TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2025
...this is what we mean: Watching the Gutfeld! show is a constant exercise is a type of fascination.
Having said that, we want to be frank. We're speaking of Conrad's famous phrase from The Heart of Darkness:
"The fascination of the abomination."
We're in the grip of that type of fascination. Admitting a bit of prejudgment, we'll try to be fair in what follows.
For today, let's start with a quick look at the remarkable coarseness which defines this extremely peculiar "cable news" TV program. Also, let's get clear on what we mean when we call this a propaganda messaging program—a propaganda program which delivers its corporate messaging under cover of comedy stylings.
Last night, the program's host started in the usual way—with 2-3 minutes of jokes.
After that, he delivered his opening "issue monologue." But first, he delivered the following quips, some of which you may not "get" if you aren't a regular viewer of this extremely coarse messaging program.
Here's how the program started:
GUTFELD (11/24/25): So, Thanksgiving is Thursday. And we have the inside word on what everyone's favorite politicians and celebrities are giving thanks for on this holiday
Hunter Biden is grateful for Black Friday savings on hookers.
AUDIENCE: [Laughter]
GUTFELD: Jill Biden is grateful for Febreze.
AUDIENCE: [Laughter]
GUTFELD: Hillary Clinton is grateful for strong, reliable rope.
[PHOTO of a noose]
AUDIENCE: [Laughter]
GUTFELD: Annnnnd—Kim Kardashian is grateful for dark meat. [Chuckles]
AUDIENCE: [Laughter]
GUTFELD: She loves a good drumstick.
[Pretending to apologize] I don't find the humor in that.
[...]
GUTFELD: Anyway, scientists at the Department of Energy have determined the perfect household temperature—and it's 68 degrees.
It's also the perfect temperature to keep meat from decomposing.
[PHOTO of President Biden]
AUDIENCE: [Laughter]
So the ghoulish fellow went. At 10:02 p.m., after a joke about Dolly Parton's enormous breasts, he thrilled the studio audience with this:
GUTFELD: A fashion designer claims he's using the wool of gay sheep at a New York fashion show.
How did he know they were gay? Well, their dicks tasted like [BLEEP].
AUDIENCE: [Groans, laughter, applause]
GUTFELD (modestly): Thank you.
At 10:03, he closed with a joke about—oh, never mind. But if you want to see last night's three minutes of jokes, you can do so by clicking here.
Now for the rest of the story:
The Fox News Channel once observed the prevailing conservative cultural norm known as "family values." With the addition of such stars as Gutfeld, whose style was developed in the dead hours of night, the channel has adopted a remarkably different tone—a tone which is often remarkably coarse.
Some people find this change refreshing. Even for those who do, it's a major change in the way the nation's news gets delivered on primetime "cable news" shows. Newspapers like the New York Times should be reporting this remarkable shift in the nation's journalistic landscape.
Regarding last night's jokes, let's explain the point of the jokes for people who may be new to this very unusual program:
For starters, you'll note that Gutfeld clings to old Democratic Party targets.
He continues to talk about the Bidens. He continues to talk about Hillary Clinton. That's where his sallies are aimed.
In this respect, he's much like the sitting president to whom he's been said to be servile. President Trump still focuses on Biden and them. So does the Fox News Channel's Gutfeld.
Regarding last night's jokes, let's offer these quick explications:
As the Gutfeld! audience knew, Jill Biden was said to be grateful for Febreze because of the way her husband is said to be constantly soiling himself, along with his clothing and any nearby furniture.
Dating back to President Biden's time in the White House, this has long been a treasured theme on this remarkable "cable news" show.
The joke about Hillary Clinton and the rope is a nod to the constant theme according to which Hillary Clinton murders her opponents. Three decades after Jerry Falwell traipsed around peddling the Clinton Chronicles tape, this remains a constant theme on this nut-ball's "cable news" program.
The joke about Kim Kardashian and the dark meat represents the constant allure of slippery racial insinuation. (Gay-baiting and trans-baiting are also quote common on this braindead TV show.)
