This Sunday at 10 p.m., Fox News Channel will debut The Half-Hour News Hour, a Daily Show-esque satire from 24’s executive producer Joel Surnow, whose recent profile in The New Yorker covered in depth Surnow’s conservative-leaning politics. So as you watch the following clip, keep in mind that Surnow has said The Half-Hour News Hour "would play more to the Fox News audience than the Michael Moore channel."
So, Popwatchers, what do you think?
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Dumb, but just what you’d expect from Fox News.
Oh my, is that awful. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt since it’s new, but still, it’s awful. It’s like a community theatre version of the Daily Show and the canned laughter just pushes it over the edge.
The only really funny joke was the very first one, and even that was kind of weak. The whole thing seemed like a second-rate knock-off of SNL’s “Weekend Update,” and that’s saying something. And what was with that “gassy” thing?
wow… this is terrible. I guess the daily show makes it look easy.
That’s just…..bad. Unspeakably bad. The laughing at the beginning sounded like 5 guys, one of whom was trying too hard to make us think it was funny. The rest was obviously the low-budget canned variety.
The anchors delivered their lines like they were the pretend news people in an infomercial. Plus the laugh track was right out of Scooby Doo.
Just goes to show that conservatives aren’t funny. They need canned laughter to pretend, and even then it just comes off as creepy. And by the way, there is a news parody show in Canada that has been on the air for over a decade called “This Hour has Twenty-two Minutes.” “The Half-Hour News Hour” sounds like a bit of a rip off.
I am all for Free Speech, so I guess the conservatives need a fun show like The Daily Show. However, canned laughter and host that act like they are making fun of themselves just don’t work.
If your most clever joke is an almost two-decade old reference to Marion Barry, you’re in trouble. How do I get a subscription to the Michael Moore channel?
Sad. Very sad. Good concept, it just wasn’t funny, and really, such a rip-off of other shows.
Jon Stewart is sleeping easy tonight
Man that was gay.
B.O? Are we in middle school?
I’m sure this show will be as “fair and balanced” as the rest Of Fox news. Do conservatives laugh?
Honestly…I’m a Democrar but that really just wasn’t done well. Canned laughter spells trouble to me.
Honestly…I’m a Democrar but that really just wasn’t done well. Canned laughter spells trouble to me.
A bit stiff and juvenile. Surely they could find writing more sophisticated than this.
Um all the references pointing out that his middle name is Hussein were kind of offensive (implying that it should bother people). Nice going Fox.
Oh, man. Even Colin Quinn thought that was bad.
Anyone willing to consider that this finally puts the debate of Fox News’ ‘fairness’ to rest? The Daily Show is on Comedy Central, not CNN. This show, even if it were good, shouldn’t be on a ‘fair’ network.
From the Reuters article: “Surnow said it’s not going to be strictly conservative but more in the spirit of the old and rebellious ‘Saturday Night Live.’”
How can you be rebellious when you’re working for/pandering to the man?
It makes sense Fox would want to create a show like that. Given the statistics about young adults getting most of their ‘news’ from the Daily Show, they need something to get themselves out there to the young conservative voters…all 5 of them. But I thought Fox News already had a comedic show…Bill O’Reilly anybody?
I’m an independant voter. I think we could use some Conservative-leaning humor… but this isn’t it. One or two minor laughs in that clip, but it was pretty weak. Obama drug references are months old, it’s hardly new– you think they could’ve found something more up-to-the-minute to mock. And the canned laughter was so canned-sounding, it was lame. Better luck next time.
It’s so clever it sailed right over the heads of the lefties. Can y’all say S A T I R E?
So their idea of a “topical” punchline for a cocaine joke is Marion Barry. What is this, 1991? They could’ve gone Tom Sizemore, Lindsay Lohan, even Tony “Scarface” Montana (an older reference than Barry, but still a better ending). Suddenly Aaron Sorkin’s “Studio 60″ bits are seeming a lot funnier.
I am conservative and it wasn’t funny. It was just bad.
Here’s the deal. The Daily Show skewers the current news. It’s not a left wing show. Trust me, when we have a Democrat president in ‘08 (just wait and see), Jon Stewart and company will be just as harsh (they just wont have nearly as much material to work with). Joel Surnow should film a torture scene with those two idiots.
I’m conservative too and that was painfully unfunny. That show does not represent us! To say that conservatives are across-the-board humorless is an ignorant generalization. I think Stewart and Colbert do a fine job satirizing the news and they take plenty of shots at both sides of the political aisle. And conservatives who just want to listen to unfunny shots at liberals already have Rush Limbaugh. This new show is unnecessary.
RE: Can y’all say S A T I R E?
Yeah, satire. Bloated, unfunny, painfully stale satire.
This ain’t Jonathan Swift.
there HAS to be funnier conservative writers