Right-wing comedians around the world?

[tribalfusion]

Since I started a thread on left-wing/socialist leaning comedians I thought I'd look into the right-wing side of comedy as well. It's often claimed that there's little right-wing comedy out there which is of course false.

Unsurprisingly, the US has many right leaning comedians but so increasingly do other countries around the world. I'll focus on GB and the US but I hope people will chime in with more examples from elsewhere.

UK:

Roy Chubby Brown
Dominic Frisby
Jim Davidson
Pat Condell
Lee Hurst
Geoff Norcott
Simon Evans
Leo Kearse
Andrew Lawrence
John Sessions
Bernard Manning
Henning Wehn
Liam Mullone


US:

Nick Di Paolo
Adam Corolla
Drew Carey
Jeremy McClellan
Dennis Miller
Norm MacDonald
Jeff Foxworthy
Larry the Cable Guy
Chad Prather
Tim Allen
Victoria Jackson


Honorable mentions for Australians Shayne Hunter and Steve Hughes who started off their careers more from an anarchist political area and ended up in right-wing libertarian territory whereas American Doug Stanhope, a libertarian darling in his early years has moved a bit in the opposite direction.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Henning Wehn

I haven't seen him in a few years now but the last time I did I wouldn't have said he was right wing, is this a new direction he's taken of late then?

[Sebastian Cobb]

Stewart Lee has claimed Wehn is right wing before during him being a guest on his Alternative Comedy Experience. I think he just means libertarian/individualistic. I don't think he 'punches down', although he does mock Britishness I guess from the position of a German outsider.

Although I don't know if some of the old guard mentioned in this list are actually right wing either. Some almost certainly are, but I think others might just make nasty punching-down jokes, their work isn't politicised in a meaningful way. Unlike some newer grifters like Toby Young or Andrew Doyle who still want to make nasty punching down jokes, but do it from a politicised free speech angle.

[tribalfusion]

I haven't seen him in a few years now but the last time I did I wouldn't have said he was right wing, is this a new direction he's taken of late then?

Well, Henning tends to fall into the libertarian area...

[Pink Gregory]

In all fairness, if he's centre right in terms of German politics (whether the country he grew up in has much bearing on his politics would warrant further investigation), that's a fair world away from being centre right in Britain.

[MortSahlFan]

In the US, Sam Hyde, but I got sick of him pretty quickly. If I remember correctly, he did have an interesting "Ted Talks".

[thenoise]

Who's that antisemitic French comedian that was all the rage 6 or 7 years ago? Dieudonne?

[Virgo76]

Is John Sessions right wing?
The British Comedy Guide forum is full of right wing wannabe comics.

[tribalfusion]

Who's that antisemitic French comedian that was all the rage 6 or 7 years ago? Dieudonne?

Yep. He's a very trollish right-winger.

[tribalfusion]

Is John Sessions right wing? The British Comedy Guide forum is full of right wing wannabe comics.

Sessions in 2014. "I get so bored with people going, 'UKIP are a bunch of racists.' They're nothing of the kind. Nigel Farage talks more sense than the rest of the politicians put together. The United States of Europe is madness."

[KennyMonster]

Richard Herring

Armando Iannucci

[tribalfusion]

Richard Herring

Armando Iannucci

Wrong thread.

[KennyMonster]

Wrong thread.

I think they'll feel more at home here

[tribalfusion]

I think they'll feel more at home here

They are not right-wingers and this thread is about right-wing comedians.

[Utter Shit]

I saw Henning Wehn live a couple of years ago, and I wouldn't really call him right-wing, he's just happy to make fun of the madder elements of the left the same as he is with the right.

[tribalfusion]

I saw Henning Wehn live a couple of years ago, and I wouldn't really call him right-wing, he's just happy to make fun of the madder elements of the left the same as he is with the right.

For what it's worth, here's an interview of Wehn by conservative comedian Geoff Norcott where I think you can get some idea of his views around 43 minutes in for example. I think it's fair to say he is a right of center comic:

https://whatmostpeoplethink.libsyn.com/ep-14-feat-henning-wehn-anglo-german-relations

[thenoise]

Suspicions about Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. Happy to be proved wrong!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I saw Henning Wehn live a couple of years ago, and I wouldn't really call him right-wing, he's just happy to make fun of the madder elements of the left the same as he is with the right.

