For a long time, Left-leaning satirists and comedians have owned funny. Credit it to nepotism or closed doors, but the best humor you could hope for Right-of-center was the occasional libertarian toker or cartoonish redneck self-parody. Blogger Jonathan Chait congratulated the Left for their mastery of satire in a post for The New Republic only a few months ago.
The Left cheered for new media and the end of gatekeepers, but it was their own women (and men) were stationed at the gates.
The old Right always seemed to be made up of cranky, carb-faced old men. The new Right is fast, young and far handier with Photoshop.
After an Ohio University student group called Students Teaching Against Racism in Society was cheered on by the media for creating fussy, humorless thought policing posters for its pet minority groups, Youth for Western Civilization fired back with some “gotcha” tit for tat that were right on the money.
The cultures that the anti-racists chose to solemnly protect (suicide bomber culture?) were so selective that it was downright racist. The Right was right.
Either it’s OK to make fun of someone else’s culture or it’s not.
Passionate advocate for hillbilly rights Jim Goad spoke truth to power with his own poster.
My pal Kevin I. Slaughter fired up his cosmic joy buzzer and came up with this zinger for the Church of Satan.
Now it seems like everyone is having a laugh at the expense of the uptight Left.
A Facebook page for the comedy just started up, and there are already Klingons, self-rightous dinosaurs, and offended Klansmen.
And the Internet wouldn’t be the Internet without some unamused cat posters and cute dog posters.
There have also been a ton of great parodies of the “we are the 99%” meme, associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement. My favorite is the cookie monster.
Right now, the Right spends a lot of time doing self-analysis. I guess that’s what you do when you’re on the outside, trying to find your footing. What the Right needs now is more funny. The Left is becoming increasingly hysterical and absurd. Its narratives are as tired and irrelevant as those of any tone deaf, tuned out old coot who holds out hope for a return to Mayberry.
The Left deserves to get trolled, and trolled hard.
Not to fix it, but to help it fall apart.
