channel's propaganda claims are trafficked through the dull-witted offerings of an array of second- and third-rate comedians, joined by a former professional wrestler along with people dragged in from Outnumbered.
We'll guess that research is driving this mess—research into the successful delivery of propaganda and phony claims through the use of low-IQ snark and snide, as opposed to old-fashioned bombast.
We've seen no one mention this change in approach—certainly, no one at more responsible major news organs, That said, dear God!
Yesterday, searching around, we ran into this press release from late December. It ran beneath three headlines:
FOX NATION TO LAUNCH NEW SLATE OF PROGRAMMING FOR COMEDY MONTH IN JANUARY 2024
Comedic Six-Part Docuseries “A History of the World in Six Glasses” with Host Dan Aykroyd to Debut January 8th
Jimmy Failla and Tyrus to Helm Their Own Signature Stand-Up Specials on January 3rd
NEW YORK — FOX Nation will present its first comedy month on the streaming platform in January 2024, with humorous programming dropping throughout the month. The platform will debut the highly anticipated series A History of the World in Six Glasses, starring Dan Aykroyd and fellow Saturday Night Live alumni Jim Belushi, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon and Cheers star George Wendt on Monday, January 8th. Additionally, FOX Nation will release stand-up specials helmed by FOX News Radio’s Jimmy Failla and Gutfeld! co-host and New York Times best-selling author Tyrus on Wednesday, January 3rd, along with additional programming. Details are below:
For the record, Fox Nation is a pay-to-watch streaming adjunct to the Fox News Channel itself.
The triple headline press release continues along from there. We know of one word for the last entry in this clump. That one word is this:
Sad!
Wednesday, January 3rd—Jimmy Failla will present They’re Just Jokes, a standup comedy special filmed at the Paramount Theater in Huntington, New York. The special will tackle his life growing up on Long Island and his early career as a New York City taxicab driver. Failla is the host of FOX News Radio’s FOX Across America and author of FOX News Books’ upcoming title “Cancel Culture Dictionary”.
Wednesday, January 3rd—FOX News contributor, former professional wrestler and New York Times bestselling author Tyrus takes center stage in Crowley, Louisiana for his own stand-up special titled Tyrus: Here and Now. The one-hour set features his signature unfiltered comedic take on family, race, politics and everyday life.
[...]
Monday, January 8th—Alongside Aykroyd, A History of the World in Six Glasses will feature Saturday Night Live stars Jim Belushi, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Nealon and Cheers star George Wendt. The six-part docuseries will chronicle the history of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, soda and their respective impact on the world. Developed by Play House Studios, the series was written and directed by Rob Long, a former executive producer of the longtime NBC series Cheers.
That History of the World in Six Glasses efforts features five people who had successful comedy careers. Some of them might even be said to have had high-quality comedy careers.
Now they're just hangin' on with Fox. Given the garbage emanating from that channel, we have exactly one word for that:
Sad!
At any rate, this seems to be part of a whole new delivery system at Fox. At this site, we'll continue to cover the nightly inanity being produced on programs like Jesse Watters Primetime and Gutfeld!, with The Five thrown in for good measure.
Major American mainstream news orgs will likely continue averting their gaze. They'll agree not to mention the low-grade "comedy" stylings and the brain-dead disinformation itself.
Fight with Fox? Report what Fox is doing in primetime under the guise of "news?"
Dearest darlings, use your heads! Among a finer class of people, such things simply aren't done!
ReplyDelete"We'll guess that research is driving this mess—research into the successful delivery of propaganda and phony claims through the use of low-IQ snark and snide, as opposed to old-fashioned bombast. "
Research? You have gotta be kidding. All the research has already been done inside your silo, Bob. This is just copying.
Hopefully, Fox's low-IQ snark and snide shit will match your silo's low-IQ snark and snide shit, snark for snark and snide for snide.
Fair's fair, right?
Somerby is a master of low IQ snark and snide himself. If you are going to snark, why not do it for the right side? Why has Somerby said nothing about Jon Stewart?
