Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

It Ain't Funny, Hillary
Townhall.com ^ | October 9, 2015 | Suzanne Fields

Posted on 10/09/2015 11:33:46 AM PDT by Kaslin

While the Donald tries to overcome his reputation as an over-the-top television entertainer so he might support his ambition to become president, Hillary Clinton is running for comedienne-in-chief. She went on "Saturday Night Live" to trade her high seriousness for laughs. Neither candidate will seal the deal the way they're trying to do it.

The Donald, who's used to dishing it out, exposes a thin skin when mocked by other candidates, and his shifting numbers suggest that the jump from reality TV to the White House, even in the age of the outsider, is not an easy one. "The Trump Show" continues with jokes. He sent Marco Rubio a case of bottled water and a few hand towels "for (his) sweating" -- heavy-handed snark more than high hilarity.

In a sit-down interview with Lena Dunham, the writer-actress for the popular HBO sitcom "Girls," the former first lady, former senator and former secretary of state revealed a certain desperation as she talked in a framework more suited to adolescent girls in gossipy chatter than to a candidate for presidency. Lena Dunham talked about Lenny Kravitz's wardrobe malfunction, when the singer's leather trousers split in front, exposing the "junk" of the male anatomy. She asked Hillary if she had seen it. Hillary said no, but she'd look for it on YouTube. Giggle, giggle. Girls will be girls. Surely there's a better way to win the vote of the millennials, but, after all, Bubba once took a question about whether he wears boxers or briefs (when he wears anything at all).

Hillary then moved away from raunchiness to scripted satire on the season's premier of "Saturday Night Live." Hillary was a kibitzing bartender named Val, talking to SNL star Kate McKinnon, who reprised her impersonation of Hillary.

But the scenario was less satirical than self-serving, with both Hillary characters oozing banter about how great Hillary was/is. As Val, she's described as "smart," and "really nice in person." When asked to describe herself, the humble, modest bartender says, "I'm just an ordinary citizen who believes the Keystone Pipeline will destroy our environment." The Hillary character concedes that she was a little late opposing the pipeline, but Hillary the bartender runs to her defense. "There's nothing wrong with taking your time. What's important is getting it right." A Bubba character runs away in horror at the sight of two Hillarys. (The rest of us can easily understand.)

Comedy, particularly satire, requires a light touch, and no one accuses Hillary of a light touch. "Saturday Night Live," alas, no longer crackles with the biting irreverence of its golden days, with Jane ("you ignorant slut!") Curtin; or Gilda Radner's skit about Princess Lee Radziwill, Jackie Kennedy's younger sister, returning from the ladies room in an elegant restaurant with a stream of toilet paper trailing from the bottom of her shoe.

Hillary is working hard to make good on her campaign's current aim to make her cool, but pretending to be cool is something like pretending to be sincere. It won't be easy to make her trustworthy just to spike her poll numbers, which have sharply declined in the wake of her continuing email scandal. She should stick to her day job as running for president instead of trying to make it as the star of comic opera. No one expects a comedienne at the first Democratic debate next week.

Hillary is learning what conservatives before her have learned -- that it's hard to be funny when you're supposed to be serious. Liberals are fat targets for humor, particularly satire, but there are few conservative comedians to take aim at them. Dennis Miller, an alumnus of "Saturday Night Live," is an exception. But from his weekly slot in "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News, he has become more pundit than funny man, his humor more predictable than off-the-wall.

Alison Dagnes, a professor of political science at Shippensburg University and author of "A Conservative Walks Into a Bar," suggests that "conservatism supports institutions and satire aims to knock these institutions down a peg." Hillary and Bill have become self-aggrandizing political institutions, making themselves inviting targets for satirical barbs, right and left.

Conservatives have many witty social critics. P.J. O'Rourke takes no prisoners in the Weekly Standard; neither does Wes Pruden, who early on dubbed the Clintons "Bonnie and Clod" in The Washington Times. But the printed page requires a lighter touch than a television screen, where political humor usually lands with a thud and no bounce.

