FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2024
Gutfeld proves Hector right: According to this report by The Hill, the invaluable Internet Archive is fighting to get back online after some sort of cyber-attack.
The Archive is widely ignored, but it performs what would be an invaluable service in some other society. For today, we thought we'd keep you semi-current with the attack on Enlightenment values launched in prime time every night by the Fox News Channel's remarkable Gutfeld! program.
As we've tried to explain, the program starts with a few minutes of jokes by its host. It then stages inane pseudo-discussions of various news topics.
These pseudo-discussions are conducted by panels of D-list comedians and assorted others. All panelists have agreed to agree with the host on every possible point, all of which will slavishly serve current pro-Trump interests.
Last night, the fun started instantly. Right away, at 10 o'clock sharp, this was the very first joke:
GUTFELD (10/10/24): Good evening, everyone. So!
The porn industry has launched a $100,000 ad campaign in support of Kamala Harris.
Makes sense. They're both known for sucking.
If you think that S-bomb was meant to be taken in an inoffensive colloquial sense, you may not be a regular viewer of this prime time "cable news" program. On Gutfeld!, explicit sexual insults directed at Harris are a regular part of the stew.
Indeed, a few minutes later last night, the host returned to his favorite nickname for Harris, referring to her as "Cackles McKneepads." This remarkable garbage can gets opened by Fox every night.
With respect to the program's host, this is pretty much all he seems to have at this point in his life. Fox News uses this braindead program for propaganda purposes. The program offers braindead propaganda services pretty much all the way down.
That first joke was a sexual insult. Two jokes later, the host indulged another favorite impulse—his relentless attraction to necromancy:
GUTFELD: Harris appeared on Stephen Colbert's show, where the host asked if she'd drink a Miller High Life with him.
Normally, when she sits down with a cold one it's Joe Biden.
[APPLAUSE]
GUTFELD: Ha ha ha! Yeah! Because he's dead!
For whatever reason, Greg Gutfeld loves to imagine opponents being dead. Meanwhile, liberal women with whom he disagrees are persistently said to be way too fat.
At this point in his life, this seems to be what he is.
By 10:01, we had moved on from sexual insult to the standard suggestion that Harris is some version of a "drunk." The little guy now offered this:
GUTFELD: She also appeared on Howard Stern, where he said that he'd even vote for a wall over Trump.
Harris replied, "I'm not a wall, but I am plastered."
Along with the standard sexual insults, this has become a standard theme on this angry, soul-draining program. Next came a reference to Candidate Walz, triggering a typically sad battle cry:
"Tampons!" the cable star yelled.
This is all this little imp has. Sadly but instructively, his audiences eat it up.
By 10:02 p.m., we had moved to the evening's initial pseudo-discussion. At issue was a guest essay in Tuesday's New York Times which appeared beneath this headline:
We Can Do Better Than "Positive Masculinity"
The essay was written by Ruth Whippman, a British "mother of three rowdy boys" and the author of BoyMom: Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity.
We thought Whippman's essay was perfectly sane blending into insightful, but any such headline is sure to trigger this program's host. Even before inviting his flyweight guests to offer their comments, he was offering such analytical treasures as this in reaction to Whippman's column:
GUTFELD: It's not unlike Howard Stern. Talk about a transition! On Tuesday, he conducted an interview with Kamala Harris that was so simpering and feminine I got my period while listening to it.
[AUDIENCE: APPLAUSE AND CHEERS]
Stern's interview was way too "feminine," Gutfeld opined—and his audience plainly agreed. Nothing resembling a serious discussion of Whippman's column ever appeared.
(Tuesday afternoon, on The Five, he had expressed his instant anguish more directly. He simply denounced Stern as "a pussy" while the women of The Five looked away.)
These programs serve as anthropology lessons as our national culture dies. They offer windows onto a world of cultural conflict—a world which began taking shape in the mid-1960s, as the U.S. Army was sent into Vietnam and the Age of Aquarius dawned.
Blue America hasn't been without fault as this revolt from below has steadily taken form. Along the way, the world has gained an army of Gutfelds—people who seem unable to use their indoor voices as they angrily react to an array of contemporary liberal values and views—views and values both real and imagined.
This show is a garbage can all the way down. The Five is a vastly different kettle of fish, but as an example of "cable news," it isn't a whole lot smarter or a whole lot less clownish.