DeleteRemember when Somerby was upset because Rachel made a double entendre teabag joke? He pretended she was too coarse but I suspect the joke was too gay for Somerby’s delicate sensibilities. He wouldn’t like Cecelia’s humor either, because women are supposed to be pure.
DeleteCecelia is pure.
DeleteDarn right.
DeleteI am pure.
DeleteCecelia is not a woman. Somerby is an ass.
I am Corby.
Fake.
DeleteOn behalf of we the gays we hereby disclaim rachel maddow, annoying warmonger for corporate money
DeleteWell, Somerby himself ran to Fox, back when Bill O’Reilly was there.
ReplyDeleteNo liberal I know thinks Bill Maher is brilliant. How hard is it to make racist jokes about Asian drivers? His health faddism morphed into vaccine conspiracy theories and one gets tired of watching him fawn over conservatives, much like the new comedians at Fox will do.
Let me tell you something, this is the most accurate criticism of this blog I've read in a while.
DeleteCommenter 1
Bob 0
I do not understand the point of this post. An on-line station is going to present some comedians telling jokes. So...?
ReplyDeleteSomerby has complex feelings about other comics. He mighttalk them through with a therapist instead of acting out here.
DeleteBob is upset because as long as Trump's serious mental illness is not discussed, every minute of valuable airtime is wasted.
DeleteBob just wants you to win one for The Tripper.
DeleteBob is fishing for an invitation.
DeleteBill Maher is scum.
ReplyDeleteOff topic -- the media bias against Trump goes far beyond news media. E.g., Trump discussed an important issue, using a precise, accurate word -- "debank". That word means, "To deprive a person or organization of banking services, especially for political reasons." Truckers demonstrating in Canada were recently debanked by the government. Being unable to use one's own bank account is serious matter.
ReplyDeleteSaturday Night Live mocked Trump,, claiming that he made up the word. I doubt that SNL viewers will ever be told that on this issue Trump was right.
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1751588557506920848
The last person who ever watch SNL died of old age years ago.
DeleteYou don’t use words and then make up the definitions later. Google assumes debank is a misspelling of debunk.
DeleteTrump really should try harderto communicate, but he is too busy worrying about his own money problems. He isn’t talking about bank exclusion of black customers or mortgage redlining.
DeleteIf he invented this word, good for him. I can't think of an existing single word describing this notion, and "debank" fits intuitively. What's the problem?
DeleteDavid should be debonked.
Delete@1:29 What’s the problem? Do you know anyone who has ever been debanked? Me neither. Why use a word with such an obscure specialized meaning in front of a crowd of rednecks? But given that Trump himself is ignorant and stupid, I think he made it up. He needs to watch that or people may call him an elitist.
Delete@1:39 PM
DeleteSo, don't use it in front of your family.
Personally, the word "debank" seems the opposite of elitist to me. But of course YMMV, it may seem like a "big word" to you.
It is an obscure word. Only those with money will suffer debanking. Do you really not know what elite means?
DeleteHere’s an explanation:
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-banking
Where did you find that definition of "debank," DiC? Just curious.
DeleteDavid, Donald J Chickenshit "debanked" himself. Great real estate tycoon couldn't borrow a wooden nickel from the largest banks in the city he called home.
DeleteBob is approaching collapse.
ReplyDeleteIf there is garbage on Fox Nation, why not applaud their efforts to do better with a slate of first-rank comedians? Their show was 2 weeks ago. How was it?
ReplyDeleteA larger wuestion is why so many standups have become conservatives. Is that where the money and opportunities are, or is there something about standup that attracts people who are right wing? I remember when Jeff Foxworthy was a folksy novelty, then we got Andrew Dice Clay and things went to hell.
Comedians ridicule people.
DeleteSome current liberal policies are ridiculous— hence easily ridiculed
DeleteDavid, you’re cognitive but impure. Cecelia is ignitive but pure.
DeleteAnything can be ridiculed.
DeleteSelling out to the media costs nothing just your soul
DeleteAnonymouse 6:47pm, David is pure. He reads Somerby because he finds him challenging and interesting and isn’t here to try and belittle a blogger and throw popcorn.
