Conservative Comedian Michael Loftus Goes Gunning for Big Government

FrontPage Magazine ^ | 10/3/14 | Mark Tapson

[RatherBiased.com]

Mixing news with a dose of comic commentary has paid off for The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart. A Brookings Institute survey recently noted that he is a news source more trusted by liberals and independents than MSNBC is. “The real power to influence the left resides on Comedy Central not MSNBC,” says Politics USA. But if you’re searching your television lineup for a conservative antidote to Stewart, the field is rather limited. There is late night Red Eye’s Greg Gutfeld, there is… actually, there’s just Gutfeld. Or there was until this month, when The Flipside with Michael Loftus debuted on television stations across the country.

A writer/​producer on the successful sitcom Anger Management, comedian Michael Loftus was also a co-​producer and executive story editor on the underappreciated NBC comedy Outsourced and a writer on The George Lopez Show. He has also been a regular on TruTV’s The Smoking Gun Presents…, and he created and starred in History Channel’s half-hour comedyAmerican Wiseass, in which he presented a comic take on episodes from American history to a live studio audience. He also has his own comedy album and a one-hour Comedy Central special You’ve Changed.

Featuring some standup by Loftus, satirical segments, and interviews with lively, interesting personalities such as talk show host Larry Elder, openly conservative actress Janine Turner, and Michael Ramirez, Investor’s Business Daily political cartoonist (Loftus’ dream interview subjects include Al Franken, Nancy Pelosi and the Clintons), The Flipside with Michael Loftus takes a right-leaning perspective on the news, commentary, and pop culture. Loftus hopes to turn the weekly half-hour (there are four episodes so far) into a nightly political satire event along the lines of Stewart’s massively successful The Daily Show.