The joke about 68 degrees and President Biden is the latest example of this ghoulish fellow's creepy death cult—his love of imagery in which President Biden is finally known to be dead. References to President Biden's hearse are remarkably common.
Regarding the taste of the d*cks of gay sheep, we don't know what word this idiot's producers chose to BLEEP.
In part for that reason, we ourselves don't understand that joke at all. That said, Gutfeld's studio audience plainly loved the joke, as did several panelists. This is not your grandfather's Fox News Channel. That channel disappeared long ago.
Hillary Clinton murders people. We can't wait to see Joe Biden dead.
Joe Bidne is constantly pooping and soiling himself. Barack Obama is secretly gay. His wife is a secret man.
This is the garbage that spills forth the Fox News Channel's CEO pries the lid off the can at 10 p.m. Eastern each evening. A panel of flyweights has been assembled to cheer this nut-ball on.
Some people find this palette refreshing. We'll say this:
To each his own.
People are free to indulge their own taste. That said, Greg Gutfeld has become a major "cable news" star by offering Fox News Channel viewers this highly repetitive fare. Let's go ahead and say it again:
This is a major fact about the changing face of American journalistic culture—a fact which should have been reported and discussed, long ago, by major Blue American news orgs.
Instead, those orgs avert their gaze from this nightly behavior. It seems to us that our major Blue American orgs simply don't want to tangle with Fox. Instead, they defer to the powerful Murdoch org and to the braindead garbage it peddles.
We're speaking here of this program's coarseness. As we do, we're skipping past the various instances. performed last year, in which Gutfeld offered wonderful quips on this entertaining theme:
Now that President Biden is virtually dead, has Hunter Biden started "banging" or [BLEEP]ing first lady Jill Biden yet?
During the election campaign, that was also part of the fun, and along with that the misogyny flowed. Night after night after night after night, the five women of The View have been compared to cows, to pigs, to whales, to dogs, to horses, to cattle, or more generically to "livestock."
Joy Behar is 83 years old. Nany Pelosi is 85. Gutfeld has pounded away at them for years, insisting that Behar is much too fat and that Pelosi has had too many facelifts.
Also, that they aren't sufficiently attractive to satisfy this gnome's demands. This has long been standard fare on this garbage can program.
Within the last week, Blue America's journalists reacted strongly to the incident where President Trump referred to one colleague as "Piggy." There's no obvious reason why they shouldn't have.
That said, over the course of the past few years, this sort of "conservative insult comedy" has been constant on the Gutfeld! show. Blue America's major pundits have agreed to defer to this nightly behavior—and in several profiles of Gutfeld! in the past year, some pundits even tried to wish this behavior away.
(For the record, the comparison of The View's women to cows / pigs / dogs has seemed to disappear of late. Has this disordered little mutt been fleeing outside criticism?)
We can't answer that sensible question, but this has all been part of the shape of this ugly, astounding "news" program. The various posers who sit on Gutfeld's panels cheer his inanity on.
In last Friday's report, we posted links to five profiles of Gutfeld or the Gutfeld! show which have appeared this year. By our count, at least three of those profiles actively worked to misdescribe the ugliness and the apparent misogyny which form such an obvious part of this braindead "cable news" show.
One of those profiles was different. In late August, John A. Daly (BernardGoldbeg.com) published a guest piece at Mediaite which took a whole different approach. You can click for it here:
Mediaite: August 26, 2025
Opinion
How Greg Gutfeld Went From Fox’s Most Irreverent Host to Its Most Servile
Daly critiqued and criticized Gutfeld as President Trump's most servile cheerleader. He also took us back to the days when this very same Greg Gutfeld was aggressively anti-Trump.
As he spews his venom around, Gutfeld serves as a major fan boy for President Trump. The four stooges who surround him on the set each night support him in this act of corporate messaging.
That said, how did this woman-hating attack-dog ever end up in the pro-MAGA camp?
An earlier profile may give us an answer to that. Tomorrow, we'll review John Daly's profile, and we'll look at an earlier hint which may explain how Greg Gutfeld's winding road ended up taking him there.
