Graham Lenihan "no good right wing comedians"

20Cent

Obvious Otter wrote: »

The left, although I hate using that word as it’s a massive generalisation, tend to believe in government intervention to force their view points onto others under the guise of ‘progressive liberalism’.

But it's right wingers who usually want some of the most regressive anti freedom policies like banning same sex marriage, against legalizing weed, anti abortion, long prison sentences for drugs etc

server down

Prune Tracy wrote: »

That's what the comedian said, according to that poster.

That's more the left surely?

Historically no it hasn’t been the left. I mean unless you think the Catholic Church and it’s political influence is left wing.

20Cent

Doug Stanhope says he's a libertarian. Was listening to one of his shows though and he was saying government should do more for health. Think most people have a mixture of left and right wing views.

Rumple Stillson

You can see by the back and forth of this thread, that defining most people as left or right is impossible. The outer reaches of both ends of the spectrum are populated by absolute ****, I think most can agree on that.

JoeBloggs1986

This whole left/right argument in general is a load of bollocks can't people have opinions based on what they think rather than having to subscribe to certain ideology.

Some of my views are supposedly right wing some are supposedly left wing.

I was 100% of legalizing gay marriage here and voted in favour of it but I absolutely despise those virtue signallers who are desperate for a high profile gay sportsperson to come out and are coercing payers into wearing rainbow laces.

server down

Rumple Stillson wrote: »

You can see by the back and forth of this thread, that defining most people as left or right is impossible. The outer reaches of both ends of the spectrum are populated by absolute ****, I think most can agree on that.

It’s even impossible to define the outer reaches of either side. After all the libertarians are the outer reaches of the right. Or are they? Is it not Opus Dei? Or the alt right?

Hence the confusion amongst some commentators here on who the right is.

Prune Tracy

server down wrote: »

Historically no it hasn’t been the left. I mean unless you think the Catholic Church and it’s political influence is left wing.

But in general, right-wing - anti big government; left-wing - nationalise.

gormdubhgorm

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Graham Lenihan seems so bitter these days.

With all that money just resting in his account

server down

Prune Tracy wrote: »

But in general, right-wing - anti big government; left-wing - nationalise.

You’ve moved the goal posts. We were talking about social libertarianism. Now it’s economic nationalisation. Historically the groups in favour of economic nationalisation were liberal on social issues and vice versa.

In 1987 at the height of her powers, and after dismantling the post war social democratic conventions Thatcher made time for a speech at her party convention. These are big conventions and this was in the headline speech.

It was a speech opposed to homosexuality and the teaching of homosexuality as the norm in schools (by left wing councils). Next year her government passed clause 28 which banned that literature for a generation.

Charmeleon

It’s been fairly well demonstrated that conservatives can stand back and look at liberal ideas and proposals, weigh them up and often see merit or at least good intentions. Liberals on the other hand, on average, are unable to see an opposing viewpoint as anything but evil and mean spirited. Hence liberal comedians and audiences can laugh and mock with zero conscience.

We need both liberal and conservatives. Without liberals the state would have little momentum for change and adaptation. Without conservatives we would swing from one well intentioned but poorly thought out feel-good idea to the next.

gormdubhgorm

The right wing comedians seem to be in hiding in these days of political correctness.

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/where-are-all-right-wing-stand-ups


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291952/We-struggle-right-wing-comedians-admits-BBC-chief.html

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Slutmonkey57b

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

As we've descended into the left v right crap, I think I'll unsubscribe from the thread. Shame, it was an interesting topic.

Left vs. Right is literally in the thread title, so either you're very very slow on the uptake, or you think this dramatic flounce is more convincing than the person who thinks people believe they don't know who Graham linehan is...

Muahahaha

biko wrote: »

I did not know Graham Lenihan existed before this thread.
I will go back to not caring about him after I browse away.

Pretty astonishing that you dont know who one of one of the best comedy writers in the UK and Ireland is.

That said I didnt know that Boards has a forum for diggers and plant machinery until I saw you mod it.

Prune Tracy

Muahahaha wrote: »

Pretty astonishing that you dont know who one of one of the best comedy writers in the UK and Ireland is.

They do of course know who he is.

A Little Pony

The US is full of left wing so called comedians, I tend to call them leftist propagandists like Stephen Colbert, every thumb nail on his youtube channel has Trump this, Trump that, seriously. Get new material you big bore, I don't know how people in America put up with the same mundane tripe he puts out.

server down

It’s fairly common for people to click on threads or articles about fairly famous people and comment that they don’t know who that is.

“Who’s Messi?”

You never get that on anybody really obscure.

(That said Graham isn’t messi level famous)

Samaris

SeanW wrote: »

You've never seen Seth Meyers. (US "Comedian") his show is basically left-wing propganda (constant G.O.P bashing) masquerading as comedy.

I have. Oh, he'd deeply upset those who disagree, as he's urbane and sardonic, but the current GOP is an absolute joke that richly deserves the piss being ripped out of it. Given they are also in power and give too much material to even be able to cover it all, it is hardly surprising that they are top subject on a political comedy show.

Can you guve examples of unfair GOP bashing or is it more that he does it at all?

