As most of you know, I am not one of the those “country-is-going-to-hell-in-a-hand-basket” kind of guys.  I’m not one for imminent doom and gloom of the Republic.  In fact, I think we were pretty much as screwed  then as we are now. . .which somehow brings me to my point:

What is it with “comedians” going into politics?

Has anyone else noticed the annoying rash of self-styled “funnymen” getting “serious” about “politics” lately? It seems that suddenly everyone who has sweated it out on stage at The Laugh Factory has suddenly gotten all intense about how I should live my life. 

Now, I don’t mind listening to some of our comedians espousing their little nuggets of social wisdom. George Carlin, for instance—one could always sense that no matter what he said he knew when he was full of shit—What scares me are that these other purveyors of ironic truth are earnestly serious and sincerely believe what they say. It’s like a bad Palmolive commercial:

Pretension? Your soaking in it!

And as it turns out these “comedians” aren’t that funny at all. Remember when Bill Mahr was cutting his chops on those crappy HBO specials years ago? He has always found his jokes funnier than his audience—and still can’t deliver a joke with a straight face.  What about some of the others in the comedic millieu? John Stewart? Hamming it high on the schmuck factor.  Al Franken? Please.

But funny of funnies! There is news that Mr. Franken is now on the political march, railroading voters in a cold Polish-rich environment in order to expand his pseudo-intellectual zeitgeist.

Which brings me to my second point: Is there not something inherently arrogant about people who make fun of others trying to tell us what to do? Half of the fun of comedy is being “in” on the joke, that thrilling tingle of superiority one gets when dissin’ the stupidity others.  But does the same logic hold true for political discourse? Who thought that smug irony in the public arena was a good idea for the country?

This man?