Tomorrow: Gutfeld gets the word
ReplyDelete"Also, let's get clear on what we mean when we call this a propaganda messaging program—a propaganda program which delivers its corporate messaging under cover of comedy stylings."
Any messaging is propaganda, Bob. According to one popular scientist, all of animal communication is manipulation of signal-receiver by signal-sender.
Consequently, your blog here is just as much a "propaganda messaging program" as anything produced by Fox News or, for that matter, by any idiot-Democrat minion, your comrade.
A comment devoid of meaning.
DeletePeople communicate for a variety of purposes. Calling it all propaganda is ridiculous.
DeletePropaganda definition: "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a particular cause, doctrine, or point of view"
DeleteNot all people communicating with an audience are equally biased or misleading. For example, the govt used to communicate health info from the point of view of medical science, but when Trump came in, that was replaced by biased and misleading info that can harm those who follow it. Was that propaganda in both cases? Was it equally harmful?
DeleteWhat's devoid of meaning is calling a tv show (or a blog, or any other communication) "propaganda", as if there was some other kind.
Actually, it's not devoid of meaning. It's propaganda.
If everything is propaganda, then nothing is propaganda.
DeleteI am a fan of Richard Dawkins, too, but it's a pretty pointless reductionism to discuss FOX propaganda in terms of basic genetics.
DeleteEpstein's favorite scientists, the programs he donated money to fund, support evolutionary psychology and a kind of biological determinism that justifies their activities as pedophiles. For example, there is an email between Epstein and one of his "scientists" saying that 14-15 year old girls develop faster today than in the past so having sex with them is the same as having sex with an 18-19 year old. Epstein's cover activities in which he gathered, held meetings with and funded scientists not only conceal his sex ring but engaged in rationalizing it. That makes the ideas expressed by these guys, about sex rules and women's capacities, are suspect in much the same way as Nazi beliefs about eugenics (supposedly scientific) justified the holocaust.
Deletesex roles
DeleteIt was extremely obvious to anyone with a triple digit IQ, that Epstein was a bad person, deeply corrupt and immoral.
DeleteSo there is no excusing, science-based or otherwise, of people like Pinker, who partied with Epstein and even went to his island and was "serviced" there and later offered to help defend Epstein in his pedo case.
Assuming that Somerby is actually concerned about immigration, here is a description of the system used by Denmark, which has the support of liberals and conservatives and is working so well that other European countries are thinking about adopting it:
ReplyDeletehttps://hartmannreport.com/p/did-denmark-find-the-answer-to-immigrationwhile-add
Gutfeld is focusing on old targets (Hillary, Biden) because they are safe and unifying for conservatives. There is a lot of turmoil and controversy among Republicans these days, so joking about someone current (even on the left) may be divisive to right wing viewers.
ReplyDeleteFor example, you can't mock Mamdani if Trump and he are now bros. What are the safe targets now?
Gutfeld has no real impact on anyone's life (except his own). But someone like JD Vance is Vice President and arguably has an impact on government and thus people's lives. We could rephrase that headline Somerby quotes as:
ReplyDelete"How JD Vance Went From the right's Most Irreverent politician to Its Most Servile"
JD Vance once called Trump "America's Hitler" but now he is fully on board with any stupid thing Trump does. It is amusing to hear vance make an initial independent response and then correct it to align with whatever Trump is saying. Other Republicans do this too, but it is most visible with Vance because he doesn't have years of this behavior under his belt, so he is more obvious and less adept at waiting to speak until he knows the right line, and correcting himself gracefully.
I do not understand why Somerby limits his criticisms to Gutfeld when all the guys on the right do the same thing, for the same reasons. They all know that Trump will throw any one of them under the bus if they don't fall in line. He made an example of MTG because none of his male followers will mind if he abuses her. But Trump considers all of his lackeys expendable if they step out of line.
Somerby must know this, so why is he focusing on Gutfeld for doing what any man would do to protect his job and family, and if he is really concerned about servility (and civility), why does he confine his criticism to Gutfeld? There is no bite to his jokes because no one cares about Hillary and Biden any more.
