Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.
As a political satire fan, I’m subjected to the same two angles in every piece of press coverage: “Does it have an impact?” and “Why is all so left-leaning?”
Of course, I’m guilty of covering that well-trodden piece of journalistic ground myself. I did an interview with Greg Proops just before the 2006 midterms, which remains of of my favourite interviews — the majority of which never made it into print.
Just today, a Facebook friend marveled at how the eloquent 45 minutes of quotes that she gave to a major daily was reduced to a few lackluster sentences. Unfortunately, I have to in part feel for the writer, because sometimes you just can’t write the story you want to write. This is one of those occasions when I wish I’d had 2,000+ words to play with.
“Conservative comedy, by its very nature, tends to support the status quo,” he continues. “Our job is not to support the dominant paradigm. Our job is to be shit disturbers. Should you wish to disturb shit, that’s funny. Should you wish to say, ‘Everything’s great,’ that’s not funny.”
Love that. Due to space constraints, I had to go a little paraphrase-happy, and most of the other great quotes he gave me didn’t survive. You can read the whole piece here.
Greg is a smart cookie, and a lovely human being. I wish I had the chance to see him more often, but it typically works out to just once every couple years. I adore the guy.
However, I’m not sure he feels the same way about me:
[flickr video=http://flickr.com/photos/sharilynj/2963705690]
About the Author
Sharilyn Johnson is the author of the book Bears & Balls: The Colbert Report A-Z. Called "one of the city’s most discriminating comedy critics” by NOW Magazine, Sharilyn has been covering comedy for longer than she cares to admit. She served as the comedy reporter for Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine for five years, and was the host of the radio show Laugh Tracks for three seasons. Her work has also appeared in the Toronto Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, The Apiary, and on CBC Radio's national comedy programs LOL and Definitely Not the Opera.
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