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

ligerdub

There's more to Linehans post than suggested by the title here. He suggested that not only are there no good right wing comedians, he said they have no imagination and that there are no good writers either!

I've a few problems with this. The first is pretty much the vagueness in which he can make this statement. If somebody can come back to him with some examples where he's wrong he can just say "well I think we all know I meant more along the lines of [insert name]". It's disingenuous twaddle.

What he really wants is people to think purely of comedy and by that to think of Davidson and Manning and the typical 1970's and 1980's British stand-up.

The "writers" comment is obvious nonsense. The comedians thing is lower down the nonsense scale, but nonsense none the less. It's the absolute "none" which kills his point.

Modern comedy is almost entirely unwatchable now. For starters it seems less on merit than in the past, particularly on UK tv. It's almost entirely left leaning now too.

If you want to see a lack of imagination, look no further than the poster boy of comedy in the UK in 2017, Mr Russell Howard. His show has been marketed as the antidote to the mad world we (to him at least) live in....Trump, Brexit....grrr the madness right guys? Every joke is the standard "isn't Trump a c***? Isn't Brexit stupid? Boris Johnson, what an embarrassment." There'll be the standard joke about Ryanair for good measure too. Every joke can be seen from a mile away.

I had the misfortune to catch some of his schtick and it's just painful. Every section has a political slant, mostly unchallenged garbage, and then he mixes this in with an interview (where he suddenly loses his London accent and) with some lefty type opposite him in the most unchallenged line of questioning ever.

He's one example, but it's an example that's cloned everywhere. Watch any comedy panel show and it's the same thing. It's like the late night talk shows in the US. Trevor Noah, Colbert, Corden, Myers, Fallon, Kimmel......not only do they all share the same views, they all say pretty much the same jokes! Ireland is no different, anywhere there is some sort of opening monologue it will include the above mentioned dull joke.

The argument about the validity of their political views is neither here nor there, the lack of imagination is off the scale! It's as if we are meant to forget we've been hearing this material ad nauseum for well over a year now.

Maybe Linehan should watch/read some of the content of Gavin McInnes, Tucker Carlson, Mark Steyn. All of these guys are formidable people with conservative views. They also include a lot of humour in their work. Norm Macdonald is one of the funniest comedians in the world, he generally leaves his political views out of his material. Where he does include politics he uses it in more of a slapstick fashion. When you hear his personal views on many things though you can see how conservative he is. This is a common theme with conservatives in the arts. When it comes to sharing political views, a left leaning individual can do as much as they want with almost zero downside for their career, quite the opposite in fact. It's one of the main reasons why you see a lot of stand-ups include political material in their act these days. The exact opposite is true when it comes to conservatives. It's be apolitical onstage or you'll be in the gulag.

Actually if there's one thing to me which separates the conservatives from the lefties is that I see a lot more humour from conservatives. The left has become hellbent on cynicism, witchhunts and hysteria over non-issues. That said, I wouldn't accuse somebody as being unimaginative purely on the basis of their political views.

As for Linehan, if you're a fan of his work and want to preserve a favourable view of him, you'd be doing well to give his social media presence a total swerve. He's petty, childish, anti-debate and there's a strong hint of a bully about him. It's a real shame. There's a good example of this in one of his responses to a tweet early on after the tweet linked in the original post to this thread.

Samaris

Times change and so do opinions. There has been a massive swing towards not mistreating and side-lining homosexual people (and even recognising that lesbians are real and not a conspiracy theory!)in the last ten to fifteen years. The "marriage means X" argument is one I'm dubious on, but I could accept people being unable to seperate it from the Christian view of it, even though I disagree with them.

I have little problem with people, including people in power, changing their minds over a long period of time. I consider it a very different thing to running on a platform of X and then doing Y without even the attempt of X (compromise and something no-one loves but everyone can live with is also fair enough.)

A Little Pony

ligerdub wrote: »

There's more to Linehans post than suggested by the title here. He suggested that not only are there no good right wing comedians, he said they have no imagination and that there are no good writers either!

I've a few problems with this. The first is pretty much the vagueness in which he can make this statement. If somebody can come back to him with some examples where he's wrong he can just say "well I think we all know I meant more along the lines of [insert name]". It's disingenuous twaddle.

What he really wants is people to think purely of comedy and by that to think of Davidson and Manning and the typical 1970's and 1980's British stand-up.

The "writers" comment is obvious nonsense. The comedians thing is lower down the nonsense scale, but nonsense none the less. It's the absolute "none" which kills his point.

Modern comedy is almost entirely unwatchable now. For starters it seems less on merit than in the past, particularly on UK tv. It's almost entirely left leaning now too.

If you want to see a lack of imagination, look no further than the poster boy of comedy in the UK in 2017, Mr Russell Howard. His show has been marketed as the antitote to the mad world we (to him at least) live in....Trump, Brexit....grrr the madness right guys? Every joke is the standard "isn't Trump a c***? Isn't Brexit stupid? Boris Johnson, what an embarrassment." There'll be the standard joke about Ryanair for good measure too. Every joke can be seen from a mile away.