Not to diminish anything you said, but Somerby is a media critic first and foremost, has been since the Clinton/Gore days, so the fact that he is focusing on a media personality and not the VP actually makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't agree that he limits his criticisms to Gutfeld, but he has been focusing on him (maybe because he is so bad in terms of media personalities). Also, Gutfeld gets a lot of viewers on a highly watched cable news network, so the focus makes sense again. Bob said he was doing a series on Gutfeld and that he would move on shortly, so there is that as well. I never understand why people come to this blog, and probably agree with what Bob is saying, but just bash him instead of agreeing that Gutfeld is a crude, unfunny, idiot.
DeleteSomerby used to be a media critic but he only pretends to be a media critic now. He doesn't actually do media criticism. Several of us have regularly criticized Somerby's media criticism. I myself have offered links to writers who are actually doing media criticism and pointed out the differences between what Somerby writes and what actual media critics write.
DeleteFor the noobs, Bob has always focused on “mainstream media,” that fare available for everyone to see and hear, especially it’s on TV. Or just hear as well, given the legacy of the execrable Rush Limbaugh.
DeleteDo you really think Gutfeld, via Fox, has no influence in the media? Ratings suggest otherwise.
How often does JD Vance do a nightly show, noob?
Leroy
I don't recall Somerby ever "analyzing" Rush Limbaugh.
DeleteShows that reinforce the existing beliefs and attitudes of MAGA are not helping or hurting anything. They are just a way for elderly people to pass time. That includes Somerby.
Charlie Kirk's wife is saying that she is going to use the Turning Point organization to help JD Vance get elected president. That will have more impact than anything happening on Gutfeld's show.
Delete@ 2:56; so she can be Vance's new First Lady.
DeleteThe point of Gutfeld's jokes--and those of many other conservative "comedians"--isn't actually humor. Their supposed jokes are, as Your Gracious Host points out, facile and predictable and repetitive.
ReplyDeleteNo, the point isn't to be funny, it is to be transgressive. These are people with the mentality of pubescent boys who are acting out. They're demonstrating their defiance of norms, of rules.
It's no longer acceptable to make sexist remarks? Well, here's a quip centered on calling a well-known woman fat or ugly. It's now off-limits to make homophobic jokes? Here's one about a designer who blows sheep.
I suppose there may be a few stunted individuals who actually find Gutfeld's jokes funny. But I think the real point is performative, to signal to the audience that it's fine to punch down against the weak, to defy the expectation that we treat others with respect.
The repetitive nature of Gutfeld's jokes isn't a flaw, it's a feature. It's a daily recitation of his declaration of opposition against the left, against "woke," whatever that is.
The same can be said about Somerby's daily essays. Their repetitive nature isn't a flaw, it's a feature. It's a daily recitation of his declaration of opposition against the left, against "woke," whatever that is, because Somerby could be writing about so many topics that concern the left and that are important in resisting Trump and yet he daily calls attention to Gutfeld's "in your face" rebellion against civility and left-wing values, enhancing their impact while also ignoring the things he could write about as a supposedly left wing observer of politics. He defies the expectation that someone liberal write about the atrocities we in blue America find offensive, in favor of repeating Gutfeld's jokes.
DeleteQuaker is more of a media critic than Somerby is.
Delete"The repetitive nature of Gutfeld's jokes isn't a flaw, it's a feature."
DeleteDuh, and an extremely corrosive one at that. Why do you think Somerby goes on and on about it?
Leroy
"The same can be said about Somerby's daily essays."
DeleteAs well, of the daily rebuttals.
Hmmm, I wonder if there is some cause/effect in that.
DeleteTrump has a soft spot for anyone accused of sexual misbehavior. He is now trying to revive the career of a director accused of sexual abuse, by pressuring Paramount to distribute Rush Hour 4, a movie by Brett Ratner:
ReplyDelete"Ratner directed all three previous installments of the franchise, which debuted in 1998 but has not had a new film since 2007, and Warner Bros. cut ties with the director in 2017 after multiple sexual assault allegations were made against him.