Finally someone with the minerals to attack the left!

[sevendaughters]

Suspicions about Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. Happy to be proved wrong!

Always assumed that Whitehouse would be a lefty son of a trade unionist type but can't find anything to corroborate.

Enfield not really right or left, though maybe right-leaning in a gale, according to this:

Enfield's diffidence can be surprising. As a young man, studying politics at York university, people thought he was an arrogant git, "because I always wore a suit and never smiled". And he was, he says. He'd come from a fairly posh background – his family was sufficiently lofty for Virginia Woolf to refer dismissively to his grandparents in her memoirs ("I would rather be dead in a field than have tea with the Enfields"). His grandmother was a leading communist, his father, Edward, a Labour voter and assistant director of education for West Sussex (before piggybacking on his son's success to become a well known broadcaster in his own right) while Enfield has always been a bit of a political maverick – liberal with a smattering of Catholic conservatism (though he's pretty much had it with God), and libertarianism (he loves a good hunt)

.

[SpiderChrist]

I'm really glad that this thread (and the other one about the left) exists, as it helps me to put people in boxes. I'm noting all this down so I can point out a comedian's alleged political leanings to my friends and family whenever they may come up in discussion.

I mean, I know all human endeavour is ultimately pointless, and that, but fuck me.

[Retinend]

It gets me wondering, why are so few comics right wing? Is it an historically contingent state of affairs, or is it an essential consequence of the types of personality that are involved with the left wing? I noticed in the political compass thread that almost everyone is decidedly left wing here. There must be some connection. I think it takes a sceptical left wing mind to laugh at things irreverently. The translation of "irreverent" in German is "respect-less" (respektlos).

_{Enfield's diffidence can be surprising. As a young man, studying politics at York university, people thought he was an arrogant git, "because I always wore a suit and never smiled". And he was, he says. He'd come from a fairly posh background %u2013 his family was sufficiently lofty for Virginia Woolf to refer dismissively to his grandparents in her memoirs ("I would rather be dead in a field than have tea with the Enfields"). His grandmother was a leading communist, his father, Edward, a Labour voter and assistant director of education for West Sussex (before piggybacking on his son's success to become a well known broadcaster in his own right) while Enfield has always been a bit of a political maverick %u2013 liberal with a smattering of Catholic conservatism (though he's pretty much had it with God), and libertarianism (he loves a good hunt)}

Interesting to learn that about Enfield. Like Cook, he has (as he had) a great talent for accurately lampooning the lowest as well as the highest in society[nb]this is not to say that he missed the middle[/nb]. I guess that goes for all satirists, really.

Speaking of which, Will Franken is one for the list. He is right wing in a quasi-religious-revivalist way: he made a highly detailed documentary on interpreting William Blake and he's currently working on an audiobook of Paradise Lost.  He has a delightfully penetrating mind, yet he is simultaneously political to the point of conspiratorial. He will never say a bad word against Trump, and is incensed about the notion of "white privilege" (see the link "A Clockwork White" in the thread and judge him after you watch it).

[evilcommiedictator]

Missing Kelsey Grammar there, GW Bush loving Libertarian who was a massive coke and alcohol addict after his sister was abducted and murdered.
We sadly missed his Right to Laugh show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqK-hG8Qhh4" which was a hoot*
There was a better video out there with some of his fellow comedians* but it's sadly gone, with the channel no longer having videos for me
https://www.youtube.com/user/RightNetwork/.


Also you can add to the list David Zucker, from "Zucker Abrams Zucker" fame, who felt so annoyed about one Michael Moore and the lack of love for the Republicans he made "An American Carol", a movie about proving exactly how fat Michael Moore is.
(Nevermind Moore's latest film being a nutty take on green energy, funded by coal)

[dissolute ocelot]

Let's not forget Toby Young's attempts at standup; even Michael Gove did something approaching stand-up in his youth. There's always been a lot of right-wing comic writers and "humorous" journalists in the UK, but they're afraid to go out in public except before a carefully-screened audience.

In America, Adam Yenser is another who promotes himself as right-wing although as he's worked with Ellen Degeneres he's probably not too frothing at the mouth.