Making matters that much worse, Jesse Watters Primetime comes on Fox at 8.
What's happening here is a corporate-sponsored propaganda assault employing the usual gang of overpaid suspects. The New York Times doesn't talk about this. Neither do the tribunes Blue America is encouraged to love, the ones on MSNBC.
There's plenty to criticize (or not!) about Blue America's contemporary culture and politics. The people Fox puts on the air do so through clownish demagoguery pushed along by vulgar insults of the classic dimwitted kind.
The TV star is an angry child. He's also sixty years old!
Gutfeld is not an “angry child”, Bob, he’s one more obnoxious comedian who is making money the way comedians have been doing it for a while now. Gutfeld is making raunchy jokes about public people on a cable news channel, rather than just on “cable”.
ReplyDeleteGreg is mild as compared to many comedians today (years ago, Richard Prior did an act where he said that Pres. Reagan looked like a [male sex organ] that couldn’t get erect).
These comediennes aren’t fourth rate either, unless you mean that their jokes are that. Which is true. They’re all highly paid and widely viewed.
There’s a lot of things to criticize here, but they aren’t “lost” unless you want to apply that psychoanalysis to most of your profession.
No psychoanalysis was harmed in the writing of Somerby's essay today.
DeleteGreg Gutfeld, what a hill to die on.
DeleteGutfeld can't even spell Enlightenment. If Somerby dislikes the entertainment on Fox, why does he watch it? There is so much better stuff out there -- like Colbert, for example. Somerby is acting like there is only one govt station and we are all compelled to watch it, but this isn't Russia. Is it?
ReplyDeleteExtra point to anyone who can source my movie quote in the last sentence.
DeleteAnonymouse 6:48, you’re parked here like it’s the only site on the web, haranguing Somerby 24/7.
DeleteYou could do with some self-awareness. A LOT of self-awareness, and some sense.
Who is parked here? If anyone, it is you. And you contribute absolutely nothing to discussion here. Just noise and flatulence.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:58am, maybe so… The difference is that I like the blog. I don’t agree with it most of the time, but I like it.
DeleteYou’re here to issue personal insults toward the blogger and his essays as though he and they makes your nose bleed. You’re here to tell him what he should be doing, until he does that, at which point you won’t like “that” either.
Gutfield is a Right-winger. Like all Right-wingers, the idea of consensual sexual relations is so foreign to him, he lashes out at the very idea.
ReplyDeleteAnonymouse 10:04pm, anonymices have been yammering on this for a bit and you need to know that there are more concerns and proprieties around sex than merely whether it’s “consensual”.
DeleteThat’s true for Trump AND for Comma La.
As regards, Willie and Comma La, he was and is still married to his wife. We know they’re separated, but we don’t have an iota about her feelings. We just know that she has stayed married to him. Has she done that because of her religious views? Is it because she’s still head-over-heels and can’t let him go? What’s his motive for staying married to her?
You can say that this is none of our business, but they made it public business, just as much as Trump’s and recently Robert Kennedy’s) extramarital affairs were scrutinized.There ARE societal quibbles about such things and there should be. Harris and Brown WERE in a relationship that people naturally question.. Sex (especially as to extramarital) IS more than a matter of any two agreeing to get it on and damn anyone else around them who might be affected by it. I know, that unless it’s one of your guys, your pretend scruples are on the ball-bearings of what is politically advantageous for you, but “consensual” isn’t a free pass any more than “bought-and-paid-for” was a pass for Trump. So quit telling people that it’s none of their business.
For the third consecutive Presidential election, Republicans nominated a rapist to be their nominee.
DeleteEven worse for Cecelia, some of us noticed it.
Anonymouse 10:22pm, goodness knows you never look in a mirror.
DeleteA few Right-wingers are put off by Trump being a rapist, but even they can't quit him because they love his bigotry.
Delete"Economically anxious", LOL.
DeleteGoodness knows they never looked at a Balance Sheet.
What if Kamala seduced Brown in order to further her political career? What conclusions would we draw from that?
DeleteHave you noticed you can never find a Libertarian during hurricane season?
DeleteHarris had a job as a prosecutor when she dated Brown. She had no political career, held no elected office and wasn't running for anything. She worked in a job that he had no control over. She didn't run until years after they broke up.