The embattled director's first project since his banishment from Hollywood is a $40 million documentary about Melania Trump that's expected to be released in January on Amazon.
"Trump almost certainly 'wants' RUSH HOUR 4 to happen because Brett Ratner wants it to happen and he wants Brett Ratner to be rewarded for his upcoming Melania puff piece movie," wrote journalist Jesse Hassenger. "I'd be shocked if Trump had seen more than 40% of any single RUSH HOUR movie."
Dear Santa,
ReplyDeleteAttached please find my 28-point list for Christmas. I especially want the amnesty for my war crimes. Don't worry, everything’s been approved by Uncle Don.
- Naughty Little Vlad
While the entire 28 point peace plan is just bizarre, I find point 27 particularly baffling: 27. This agreement will be legally binding. Its implementation will be monitored and guaranteed by the Peace Council, headed by President Donald J. Trump.
DeleteDo we not expect anyone else to be president? Does the agreement expire when Trump mercifully departs?
I don't see how anyone can take this seriously.
It is a concoction by Putin steno-ed by 2 real estate grifters for presentation by a TV prop.
DeleteWhat are comedy stylings?
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the essay Bob. This is an overlooked phenomenon. As you finally articulated, in clear language:
ReplyDelete"It seems to us that our major Blue American orgs simply don't want to tangle with Fox."
That would definitely seem to be self-evident.
Very glad you watch, so I don't have to. Thanks.
Leroy
Our major Blue American orgs have better things to do than waste time on Fox.
DeleteNo one has to watch Fox. It would be better if Somerby used his time doing something that mattered.
Most of these pro-Somerby comments are made by trolls using foreign accounts, or perhaps bots. That is because they uniformly express right wing views. There is not an equivalent response on the left because the left is not supported by Russia and/or oligarch/billionaire funding the way the right has been since Trump became a politician.
ReplyDeleteIf Somerby were interested in the media, he might talk about the influence of these social media campaigns on the right's politics. Somerby doesn't appear to be aware of anything happening in the media except Fox and cable news, neither of which has a major impact on campaigns any more.
Every day he comes to his blog and misidentifies blue America and Blue media as corporate or mainstream legacy media, being gobbled up one by one by the right. Crickets from Somerby about any of that.
Gutfeld has no cultural nor electoral impact.
ReplyDeleteSomerby's "fascination" is irrelevant.
Interesting that Somerby is discussing servility and deferentiality at the very moment when MAGA House members are in uproar over being treated without respect by the White House. Some are threatening to follow MTG's lead by resigning their seats, which would throw the House to the Democrats before the midterms.
ReplyDeleteHas Somerby's handler dictated that an emphasis on following orders be the talking point today?
Somerby says: "As he spews his venom around, Gutfeld serves as a major fan boy for President Trump. The four stooges who surround him on the set each night support him in this act of corporate messaging."
They are modeling the deference expected of good little MAGA cogs in Trump's machine. The House is not. Trump can't punish everyone without it being obvious that his operation is falling apart at the seams. Gutfeld is how Fox papers over the cracks in MAGA unity. The more things fall apart on the right, the more fawning Gutfeld will be. Can't let the base know that Daddy is losing control. It might make them anxious enough to vote for someone else.
This is what media analysis looks like. Not Somerby's crap.
DeleteDemocrats have dreamed of having a good comedy show since at least the 90s, as they were foaming at the mouth at Rush Limbaugh and other successful talk shows on the radio. Now, it's the same thing with Gutfeld!.
ReplyDeleteForget it, idiot-Democrats, you can't beat them. Accept it. All your projects, including your lootings and your riots, are too authoritarian, too top-down centralized. Also, you have no sense of humor, or, for that matter, brains. Also, you're too corrupt.
Still, there's hope for you, idiot-Democrats. Your corruption schemes, at least, are quite creative and funny. American president (albeit a figurehead) selling, for hundreds of thousands of dollars, abstract paintings of his junkie son? Made of his excrements? That's a great swindle, I'll give you that.
We don't have to beat them. We can just not watch them.
DeleteThe s on excrements suggests this is from a non-native speaker of English, perhaps even a bot.