[Old Nehamkin]

In America, Adam Yenser is another who promotes himself as right-wing although as he's worked with Ellen Degeneres he's probably not too frothing at the mouth.

This Ellen Degeneres?

[TheRitzBrothers]

Some interesting cases on here.

Back in the 1990s I knew Lee Hurst and have a memory of sitting in a car with him between gigs when he went on an endless rant about Rupert Murdoch, the evils of The Sun, and Murdoch's appalling treatment of the print unions. Whatever people thought about his comedy, he was definitely seen on the circuit as on the laddish left along with names such as Kevin Day and Martin Coyote. So it's all the more odd to see the journey he's made to rabid gammon since those days.

Pat Condell is even stranger. Once a darling of City Limits readers he's now a full-on alt-right bigot. In his case he made a name for himself as a militant atheist but discovered that you can get more youtube clicks by hating Muslims and culturally defending all other religions against Muslims. In his social media presence there is no Fox News or Daily Express lie that goes un-retweeted if it attacks people who, purely by coincidence, happen to have a darker skin colour than Pat.

In both cases, their previous political stance was not the result of youthful naivity; both men were well into their thirties when I first encountered them. And it's hardly as if their change has come about as a result of financial success.

[thenoise]

It gets me wondering, why are so few comics right wing? Is it an historically contingent state of affairs, or is it an essential consequence of the types of personality that are involved with the left wing? I noticed in the political compass thread that almost everyone is decidedly left wing here. There must be some connection. I think it takes a sceptical left wing mind to laugh at things irreverently. The translation of "irreverent" in German is "respect-less" (respektlos

Yes, maybe. There is a kind of willful ignorance about the archetypal 'Tory', happy to exist in their own little bubble, avoid the lower orders at all costs, so they are unlikely to have anything particularly insightful to say about anyone's life experiences other than their own.

There is the chummy humour of the Daily Mail columnist type, giggling about how tough it is being a housewife with a rich husband and a big house and no clue about anything. But 'comedian' is probably stretching it.

[thr0b]

Some interesting cases on here.
Back in the 1990s I knew Lee Hurst and have a memory of sitting in a car with him between gigs when he went on an endless rant about Rupert Murdoch, the evils of The Sun, and Murdoch's appalling treatment of the print unions. Whatever people thought about his comedy, he was definitely seen on the circuit as on the laddish left along with names such as Kevin Day and Martin Coyote. So it's all the more odd to see the journey he's made to rabid gammon since those days.

Well, in the nineties he was a big name, but the work started to dry-up. Partly through choice, I understand. But as he seems to have become more unpleasant, you can see him struggling to find work, and increasingly blaming it on "snowflakes" who can't cope with "real" people, creating a vicious cycle and grooming himself.

[Bad Ambassador]

Well, in the nineties he was a big name, but the work started to dry-up. Partly through choice, I understand. But as he seems to have become more unpleasant, you can see him struggling to find work, and increasingly blaming it on "snowflakes" who can't cope with "real" people, creating a vicious cycle and grooming himself.

[TheRitzBrothers]

Overton window, and all that aside, the nature of comedy makes it hard to pin a lot of comics as definitely left or right unless their political stance is intrinsic to their careers. With American comedians, it's even harder because the bar to being considered a liberal is now such a low one.

For example, Bill Maher is considered a thorn in the side of Trump supporters and the religious right but if he were British he would in all probability find a comfortable home in the Remain-supporting wing (or what's left of it) in the Tory Party.

And speaking of the Tory Party, here's a relic from the Thatcher Archive that makes fascinating reading.

http://fc95d419f4478b3b6e5f-3f71d0fe2b653c4f00f32175760e96e7.r87.cf1.rackcdn.com/18571C4EE5504F98867695BDF539C16E.pdf

[sevendaughters]

I have heard Wehn admire Merkel, and I have heard SLee refer to him as right of centre, but I can't quite square the idea that "libertarian" = "right" necessarily because libertarianism (and I am not one) has been massively perverted by selfish online Americans. Most Germans are paranoid about surveillance and being overly interfered with by the state but tend to not resent paying their taxes and agree with public funding of services, etc. In the current climate Merkel seems like Atlee.