From Johnny Carson to Trevor Noah: the decline of American comedy

Trevor Noah? Who he? Breitbart News' John Nolte writes that 329,632,000 people across America asked that question when they heard, yesterday, that Trevor Noah was leaving The Daily Show. 

Mr Noah was the diversity hire (formerly known as "token") who replaced Jon Stewart as the show's host in 2015. Mr Stewart, whom Family Guy called "America's most important Jew", was a ratings failure, gathering only a little over a million viewers every night. Writes Mr Nolte: "Mr Noah...seemed determined to prove there is a number less than zero and proceeded to lose about 75 percent of Stewart’s already minuscule audience."

My guess is that Mr Noah was hired not just because he's black, but because he's not an American black, of which the country already has a surfeit. Mr Noah is from South Africa, and seems to be one of those mid-Atlantic guys, like Piers Moron, whom liberals think is funny and clever because he denigrates the USA and its people.

The good news (Mr Nolte writes) is that the tens of Daily Show fans will still be able to enjoy their cherished program... The Daily Show legacy will continue. It's a legacy of failure, but whatever…

Commenting on the sad news via Disqus, "Jason Morton" writes, "I'm old enough to remember when I could turn on an American late night TV program and feel like an American in America." to which "Avatar Jababa" adds, "I'm old enough to remember when everyone tuned into the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and he didn't try to change your opinion on any subject. Nor did he try to persuade you that he was a paragon of virtue."

Now that comment hit home! I'm even older than Jababa, and have fond memories of Johnny Carson, and Jack Paar before him, and even Steve Allen before him. It was Mr Allen who originated the running gag known as "the Question Man", in which the eponymous character asked a question to which the answer had been given. Mr Carson's version of the same skit was "Carnac the Magnificent". Here is the funniest ever tag line ever uttered by the Great Carnac.

  

Ah, but that was long ago, in an America far away. I doubt we will ever see that kind of comedy again. Nothing's funny in America, any more.

Poster boy for liberalism accuses liberals of being illiberal

Piers Morgan, seen here kissing Peter Andre [Who he? Ed.], is one of those annoying liberals who can't decide if he's a journalist or media personality or celebrity or what -- a poster boy for "jack of all trades, master of none".

He likes to think of himself as Britain's answer to (((Jon Stewart))) [Who he? Ed.], but his act has not played well on either side of the Atlantic. The British satirical magazine Private Eye refers to him as "Piers Moron". That and this picture are all ye need to know.

But, it seems, even certified [certifiable? Ed.] liberals can only take so much political correctness, forced diversity, triumphant omnisexuality and other manifestations of the liberal ethos. Even Mr Moron has started to plead for an end to it.

In an interview with Ben Shapiro of Turning Point UK, posted yesterday on Twitter, the voice of liberal orthodoxy said, "Populism is rising because liberals have become unbearable, and I speak as a liberal. In my core, I'm probably more liberal than not, although fundamentally, I see myself as a journalist, and I'd like to see both sides of all these things, and I can argue both. But liberals have become utterly, pathetically illiberal, and it's a massive problem.

"What's the point in calling yourself a liberal if you don't allow anyone else to have a different view? This snowflake culture that we now operate in, this victimhood culture -- you know, everyone has to think a certain way, behave a certain way. Everyone has to have a bleeding heart and tell you 20 things that are wrong with them.

"I just think it's all completely skewed to an environment where everyone's offended by everything and no one's allowed to say a joke. If you said a joke ten years ago that offended somebody, you can never host the Oscars. So now there's no host for anything. The Emmys now just said they're not gonna host either. So hosts have gone, and soon every award winner will go because everyone's a human and they're all flawed.

"So no one can win award anymore because there will be no platform before they even get on the podium. So then, no hosts, no stars. Then no one can make any movies because we're all flawed. So, no actors. So suddenly, where are we? The liberals get what they want, which is a humourless void where nothing happens, where no one dared do anything, or laugh about anything to behave in any way that doesn't suit their rigid way of leading a life. No thanks.