DeleteIt’s easy to find a blogger interesting, if you happen to dislike liberals as much as the blogger does. As far as challenging, when has David ever changed a belief based on something Somerby said?
DeleteAnonymouse 11:31pm, David has had no trouble acknowledging that anonymices have made good points on occasion, let alone Bob doing that.
DeleteAnonymices NEVER do that.
That defines impurity.
I’m an anonymouse, and I’ve acknowledged good points by both David and Cecelia.
DeleteAnonymouse 12;42am, then delineate your purity by getting a nym.
DeleteDavid was super receptive to Somerby’s pro-Palestinian posts. 🙄
DeleteSo were anonymices. 🙄
DeleteDavid is voting for Biden.
DeleteAfter all, he's spent 10 years on the internet pretending he supports women's reproductive rights He's not going to blow his cover, now that all of us are fooled.
The whole world except for a few white americans are receptive to palestine.
DeleteI’m disappointed in Kevin Nealon.
ReplyDeleteBut who knows? Fox always seems to have the feelers out for a potential leftward drift should they think they can expand the market share. But given the rest of the cast, it doesn’t sound promising.
So nobody in the comment section has enough literacy to pull out the question from the post?
ReplyDeleteWhat is Fox doing?
Why is a news station giving up on telling us what to think with fake news on an election year and switching to pretending to be funny?
Interesting question, but I think it’s simply a matter of the line between news and entertainment being pretty much gone. Bob’s good friends and neighbors are pretty stupid people, and they like a lot of dumb jokes.
DeleteFox hasn’t given up disinformation. They are trying to attract younger viewers.
Delete“ very few people understand how amazingly hard it is to do the things he has consistently done.”
ReplyDeleteHard. Very hard. Also very lucrative. Extremely. He’s an amazing human being.
What bull roar.
Anonymously 11:35pm, in a world of the politically aligned, can you name anyone else who has so effectively critiqued both sides?
ReplyDeleteYou can’t. And lord. knows you wouldn’t be into that sort of thing in a million years.
Effective? How?
DeleteAs in dead-on and still churning it out on tv.
DeleteHe ain’t been debanked or canceled.
It would seem that history would be correct enough for even an anonymouse to acknowledge.
Being on TV a long time or at all doesn’t qualify as providing quality. I might argue the opposite is true.
DeleteI might argue that he’s not one-sided and he has still been effective.
DeleteLet MSNBC and FOX dare that.
Maher is a boring, egotistical self-important blowhard who likes ridiculing people and hearing himself talk, while reeling in sacks of cash. Why should anyone care what he thinks about anything? His toxic cynicism makes him one of the “cool guys”, but it’s easy to be that way when you’re a tv comedian who can say whatever he wants for a big paycheck. He’s not worth thinking about, let alone celebrating.
DeleteIt’s not easy to be that way when you’re being it with both sides,
DeleteYour proclamations aside.
I am not thinking about Maher. Not thinking about Maher. Maher. Maher. Maher!!!
DeleteSomerby is an ass.
I am Corby.
Fake.
DeleteHaven't really watched Maher in years. He's just not funny anymore.
DeleteBob is being a toady for Bill Maher. It’s pathetic.
ReplyDeleteBut Bob is not a “toady” for Maddow.
DeleteThat’s why you’re here.
Bob has always had the same line on Maher. It’s not surprising he especially likes him now, as Maher has become quite the white racism apologist.
DeleteIs attacking both sides the only “correct” mode of being? Why not an intelligent defense of the liberal or conservative view? I would find that far more preferable than gratuitous attacks on both. It’s quite easy to attack, to destroy, but more difficult to provide a constructive defense. That’s why Maher’s way is not “hard” at all, whatever Somerby thinks he means by that.
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 1:20am, no, you only find one pov acceptable., constructive, and intelligent, to the point of all else being sacrilegious. Don’t try to pretend that you respect anything other than yourself.
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteDo you agree with Bob that we should respect people who want a disordered person to be the President of the United States?
