Topic: Media Research Center
Christian Toto started his Sept. 30 Media Rsearch Center column by complaining that comedians don't make nasty jokes about President Biden nearly enough for his biased taste:
Mainstream comics leave countless jokes on the table.
Just consider the Biden administration, for starters. The material practically writes itself, from the president’s near-daily short circuits to VP Kamala Harris’ word salad speeches.
Ideology keeps getting in the way.
The same holds for the woke mindset. Comedians ignore how the Left labels every third word as racist, problematic or downright offensive.
Think “peanut gallery,” “hooligan,” “American,” “immigrant,” “grandfather” and “submit.” So many hate crimes in just one paragraph, no?
Toto, of course, is demanding that comedians inject right-wing ideology into their acts. He then praised comedian Bill Burr for how he allegedly "skewered woke platitudes with wit and wisdom," though the example he provided showed none of this; it simply mocked the #MeToo movement. This led to Toto praising Burr's new film, "Old Dads":
The Oct 20 release, starring, directed and co-written by Burr, follows three men who embraced fatherhood later in life. They run headfirst into a Gen Z culture they neither understand or appreciate.
The film co-stars two underrated stars, Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine as Burr’s fellow “Dads.”
The trailer leans hard into the generational divide between the titular fathers and their peers. When a younger dad tells Burr’s character, Jack, to treat his child’s injury with Neosporin, not dirt, the older Dad snaps.
“Why don’t you go on Twitter and share this story where you’re the hero,” Burr says. He’s wrong … and he still has a point about virtue signaling.
Again, Toto highlighted a so-called joke that isn't terribly funny. Indeed, reviews indicate that this is the problem with the entire film; one reviewer stated that "Old Dads" is "a meandering, unfunny assault on PC culture that would seem perfectly in place in the 1990s alongside 'Illiberal Education' by Dinesh D’Souza and the rantings of Pat Buchanan. It’s so dated there’s even a mention of Halliburton." Another reviewer noted about the character Burr's character plays:
Yet there’s a monkey wrench sitting in the middle of the movie. And that’s Jack’s rageaholic personality. Forget the over-controlled, virtue-signaling era. Jack’s anger really is over-the-top and inappropriate, and would be during any era. So even if you welcome a satire of the new corporate-approved hypersensitivity, since Jack’s rage is a more glaring problem than any of that it undercuts the film’s satirical bite. I realize that rage has long been Bill Burr’s calling card, but if he had made Jack a more restrained character, quietly infuriated by everything around him, “Old Dads” would have been funnier and scored more points.
Yet Toto wants you to believe that Burr's hate is a feature, not a bug, and the movie is better than it appears to be:
Just don’t expect “Old Dads” to skewer the woke characters alone, or for Jack to cling to all of his old ways. Burr is too smart a storyteller to turn his film into a sermon preaching to the anti-woke choir.
The fact that he’s mocking the cultural movement in the first place is consequential and overdue.
Looks like Toto is the one for whom ideology keeps getting in the way.