"So, what's happening around the world? Populism is rising because people are fed up with the PC culture. They're fed up with snowflakery. They're fed up with everyone being offended by everything, and they're gravitating toward forceful personalities who go, 'This is all nonsense,' which, by the way, it is, in most cases.

"So why are we surprised? I'm not surprised. It doesn't mean that I agree with all of it, but it means I can understand it. And I understand why the liberals -- my side, if you like -- are getting it so horribly wrong. They just wanna tell people not just how to lead their lives, but, 'If you don't lead it the way I tell you to,' -- it's a kind of version of fascism -- 'If you don’t lead the life the way I'm telling you to, then I'm gonna ruin your life. I'm gonna scream abuse at you. I'm gonna get you fired from your job, I'm gonna get you hounded by your family and friends. I'm gonna make you the most disgusting human being in the world."

I lifted that lengthy quote from "Top liberal champion: 'Liberals have become unbearable'", by Joe Kovacs, writing on WND.com yesterday. Mr Kovacs adds that, in July, Mr Morgan penned an op-ed piece for the Daily Mail, in which he said if President Donald Trump gets re-elected, it would be the result of this "radical, socialist, snowflake" mindset that has recently been personified by four female Democrats in Congress.

"Who would Donald Trump most like to face as Democrat nominee in the forthcoming 2020 election?" he asked. "I'd hazard a guess it would be a young, female, screechy, super-woke, easily triggered radical socialist snowflake with a disdainful view of America. In fact, I can narrow it down more specifically to any one of the Squad -- the four newly elected firebrand Democratic congresswomen of color currently lighting up US politics: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna S. Pressley."

If I'd said that, the never-Trumpers would accuse me of being a shill for Still-President Trump [Shurely not! Ed.] and much worse. But there it is, from the mouth (or some other orifice) of a certified liberal.

VIDEOS: Snowflakes, #MeTooers silence this popular holiday song

Now that the season is upon us, Walt presents, for your "winter holiday" [sic] enjoyment, the "official" version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside", performed by Idina Menzel & Michael Bublé.



Mr. Herbert approves this video. Walt can't believe that the usual suspects haven't demanded its removal from YouTube for the "sexualization of pre-teens". Other than that, what could be wrong with it? Plenty, according to "some" #MeTooers, SJWs and other NPC snowflakes.

Cleveland radio station WDOK-FM announced earlier this week that it won't play the song any more, in response to listener feedback. "Some" people [Who? How many? Ed.] took issue with the words used by one singer trying to persuade the other to stay inside, including such inappropriate language as "Baby, don't hold out."

North of the World's Most Porous Border, the ultra-PC lamestream media -- the Canadian Broadcorping Castration, Bell Canada and Rogers -- have joined the chorus (pun intended) of disapproval, pulling the politically incorrect song from their holiday rotations. Don't listen for it on the Fireplace Channel, because it won't be there!

CBC public affairs head Chuck "Charles" Thompson said "Song lyrics are always open to interpretation, and we fully acknowledge there are two camps regarding this issue. While we consider both points of view, and in light of the times we are living in, we have chosen to remove the song, for the time being [Until spring? Ed.] from two of our holiday music streams."

Across the pond, feminist writer Daisy Buchanan a writer's calls for the holiday classic Baby it's Cold Outside to be banned caused a furore on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday.

The ITV show hosted a debate about the Christmas song following news that a US radio station had removed the track from its playlist because the lyrics have 'predatory undertones' it deems 'inappropriate'.

Writer and feminist Daisy Buchanan infuriated Good Morning Britain presenter Piers Morgan when she claimed that the famous Christmas ["holiday", shurely! Ed.] song was offensive to women and, in the 1949 film Neptune's Daughter, was played during a scene that "amounted to sexual assault." Mr Moron angrily told his guest to shut up when she insisted that in the movie scene the song is played while the male singer is "invading her space, he's coming up next to her."

You be the judge. Ed. has found a clip of the scene which has triggered the feminist snowflakes. Here `tis.