DeleteAnonymouse 11:30am, you’d draw the sort of conclusions that you would about any person who shares the same circumstances. First of all, you can be attracted to men who are the whole caboodle. That they can help your career may be just one of the reasons they attract you, and that aspect may have been way down Comma La’s list of things she like about Brown. We should always give nod to that. We’re all human.. I’ve read Willie Brown’s stuff. He’s funny, smart, and charming.
DeletePeople can (and should) should give others all the leeway they can, but it’s not “wrong” if they still harbor some questions…disapproval…reservations that spark discussions as to candidates running for election or as to associations in private life. Telling everyone that consent is the only thing that matters is lower than adolescent thinking. It’s the self-serving argument of a child.
None of that answers my question.
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteWhat are you babbling about? Consent is never a thing that matters to Right-wingers when it comes to sexual relations.
See Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh for glaring examples.
Anonymouse 11:56am, even you aren’t that ignorant. ANYone in San Francisco or Los Angeles could be helped by a relationship with Willie Brown, and that’s STILL the case.
DeleteAnonymouse 12:08pm, and consent seems to be the only thing that matters to you, unless the subject in question is a conservative.
Delete"consent seems to be the only thing that matters to you"
DeleteIt only seems that way because it means nothing to Right-wingers. They don't call the GOP, "The Party of Rapists", for nothing.
Anonymouse 12:43pm, you mean you don’t…
DeleteBtw, anonymouse 11:40am, I know it’s just your dark triad stuff kicking in because you think someone might be a libertarian here, but I have a lot of friends and some relatives in North Carolina and they ain’t waiting for nobody to come and save them. They are getting it done. You should be proud.
DeleteIn my defense, there are a lot of Right-wing morons here, why wouldn't at least one of them be so clueless about the world they are a Libertarian?
DeleteCecelia,
DeleteGood luck to your friends and relatives in North Carolina. We all wish them the best as they pull themselves up by their soggy bootstraps.
Anonymouse 1:28am, oh, you have no idea. They usually pull themselves up by the screen door at 4am.
DeleteOff topic - why is Kamala attacking DeSantis for allegedly not taking her calls? Is it wise?
ReplyDeleteIt's unwise IMO. In liberal settings Kamala has gotten ahead by portraying herself as discriminated against. As a black woman she probably has been discriminated against. It's something like Biggest Victim Wins.
But, a lot of people don't want a victim as President. The Presidency is not a consolation prize for past mistreatment. Most people want a strong leader -- someone who sets policies and solves problems for the country and for the world. Whining about DeSantis not taking her calls doesn't show Kamala as a leader.
No doubt, the strongest part of the Republican Presidential nominee is the odor from his dirty diaper.
DeleteKamala Harris was doing her job as the VP, dealing with the hurricane.
Delete"In liberal settings Kamala has gotten ahead by portraying herself as discriminated against."
DeleteBut you can't provde a single instance in which Kamala 'has gotten ahead' by 'portraying herself as discriminated against.'
One down.
Second, Kamala's statement about DeSantis not taking her calls was put in terms of the harm it potentially did to the hurricane victims, not some personal affront to herself.
So, wrong there too.
And third, Kamala's campaign themes have nothing to do with being victimized but are positive, even joyful. And as another commenter has already pointed out, there is no bigger whiner about how ill treated he is than Trump.
So you hit the trifecta.
I don't recall seeing Kamala as a victim when she debated Donald. She kicked his sorry ass. And when Donald recovered from his face plant, it was all 'no mas' with respect to any more one on one encounters with the woman he likes to deride as born dumb to his supporters at rallies. And somehow, to your mind, she appears weak. The forever the victim candidate is and always has been Donald here, buddy, and yeah you are correct, it does make him look weak to be constantly bemoaning his persecution and the unfairness of it all. He ought to be lugging around a crucifix for effect. But he'd want to have it gold plated, and he would market plastic miniatures of it made in China, and dragging it off the back of a golf cart would not be a good look except to his tribe of worshippers, like yourself.
ReplyDeleteEven David in Cal knows Trump sells the sneakers, bibles, and other tchotchkes in order to launder the money of foreign oligarchs.
DeleteTrump hasn't given an interview in a month.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing Donald Trump is more jealous of than Barack Obama's popularity, is Jared Kushner's penis.
ReplyDeleteHah, well said!
Delete