More than a hundred years ago Mark Twain understood the peculiar potential for comedy in politics. "The political and commercial morals of the United States," he wrote, "are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet." It's enough to give all of us acute indigestion.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: Arkansas; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 2016election; arkansas; clinton; election2016; hillary; hillaryclinton; hitlery; newyork; newyorkcity; saturdaynightlive; saturdaynightvile; snl; suzannefields; townhall; trump; wipewater

1 posted on 10/09/2015 11:33:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

What A Lousy Politician:

After all these years as a high profile public figure constantly in the limelight Hillary still hasn’t learned how to fake sincerity and authenticity,

How does she ever expect to have any success as a politician if she can’t even get the basics right?


2 posted on 10/09/2015 11:39:55 AM PDT by Iron Munro (The wise have stores of choice food and oil but a foolish man devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Iron Munro

She shares a programmed mind set with her generation of Women, ex or current Womens Libbers or the like and Hillary represents their layer in society. If she goes down, then all that they have based their lives in goes away too, so they cling desperately to the fantasy of a woman denied her crown by the men around her

Yep Guys, it is all our fault, no the Devil did not make them do it, We did!


3 posted on 10/09/2015 11:48:50 AM PDT by 100American (Knowledge is knowing how, Wisdom is knowing when)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
We're not laughing with you, we're laughing AT you...


4 posted on 10/09/2015 11:51:01 AM PDT by Bon mots
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
I left out two of my personal favorites...


5 posted on 10/09/2015 11:54:11 AM PDT by Bon mots
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
...the former first lady, former senator and former secretary of state revealed a certain desperation as she talked in a framework more suited to adolescent girls in gossipy chatter than to a candidate for presidency.

Hillary knows her fan base - females forever adolescent. Physical age is irrelevant. With antidepressants and 24/7 media programming and thousands of local, handler-controlled "girls groups" and millions of gallons of white wine and endless Facebook monitoring, liberal females are forever 14 years old and nasty as their obsessively imitated leader.

Hillary has done more harm, to more women, than Satan. She's turned them all into conscienceless sociopaths, into modern-day sadistic orcs.

6 posted on 10/09/2015 11:58:12 AM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 100American

It is difficult for Herself, Madame Benghazi, the Cold & Joyless, to be EITHER serious or funny. It is not nice to laugh at sick old ladies with obvious mental derangement, and it is even harder to take that poor old crone seriously.

I don’t know. Should we be solicitous of obviously needy old ladies out begging on the streets, or should we just avert our eyes and walk on by?


7 posted on 10/09/2015 12:04:14 PM PDT by alloysteel (Do not argue with trolls. That means they win.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Talisker

I’m going to make a prediction. when her numbers drop even more..she will come out as a lesbian..I bet it saves her candidacy


8 posted on 10/09/2015 12:05:44 PM PDT by ground_fog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Talisker

All of us have been turned into sociopaths? And it is all Hillary Clinton’s fault? Really?


9 posted on 10/09/2015 12:10:12 PM PDT by erkelly
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Iron Munro

Hillary trying to be funny is like Miley Cyrus trying to be sexy.


10 posted on 10/09/2015 12:13:24 PM PDT by frithguild (The warmth and goodness of Gaia is a nuclear reactor in the Earth's core that burns Thorium)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Iron Munro

You oughta hear her try to fake a Kentuckian accent. Pathetic.


11 posted on 10/09/2015 12:20:10 PM PDT by WKUHilltopper (And yet...we continue to tolerate this crap...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: erkelly
All of us have been turned into sociopaths? And it is all Hillary Clinton’s fault? Really?

Do you support Hillary? Would you vote for her? Then yes, you're a sociopath.

Look up the word "context."

12 posted on 10/09/2015 12:56:00 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

13 posted on 10/09/2015 1:22:19 PM PDT by Slyfox (Will no one rid us of this meddlesome president?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

the former first lady, former senator and former secretary of state

I suspect it won’t be long before she declares herself

a former woman.


14 posted on 10/09/2015 1:25:33 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WKUHilltopper
You oughta hear her try to fake a Kentuckian accent. Pathetic.

She didn't do so well back in March of 2007 as a poor black southern cotton picker either.

VIDEO HERE:

"Hillary Clinton Mimics and Insults Black Church Goers"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQYdg3LYqJE


15 posted on 10/09/2015 4:40:09 PM PDT by Iron Munro (The wise have stores of choice food and oil but a foolish man devours all he has. Proverbs 21:20)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Talisker

Excellent post!


16 posted on 10/09/2015 9:03:33 PM PDT by homegroan (It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson