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That's Not Funny
- How the Right Makes Comedy Work for Them
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
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Publisher's summary
A 2022 Best Comedy Book, Vulture
"Why do conservatives hate comedy? Why is there no right-wing Jon Stewart?" These sorts of questions launch a million tweets, a thousand op-eds, and more than a few scholarly analyses. That's Not Funny argues that it is both an intellectual and politically strategic mistake to assume that comedy has a liberal bias. Matt Sienkiewicz and Nick Marx take listeners—particularly self-described liberals—on a tour of contemporary conservative comedy and the "right-wing comedy complex."
In That's Not Funny, "complex" takes on an important double meaning. On the one hand, liberals have developed a social-psychological complex—it feels difficult, even dangerous, to acknowledge that their political opposition can produce comedy. At the same time, the right has been slowly building up a comedy-industrial complex, utilizing the irony-laden media strategies of liberals such as Jon Stewart, Samantha Bee, and John Oliver to garner audiences and supporters. Right-wing comedy has been hiding in plain sight, finding its way into mainstream conservative media through figures ranging from Fox News's Greg Gutfeld to libertarian podcasters like Joe Rogan. That's Not Funny taps interviews with conservative comedians and observations of them in action to guide listeners through media history, text, and technique.
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Not funny
- By supermantwo on 08-31-20
By: Jeremy Dauber
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The Manipulators
- Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Big Tech's War on Conservatives
- By: Peter Hasson
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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For better or for worse, Google and social media - “Big Tech”, collectively - have become the new public square. Unfortunately, this public square has a watchful referee standing behind them, ready and waiting to blow the whistle if they veer too far from the preferred narrative. Americans have given these companies enormous power to select the information they read, share and discuss with their neighbors and friends.
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Good Content....Run 1.2x Speed or You'll Go Crazy
- By Peter on 05-17-20
By: Peter Hasson
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The Smallest Minority
- Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics
- By: Kevin D. Williamson
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Listener beware: Kevin D. Williamson - the lively, literary firebrand from National Review who was too hot for The Atlantic to handle - comes to bury democracy, not to praise it. With electrifying honesty and spirit, Williamson takes a flamethrower to mob politics, the “beast with many heads” that haunts social media and what currently passes for real life. It’s destroying our capacity for individualism and dragging us down “the Road to Smurfdom, the place where the deracinated demos of the Twitter age finds itself feeling small and blue.”
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Brutally honest, accurate and relevant
- By Sean on 09-19-19
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Wake Up
- Why the world has gone nuts
- By: Piers Morgan
- Narrated by: Piers Morgan
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2020, the world faced its biggest crisis in a generation: a global pandemic. In the UK, it exposed deep divisions within society and laid bare a toxic culture war that had been raging beneath the surface. From the outset, Piers Morgan urged the nation to come to its senses, once and for all, and held the government to often ferocious account over its handling of the crisis. COVID-19 shed shocking light on the problems that plague our country. Stockpilers and lockdown-cheats revealed our grotesque levels of self-interest.
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Another victim of COVID-19
- By Travis M. Erickson on 10-27-20
By: Piers Morgan
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The Rise of the New Puritans
- Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun
- By: Noah Rothman
- Narrated by: Noah Rothman
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The Left used to be the party of the hippies and the free spirits. Now it’s home to woke scolds and humorless idealogues. The New Puritans can judge a person’s moral character by their clothes, Netflix queue, fast food favorites, the sports they watch, and the company they keep. No choice is neutral, no sphere is private. Not since the Puritans has a political movement wanted so much power over your thoughts, hobbies, and preferences every minute of your day. In the process, they are sucking the joy out of life.
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Great, fast summer read
- By Joseph Spiegel on 07-18-22
By: Noah Rothman
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Rachel Maddow
- A Biography
- By: Lisa Rogak
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Rachel Maddow has beaten the odds in a way that's novel in today's America: She uses her brain. In a world of banal and opinionated soundbites, she regularly crushes Sean Hannity's ratings thanks to her deeply researched reports. And in our highly polarized world, Maddow amiably engages the staunchest conservatives, while never hesitating to expose their light-on-facts defenses.
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Absolute Pablum.
- By mj on 02-03-20
By: Lisa Rogak
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Bet on Black
- The Good News About Being Black in America Today
- By: Eboni K. Williams
- Narrated by: Eboni K. Williams
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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When The Real Housewives of New York City hired its first black cast member after more than 13 years on the air, attorney, speaker, and journalist Eboni K. Williams knew that the public would consider her a diversity hire. But instead of accepting the label, Williams re-envisioned her role as a “Diversity Higher,” an opportunity to prove the significance of Black excellence in the workspace and in society at-large. In this book, she shares all the benefits and advantages that have helped her and many others historically reach great heights in their careers and beyond.
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Bet On Black…thank you, thank you, thank you!
