Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center wants you to believe, against all evidence, that "conservative comedy" is a thing that is happening. In a Dec. 12 post, Christian Toto admits there's no evidence of it but trires to make the case for it anyway because of the right-wing victimhood narrative, as evidenced by the headline "Conservative Comedy Is FIGHTING BACK Against the Censors at Big Tech":
Suggest women aren’t funny and you’ll be quickly attacked, if not outright canceled.
Podcast giant Adam Carolla found that out the hard way.
Say that conservatives lack a sense of humor, though, and there’s little to no outrage. After all, the comedian class is overwhelmingly left of center. There’s no current late night show that leans remotely to the right. And, as liberal critics giddily point out, Fox News’ attempt to create such a program died a quick, merciful death.
There’s another reason so few conservatives make us laugh. They face industry-wide condemnation for telling right-leaning jokes.
Just ask Michael Loftus, who shared a chilling story about his scotched plan for a fair and balanced talk show. Or check in with Steve McGrew, who lost a critical gig for supporting President Donald Trump.
It's telling that Toto includes no examples of their alleged comedy so we can judge how funny they are.
Toto claimed that "It’s why the best conservative comedy today is found at the digital margins"-- but then cited as an example Steven Crowder, who's best known for being a nasty homophobe.
Then it was time to play victim again:
Big Tech doesn’t want conservative comedy on its turf, either.
The social media giants already censor right-leaning views, a trend which went nuclear in the weeks leading up to the presidential election.
Now, they’re ramping up their efforts to make sure liberal targets aren’t exposed to satire.
It’s also constantly under assault by both Facebook and the mainstream media. The former routinely lashes out at the Bee’s Facebook page, threatening to throttle its reach, demonetize it or simply crush it.
Facebook once suggested Bee humor could “incite violence.” It’s not funny to The Babylon Bee, which receives a sizable portion of its web traffic from Facebook. The social media giant’s repeated attacks on the Bee represent an existential threat to its business model.
Sites like Snopes.com also fact-check The Bee’s parodies, a practice they rarely, if ever, deploy on fellow news parody site The Onion.
Toto omits the fact that fact-checkers look at the Babylon Bee because too many right-wing wenbsites present its satire as fact. Which tells us it may not be very good satire.
Two days later, Alec Schemmel fed into Toto's victimization narrative with a piece on another alleged conservative comedian:
In 2020, jokes aren’t even immune from Facebook censorship.
Anti-PC comedian JP Sears told his social media followers that Facebook is threatening to deplatform him. “Hey family, looks like my days here on Facebook are numbered,” Sears posted on Dec. 8. “Please join me on Parler (username @awakenwithjp) where I’ll continue to share uncensored.”
Sears is known for his counter-culture comedy, which takes jabs at subjects like political correctness, the liberal media and Big Tech. In a video posted on Facebook titled “How the Media Wants You To Think” Sears and others lit into the left’s pandemic narrative. They provided some hilarious pseudo-virtue signaling via a litany of anecdotes pretending to prove their courage in the face of COVID-19.
“Instead of working I'm brave enough to protect my family by letting them starve,” said one of the video’s actors in a very serious and melodramatic tone. “I'm brave enough to want to be tracked, so I can be safe,” said another.
We're not seeing the "hilarious" part here. But grievances, not hilarity, are what Sears and Schemmel are pushing:
Sears alerted his audience to be prepared for Facebook to drop the hammer on his account. He posted purported screenshots of Facebook’s notice to him stating that his “Page is at risk of being unpublished because of continued Community Standards violations.” In an episode of his "Awaken With JP" podcast, according to RedState, Sears said his channel has received this recent threat due to his unwillingness to stay within the boundaries of the mainstream narrative about COVID-19.
“I will not back down from Tyrrany[sic],” Sears said in his Facebook post. “I will without question risk losing what I have in the name of freedom.”
Maybe if all these "conservative comedians" worked harder at being funny instead of playing the victim, their careers might actually be going somewhere.