I don’t think he’s asking for you to respect them. He’s asking that you oppose them in ways that are mature and are not the equivalent of throwing mud pies.
DeleteThere are a lot of former Trump supporters who can’t bring themselves to vote for Trump again. For various reasons. Some are still deciding. Some make the point that Biden’s hasn’t been a bad president, etc. Somerby seems to get that fact. You can’t because you love the war. You love the jets vs sharks. You love telling yourself that they’re bad and you’re good.
Thanks Cecelia.
Delete-------
BTW, I'm not so hot. It's just that I don't try to elect disordered people to be President of the country I live in, so it makes me seem better to you in comparison to others.
I love the war. I love the jets vs sharks. I hate bigotry. I won't vote for a Republican to politically represent me. I am Corby.
Delete
DeleteI hate ordered people.
Bill Maher is considered important to the current crop of middle class male American hobbyists who mistake him for a genuine philosopher. He is a cutout for the type of person who reads a psychology book a year by some yale or harvard professor always called "Undoing: The History Of Society Inflexing" or some nonsense like that.
DeleteIt's hard to tell the nice cossetted middle class man that academia has torn pieces of the American soul out of itself until talking with sympathy to the lower classes was replaced by the infection of snark by Judge Judy, Jerry Springer, gameshow bread and circuses and so on all the way up to Bill Maher, the jack of all trades and master of none.
Deletehello to you Marrie Allen. i ask question of how smart career 1 make me the money. does 2 month work it well? does smart career 1 help to meet a woman for date may be? thx
ReplyDeleteBill Maher acts like he has the pass to do imitations of Black women then laughs at himself, he's a chauvinist to people about how Islam is backward, he's the white nerd's idea of a cool guy.
ReplyDeleteGoodness knows Islam is cutting edge.
DeleteIf Islam isn’t cutting edge, Christianity isn’t, either. Still less Judaism.
DeleteAnonymouse 2:05am, I was responding to a comment about Maher criticizing Islam.
DeleteBill dislikes religion in general. Why should he make an exception for Islam?
Bill "Kill the Jews" Maher, hasn't been funny in at least two decades.
DeleteBut he does, Cecelia, he does make an exception for Islam.
Delete
DeleteBill Maher is an actor. He has writers, who write his dumbass jokes.
1. Colonialism froze in place what Islam could be over the last 100 years with legal codes
Delete2. When given a chance, Islam has moderated in history
3. The most fundamentalist strains of Islam are still funded openly by the West
Don't have to like Islam to know how politics of religion function
DeleteThe return to Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini from exile in 1979 looked damn near Biblical to me at the time. Pretty much devastated the Carter presidency also, especially when the Reagan traitors bargained with the hostage takers to deprive Carter of that satisfaction.
DeleteSecular media and politicians tell you scary stories about foreigners so you are intolerant and easy to divide and conquer. So do religious people. It's all one big system.
DeleteHere's the BBC admitting they encouraged anti-gay laws in their colonies
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57606847
Pakistan's anti-Blasphemy law written by England
https://jaapl.org/content/early/2020/01/24/JAAPL.003916-20
History of women leaders in Islam:
https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1129&context=etd
Make no mistake the people who cry the loudest about dangerous foreigners also want to completely raze the civil rights movement to the ground, they want to return to a totally segregated capitalist society and leave Martin Luther King rotting alone.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteWhat have we heard for the last eight years other than that Republicans are pawns of foreign governments?
DeleteWashington's military is rented by the world's leaders who are too soulless to share power and rich enough to win favors. When the empire's bishops ask for favors that's called foreign policy. When the citizens, shout at each other as pawns, that's called politics.
DeleteIn Iowa, a convicted felon can removed from the ballot. The Secretary of State is asking the legislature to repeal that provision.
ReplyDeleteConvicted felons should still have the right to vote.
DeleteI make thousands of dollars in my spare time trolling blogs.
ReplyDeleteI spam Somerby's blog for free. I am committed.
ReplyDeleteSomerby is an ass. Somerby is no liberal. What an asshole Somerby is.
I am Corby.
Fake.
Delete