- By amina mack on 07-15-24
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The Death of Truth
- Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump
- By: Michiko Kakutani
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 3 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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We live in a time when the very idea of objective truth is mocked and discounted by the occupants of the White House. Discredited conspiracy theories and ideologies have resurfaced, proven science is once more up for debate, and Russian propaganda floods our screens. The wisdom of the crowd has usurped research and expertise, and we are each left clinging to the beliefs that best confirm our biases.
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Prescient Account of the Mechanics of Tyranny
- By Brian Price on 07-27-18
By: Michiko Kakutani
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Arrogance
- Rescuing America from the Media Elite
- By: Bernard Goldberg
- Narrated by: Bernard Goldberg
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Abridged
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In his #1 New York Times best seller, Bias, Emmy Award-winning journalist Bernard Goldberg created a national firestorm when he exposed the liberal biases of the so-called mainstream media. Now, in his new blockbuster, Goldberg goes even further. He not only takes on Big Journalism, but offers a twelve-step program to help the media elites overcome their addiction to bias.
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wow
- By Douglas on 11-11-03
By: Bernard Goldberg
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Troll Nation
- How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself
- By: Amanda Marcotte, David Talbot - foreword
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The election of Donald Trump in 2016, like most of his campaign, came as a shock to many Americans. How could a man so lacking in capacity, so void of any intellectual heft, become the president of the United States? How could a man with no detectable personal qualities outside of resentment and the will to dominate appeal to millions of Americans, enough so that he was able to win the highest office in the land? With this book, journalist Amanda Marcotte will outline how Trump was the inevitable result of American conservatism’s degradation into an ideology of blind resentment.
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Disappointing
- By Steven Finkbeiner on 08-10-18
By: Amanda Marcotte, and others
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Red Pill, Blue Pill
- How to Counteract the Conspiracy Theories That Are Killing Us
- By: David Neiwert
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Conspiracy theories are killing us. Once confined to the fringes of society, this worldview now has adherents numbering in the millions - extending right into the White House. This disturbing look at this alt-right threat to our democratic institutions offers guidance for counteracting the personal toll this destructive mindset can have on relationships and families. Author David Neiwert examines the growing appeal of conspiracy theories and the kind of personalities that are attracted to such paranoid, sociopathic messages.
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little basis in logic and reality
- By Alex Martin on 08-27-21
By: David Neiwert
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With Amusement for All
- A History of American Popular Culture since 1830
- By: LeRoy Ashby
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 33 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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With Amusement for All is the first comprehensive history of two centuries of mass entertainment in the United States, covering everything from the penny press to Playboy, the NBA to NASCAR, big band to hip hop, and other topics including film, comics, television, sports, and music. Paying careful attention to matters of race, gender, class, economics, and politics, LeRoy Ashby emphasizes the complex ways in which popular culture simultaneously reflects and transforms American culture.
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So Much Fun!
- By Paul on 11-28-13
By: LeRoy Ashby
What listeners say about That's Not Funny
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Chris Osantowski
- 01-27-23
Kinda boring idk
I don’t disagree but the book was a trudge yawn-a-roni and cheese tbh
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- Asarchus
- 04-18-23
Lives up to its Title, Unfortunately
I've become quite a devotee of Gutfeld! since I stumbled on this late-night rumble fest. Not because Greg is good at his craft. He's crass, abrasive, self-congratulatory, often genuinely mean. Many times he dredges up some discredited Liberal from decades past (Howard Dean? Rachel Dolezahl?) for a cheap laugh--if the audience gets the reference. All without a scintilla of humor--even his studio audience barely snickers at most of his one-liners. Yet Gutfeld! gets high viewership. Sienkewicz and Marx start with FOX News's latest effort to craft a cable show that competes from the Right against Colbert, Fallon, Myers, and other comedians who serve as laugh inducers on the day's political and social events. The authors make an attempt to quantify Greg Gutfeld versus the other late night hosts. However, they fail to draw comparisons between Gutfeld's attempts at joking and the "genuine" laugh lines offered by "left-leaning" hosts. Having analyzed Gutfeld's style, I believe a contrast between how he and Colbert (or any other late-night network or cable host) handle the same current events would help the reader understand the difference between landing a solid laugh and coughing up a hairball.
From Gutfeld!, the authors journey down the cellar stairs that lead past sexist, anti-science, white supremacist, racist, and even Nazi-worshiping shows (mostly only available as podcasts). Shows hosted by would-be comedians such as Joe Rogan are examined, often by pointing out their marginal guest lists. We explore horrific examples such as "The Daily Shoah", which tries to lighten up subjects like genocide and the Holocaust. The authors wisely exclude original material from such sources. Unfortunately, despite the frightening aspects of these extreme Right "humorous" websites, discussion of their perverse nature is often dull and dry in the authors' hands.
While this story as told is worth the read, I feel some genuine comedy writing is necessary for us to understand why Right-wing attempts at humor often resemble the bully's classic "joke" of kicking away an amputee's crutch, or worse, throwing a puppy in a wood chipper just for grins.
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