For all you old movie buffs who weren't quite sure, that's Esther Williams with Ricardo Montalban and, yes indeed, Red Skelton. Keenan Wynn, Xavier Cugat and Mel Blanc also appeared. Shame on all of them, the writers, directors, producers and MGM for popularizing such unbridled sexual harrassment. Let us speak of such things no more!

UPDATED: Here's what Trump said that voters will remember

The following is taken, without edit or comment, from "Trump lost the debate by every normal standard. But these aren't normal times" by Michael den Tandt -- no Trumpie he -- in Canada's Postmedia papers.

Here’s a bet: In a week, most of Twitter will have forgotten the details of Trump’s numerous falsehoods Monday, because he’ll have uttered new ones, perhaps more outrageous.

But viewers will remember he said this: On trade, bring back our jobs and stop the dastardly foreigners from stealing them away. On gun violence, crime and race, impose law and order in the inner city. On national security, smash ISIL and force the feckless Europeans (and Canadians, surely) in NATO to do some of the work, for once in their worthless lives.

Further reading, added 28/9/16: "Why Hillary won the first round on points, why it probably won't do her any good, and why she can be sure Trump will come out swinging harder next time", by Piers Morgan in the Daily Mail (UK), 27/9/16.

DON'T send me the Kony video!

Memo to all Agents, followers, readers and (especially) guilt-ridden white liberals. Please do NOT send me the video about Joseph Kony's atrocities in Uganda. I'll give you three good reasons.

1. It's old news. This is not the first time we've been told that Kony is responsible for killing 1000s of children and kidnapping more 1000s to be used as sex slaves and/or soldiers in his misnamed and misbegotten "Lord’s Resistance Army". The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (amongst others) has been covering this story for ten (10) years.

And hey... Walt told you about it last October! In "Another dumb war America can't win", I called attention to Al Obama's plans to send American soldiers to join in the hunt for Kony. Did it happen? Don't know. Was Kony caught? Definitely not.

Besides, in the context of African politics in the post-colonial era, this is nothing new. The Mau Mau terrorists did it in Kenya even before the British left. (Most of the victims of that nasty little war were blacks, not whites.) The black terrorists in Rhodesia did the same to overthrow the Ian Smith government, and will do it again, if necessary, to keep Comrade Bob Mugabe in power. It's hard to think of a sub-Saharan African country in which children have not been victimized.

2. It's not going to make any difference. This is just another of those Worthy Causes that come to the attention of celebs like Piers Moron, who jump on the bandwagon for the publicity value. Remember Haiti? Has all the international attention and well-meaning donations done any good? No!

Dear readers, please learn and remember the old African acronym: MAWA. Mother Africa Wins Again. Even "Invisible Children", the producers of the video, say that the only way Kony will be brought to justice (African style -- i.e. killed) is if the Ugandan army does it. That would be the same Afghan army that put Idi Amin in power, and only slightly less ogrish Milton Obote both before and after Amin. Don't expect an end to tyranny and slaughter from those guys. In the end, MAWA.

3. The motives of Invisible Children are more than a little suspect. Call me cynical, but I question what will happen to any money you might donate. (And soliciting donations is the whole point of the video.)

Human Rights Watch points out that Kony’s army is down to a few hundred and hasn’t been in Uganda for years, a fact which the documentary leaves out, due to time constraints no doubt. They ask why, this late in the game, the film is being promoted and the begging bowl passed through the social media,

Visible Children has some answers. They say Invisible Children is a controversial activist group operating on a not-for-profit basis. They raise money by selling merchandise like those stupid bracelets.

Last year, the blog claims, Invisible Children spent $8,676,614, of which only 32% went to direct services. Much of the rest went to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. Another case of folks -- white folks -- doing well out of doing good.

Film maker Jason Russell responds to the criticism by saying "That is the old way of thinking. We stand by our use of a third of our money going to our film budget so we can build a real-time website of sightings of Kony’s army."

The key word there is "we", which means Jason Russell and his non-Ugandan friends and Ugandan hangers-on. Is that who you really want to help? If so, send your guilt money to Walt. I'll see that it gets into the right hands. Yeah... sure...