Opinion of Samantha Bee

[ApatheticAustrian]

sam bee is a real performance artist imho, also educational but mostly about lefty/progressive achievements/failures.

what makes her interesting are her ideas - always original.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Tbf from what I've seen she is way better than Seth Meyers.

It's really weird how political chat shows are in the US. I can't imagine Graham Norton opining about his thoughts on Tory policy or whatever.

That's mostly due to The Daily Show's success, and it wasn't a political show when it started either. Pre-Stewart it was mostly just a parody of trashy celebrity gossip tabloid shows. The political stuff started with the coverage of the 2000 election aftermath. And of course Bee and Colbert come from it.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

If she is vulgar and hyperpartisan, so what?  She still isn't the left's equivalent of Fox News or Rush Limbaugh.  It's not that level of vitriol.  Not that the left shouldn't have that equivalent.

Especially now that the Republicans have a man in the White House who is overtly vulgar and vitriolic--and is determined to squash anyone who gets under his skin--the left needs people who are not afraid to mock and ridicule the lunatic and his enablers who causing the country and the world so much destruction.

I still haven't heard liberal comedians like Bee mock the small children of politicians who don't ask for attention.  Fox News and freerepublic, on the other hand, can go after the Obama kids, and Rush Limbaugh infamously called Chelsea Clinton "the White House dog".  Yet, in this thread, we have Democrats and left-leaning independents eager to criticize the "smugness" or whatever of left-of-center comedians.  Republicans, however, are not so inclined to call out the crudeness of people like Limbaugh.  Enough double standards.

"Both sides do it!"

You literally censor trumps name like a swear word, derogatorily talk about "yuppies" in a way that's isn't much different from the attitudes you criticize towards the working class, have claimed that libertarians all want the poor to die and suffer, implied Clinton didn't have a right to do anything but sit down and retire, etc. You have no right to whine about people not being nice.

It's especially funny because I would guess that Scarlet is the sort of person who assiduously (and, to be fair, correctly) makes the "punching up/punching down" distinction about everything except socioeconomic status.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Liberal smugness personified, continuing in The Daily Show's established tradition of detached center-left political commentary in which most of the attempts at humor comprise lazy vulgarity or pointless pop culture references. ("Hahaha! They're referencing things I know!")

Blame the latter on postmodernity as a whole. Everything has already been written; it's the End of History.

According to at least one august and influential interpretation, history ended in 1918, when Britain was no longer Top Nation.

At least two "end of civilization" literary pieces emerged around 1920 (Yeats, Spengler), so it's believable.

[Since I'm the mad scientist proclaimed by myself]

If she is vulgar and hyperpartisan, so what?  She still isn't the left's equivalent of Fox News or Rush Limbaugh.  It's not that level of vitriol.  Not that the left shouldn't have that equivalent.

Especially now that the Republicans have a man in the White House who is overtly vulgar and vitriolic--and is determined to squash anyone who gets under his skin--the left needs people who are not afraid to mock and ridicule the lunatic and his enablers who causing the country and the world so much destruction.

I still haven't heard liberal comedians like Bee mock the small children of politicians who don't ask for attention.  Fox News and freerepublic, on the other hand, can go after the Obama kids, and Rush Limbaugh infamously called Chelsea Clinton "the White House dog".  Yet, in this thread, we have Democrats and left-leaning independents eager to criticize the "smugness" or whatever of left-of-center comedians.  Republicans, however, are not so inclined to call out the crudeness of people like Limbaugh.  Enough double standards.

"Both sides do it!"

You literally censor trumps name like a swear word, derogatorily talk about "yuppies" in a way that's isn't much different from the attitudes you criticize towards the working class, have claimed that libertarians all want the poor to die and suffer, implied Clinton didn't have a right to do anything but sit down and retire, etc. You have no right to whine about people not being nice.

It's especially funny because I would guess that Scarlet is the sort of person who assiduously (and, to be fair, correctly) makes the "punching up/punching down" distinction about everything except socioeconomic status.

Hating a group of people unironically is always unacceptable. Punching up doesn't change this. Snarky jokes about a hierarchically higher class are one thing, but unironic, undisguised, and fairly nasty prejudice against a group of people based on a set of demographic traits is quite another. The vitriol against "the rich" in the "opinion of billionaires" thread was disturbing for me. Before that thread, I would never have said that prejudice against rich people is a big deal (though I would have considered saying hp about them in a poll stupid), but seeing that triggered some horror at the level of dehumanization and hatred present. Not because of the targets, but regardless of them. I'm not exactly rich(middle class and fairly comfortable, but that range is all about talking about how terrible and greedy "the rich" are while ignoring their own miserliness), so an image macro of a cartoon character who's rich being a cartoon character who's rich designed for a cartoon mainly aimed at people who are not rich is not the smartest way to talk about this.

[LabourJersey]

Tbf from what I've seen she is way better than Seth Meyers.

It's really weird how political chat shows are in the US. I can't imagine Graham Norton opining about his thoughts on Tory policy or whatever.

I've noticed this odd difference too, and I think it's because Americans have only recently created a place in non-fringe media for political satire and comedy until the 90s and the Onion and Jon Stewart came around. and also how Americans view celebrity as important in politics

There's never been an American equivalent of the Fringe where writers can present a musical where
Tony Blair dances with George Bush and get national attention or something like that, and nothing like Spitting Image that just roasts politicians. Tbh a show with a puppet JFK or a puppet Nixon would have been cancelled in a flash.

So the only vessels for political satirists were toned-down mockery for mainstream TV  shows. Coupled with the post-JFK political obsession with TV, writers rooms wanted some material so they made the shows political.

[JGibson]

Massive FF. Full Frontal is a true treasure.