After Roseanne, We Need More Conservative TV, Not Less

[Ubiquitous]

"Roseanne" is dead, which may give the powers that control our
culture an excuse to retreat into old, reflexively liberal habits.

That would be a grave mistake. Even after the fall of "Roseanne,"
Hollywood should keep hunting for, and showcasing, right-of-center
shows that portray Trump supporters sympathetically — albeit without
the unstable superstar at the center of the bad experiment.

When "Roseanne" blew up in the television ratings, cultural
commentators quickly hailed the brave new era of Trump-friendly
comedy: Here, finally, was a show that portrayed the President's
supporters as ordinary, and decent, human beings.

Little wonder, Trump called Roseanne to congratulate her on her
enormous premiere ratings.

And television executives took notice. It's not a coincidence that
Tim Allen's "Last Man Standing" was picked up by Fox after being
dumped by ABC. As E! reported, "The 'Roseanne' revival's massive
record-setting numbers proved audiences were more than open to
conservative political views on their TV screens."

Now, Barr has trashed her career for the umpteenth time — this time,
probably permanently.

In the wreckage, it's fair to expect a backlash to Trump-voter-
friendly comedy.

First, the comedic world is deeply uncomfortable with taking the
concerns of Trump voters seriously; as ardent members of the
cultural left, they see Trump and his supporters as threats, not
voices worth granting credibility.

That means that Trump-related comedy has almost universally targeted
Trump and his supporters, characterizing them as idiots and clowns
and fools. Even John Mulaney, a relatively apolitical comedian,
slapped Trump supporters in his latest Netflix special.

After describing Trump as a "horse in a hospital" — a funny bit, to
be sure — Mulaney then noted, "Sometimes, if you make fun of the
horse, people will get upset. These are the people that opened the
door for the horse."

These comedians generally claim that it's easier to mock Trump and
his supporters than past Presidents like Obama. Obama's
pretentiousness and self-righteousness, his self-evident pomposity
could have been mocked — but most people on the left agreed with
Obama's self-assessment.

Furthermore, Trump is an inherently funny character in a way Obama
wasn't. And most of all, it's far less dangerous to work within the
intersectional box created by the left than to kick it open through
comedy.

Second, members of the cultural left seem to operate on the
assumption that Trump voters support Trump thanks to his excesses,
not in spite of them. In other words, they believe that actors and
writers and producers and directors who support Trump are more
likely to blow themselves up, Roseanne-style, than are members of
the left.

After all, we already know those people are crazy — the evidence
being their support of the President. The argument of MSNBC's Chris
Hayes likely resonates: "Roseanne's problem turned out to be that
she far too authentically represented the actual worldview of a
significant chunk of the Trump base."

It's true, it's risky to cater to that base, if they all believe
like Roseanne. It means that the only way to keep them watching is
to trot out bizarre arguments that threaten the fabric of the
republic. "Roseanne" was an odd duck — a show that took voting for
Trump as a simple choice, but promulgated socially liberal
messaging, ranging from cross-dressing to same-sex marriage and
abortion.

It's unlikely that Hollywood will be able to repeat that feat. If
they want to cater to Trump voters, the logic goes, they'll have to
take seriously his actual politics, which Hollywood finds toxic,
off-putting and liable to public implosion.

All of this is a mistake. The success of "Roseanne" wasn't based on
Roseanne's palatability as a human being, nor was Trumpian support
for the show related to Roseanne's bizarre conspiracy-theory-laden
Twitter feed. Barr has just 766,000 Twitter followers; her premiere
show drew more than 27 million viewers.

Trump supporters were in thrall to the show for as simple reason:
because it didn't label Trump supporters deplorables beneath
contempt.

That market is still there. And it's hungry. If culture-makers
decide to shy away from comedy that appeals to Trump's base, they'll
be leaving money on the table — and they'll be making the culture
poorer, too.

It turns out that a monolithic comedic culture that prizes "Will &
Grace" but won't tolerate shows like "Roseanne" actually polarizes
the culture further: It reinforces the feeling among conservatives
that they've been labeled too deplorable to be part of the cultural
conversation. And that means more alienation, more conflict and less
laughter.

: Shapiro is author of "Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood
: Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV."


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Dems & the media want Trump to be more like Obama, but then he'd
have to audit liberals & wire tap reporters' phones.

[FPP]

On 5/31/18 1:27 PM, Ubiquitous wrote:
> First, the comedic world is deeply uncomfortable with taking the
> concerns of Trump voters seriously; as ardent members of the
> cultural left, they see Trump and his supporters as threats, not
> voices worth granting credibility.

Oh, noes! The world of comedy LOVES Trump voters!
People who cut their own noses off to spite their faces are inherently
hilarious comedy gold!

--
"I'm all the way down now. I can see all the way to the bottom.
They said there were two fathers, one above, one below.
They lied. There was only ever the Devil.
When you look up from the bottom, it was just his reflection, laughing
back down at you." -James Delos (Westworld 5-12-18)