I had the misfortune to catch some of his schtick and it's just painful. Every section has a political slant, mostly unchallenged garbage, and then he mixes this in with an interview (where he suddenly loses his London accent and) with some lefty type opposite him in the most unchallenged line of questioning ever.

He's one example, but it's an example that's cloned everywhere. Watch any comedy panel show and it's the same thing. It's like the late night talk shows in the US. Trevor Noah, Colbert, Corden, Myers, Fallon, Kimmel......not only do they all share the same views, they all say pretty much the same jokes! Ireland is no different, anywhere there is some sort of opening monologue it will include the above mentioned dull joke.

The argument about the validity of their political views is neither here nor there, the lack of imagination is off the scale! It's as if we are meant to forget we've been hearing this material ad nauseum for well over a year now.

Maybe Linehan should watch/read some of the content of Gavin McInnes, Tucker Carlson, Mark Steyn. All of these guys are formidable people with conservative views. They also include a lot of humour in their work. Norm Macdonald is one of the funniest comedians in the world, he generally leaves his political views out of his material. Where he does include politics he uses it in more of a slapstick fashion. When you hear his personal views on many things though you can see how conservative he is. This is a common theme with conservatives in the arts. When it comes to sharing political views, a left leaning individual can do as much as they want with almost zero downside for their career, quite the opposite in fact. It's one of the main reasons why you see a lot of stand-ups include political material in their act these days. The exact opposite is true when it comes to conservatives. It's be apolitical onstage or you'll be in the gulag.

Actually if there's one thing to me which separates the conservatives from the lefties is that I see a lot more humour from conservatives. The left has become hellbent on cynicism, witchhunts and hysteria over non-issues. That said, I wouldn't accuse somebody as being unimaginative purely on the basis of their political views.

As for Linehan, if you're a fan of his work and want to preserve a favourable view of him, you'd be doing well to give his social media presence a total swerve. He's petty, childish, anti-debate and there's a strong hint of a bully about him. It's a real shame. There's a good example of this in one of his responses to a tweet early on after the tweet linked in the original post to this thread.

Fantastic post. Sick of seeing it on British TV. It's about time it was challenged and opposite opinion to leftist views exist on TV.

Skylinehead

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

Mod: Get back on topic, not the bloody Clintons for the billionth time. That goes for everyone.

Samaris

A Little Pony wrote: »

Fantastic post. Sick of seeing it on British TV. It's about time it was challenged and opposite opinion to leftist views exist on TV.

That's one issue, right there. It's not that you want to see conservative opinions, just "the opposite to leftist". Left = bad. Right may not have to equal correct or original, just...the opposite of left. Where does that take anyone, apart from the trenches of wingnut opinion?

I doubt your view is overwhelming; there are certainly healthier outlooks on it, but the push for "anything, as long as the liberals are annoyed" just ain't healthy, imo.

Btw, I may not agree with everything the poster you responded to said, but it was well-considered and detailed.

Sirsok

I miss the Ireland where right and left used to mean directions

Ralf and Florian

Kenny Everett made no secret of his support for Thatcher and he was in my opinion anyway, very funny. He didn't fit the stereotype of a right winger tbh being openly gay and having a very irreverent sense of humour.

timthumbni

A Little Pony wrote: »

Fantastic post. Sick of seeing it on British TV. It's about time it was challenged and opposite opinion to leftist views exist on TV.

Re British tv good luck with that whilst the Brixton Broadcasting Corporation is extorting money from us. A dose of reality would do those pampered scroungers the world of good.

Atoms for Peace

Lenihan is longer funny and wasn't been for a while, he's at that stage where satire is replaced by genuine resentment. It seems to be a condition that's common among Irish entertainers in the UK media.

Obvious Otter

server down wrote: »

I said that 4th wave feminism (amongst other left wing groups) was pro legalisation. I also said that the right (not libertarians ) was traditionally not socially liberal.

Libertarians don’t matter in Ireland or Europe. Outside of a few weird internet posters there aren’t any. No party, no tendency within a party, no tendency within a subgroup within a party. No libertarian party would ever be formed, if one was ever formed it would lose its deposit in every constituency if it could get enough candidates from their basements to contest. Any Ard Fheis could be held in a snug.

Of course it would. Any libertarian party would be shut down with short sightedness and emotive reactive politics and media very quickly. Not enough people would vote for a party that would essentially tear up the government and regulation in a climate where Ireland would not be able to go alone in such a drastic shift. It doesn’t mean that they are wrong though. At least in Ireland’s case the governments light touch regulation in the financial sector and over regulation of the housing and rental sector have destroyed the ability of the private sector to provide enough competitive affordable housing for the private sector. People are always worried about cartels in such scenarios but the current level of regulation does nothing stop it anyway.

The Irish electorate are hardly an intelligent bunch either by continuing to vote for the same terrible parties with terrible policies.

20Cent

ligerdub wrote: »

Maybe Linehan should watch/read some of the content of Gavin McInnes, Tucker Carlson, Mark Steyn. All of these guys are formidable people with conservative views. They also include a lot of humour in their work.

Could you post up some videos of those lads being funny then?
Need a laugh.