{"id":8141,"date":"2014-10-10T17:40:35","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T17:40:35","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-10-10T17:40:35","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T17:40:35","slug":"don_t_label_yourself_just_be_funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/10\/10\/don_t_label_yourself_just_be_funny\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Label Yourself — Just Be Funny"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Adrian in San Francisco. Great to have you. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Listen, I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m gonna follow<\/a> the stripper dwarf, but I\u2019m gonna try. You know, I talked to your call screener. I\u2019m calling about conservative comedy. I want to say that it\u2019s probably comedy that lampoons the left. And if anybody has called your show that\u2019s been on hold knows, you know, I just listened to a battery of your bits that were just outstanding, witty, well written, funny as all get out. And I\u2019m kind of wondering why are there no TV shows that would, let\u2019s say, put the visual medium to work utilizing the kind of humor that I hear on your show, not only from when you speak, but also from the little bits that I hear when I\u2019m on hold. I just kind of want to get your sense of why there\u2019s not anything out there like that.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Well, in the first place, Hollywood\u2019s dominated by people who would not hire conservatives, but there\u2019s a reason before you get there. The way liberalism has set things up, there\u2019s nothing about it that\u2019s funny. If you make fun, if you make jokes about liberalism, you are racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobe. You are mean, you\u2019re insensitive, you\u2019re extremist. The arbiters of comedy do not permit conservative comedy be tagged or thought of as comedy. <\/p>\n

They label it immediately as mean-spirited or extremist, and therefore they stigmatize the person. Such as, if you wanted to go into conservative stand-up or something like that, you would immediately be tagged as mean and bitter. The reviews on you would be, “What\u2019s up your butt? Why are you so unhappy? Why are you so mad?” Because the one thing that you do not do, I found, you just don\u2019t make fun of the left and you don\u2019t make jokes. You don\u2019t make jokes about the feminazis. You don\u2019t make jokes. They don\u2019t have a sense of humor. Now, hang on, because, Adrian, this is actually a very good subject. Don\u2019t go away.<\/line><\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: And we are back with Adrian in San Francisco. He wants to know why there is no conservative comedy. Let me ask you, Adrian, are you thinking about trying to do any kind of comedy, as a conservative? Are you looking into that, or are you just curious about the subject?<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, yeah, I actually told your call screener that I, probably in the next couple of weeks or a month or so, I\u2019m gonna pitch an idea to an agency in LA. I don\u2019t know if you would call it conservative. It certainly has a conservative message.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Whatever you do, don\u2019t. That\u2019s the point that I was gonna make to you.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Well, I really have no place else because this is a TV show —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No, no. Don\u2019t label it. Don\u2019t label yourself.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, I see.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Don\u2019t call it conservative comedy. The left doesn\u2019t. They don\u2019t say, “Hey, here\u2019s the latest liberal take. Here\u2019s the latest liberal funny line.” They\u2019re just the comedians of the day, right? We have to assume they\u2019re liberal by virtue of their material but they never talk about it, they never label themselves, and in fact some of them — not all, by all stretch, but some of them try to avoid labels. What they try to do is portray themselves as representative of the culture at large. They\u2019re not liberal. They\u2019re not leftists. They\u2019re just funny people. <\/p>\n

The problem that conservatives make — let me tell you a little story to illustrate. One of the first things that ever happened to me, the first meetings I ever attended in Washington shortly after this show started, was a convention of religious broadcasters. They were having trouble getting their programs on standard radio stations, not Christian stations, and they asked me what I thought. I said, “You\u2019re eliminating 80% of the stations by calling yourself Christian radio. Just do what you want to do. Don\u2019t label it anything. You\u2019re making yourself targets.” <\/p>\n

“Well, it\u2019s not right. It isn\u2019t fair.” <\/p>\n

I know it isn\u2019t fair. I know it\u2019s not right. But you\u2019re looking at people that are afraid of religion, afraid of Christianity, just do what you do, don\u2019t label it. I think the same thing is true of conservative comedy. Don\u2019t position yourself as an alternative to liberal comedy. Don\u2019t position yourself as something new. You\u2019re just a funny guy and you\u2019ve got an idea you want to pitch. Now, if your idea does involve a conservative take on things, find some other word than “conservative” to use.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah. You know, that\u2019s true. I mean, the reason I would probably — I mean, obviously they\u2019ll find out anyway, but the reason I\u2019m pitching to this particular agency is I\u2019m trying to get to Joel Surnow, because I think he would really get this, and knowing the fact that he had tried that comedy show, I think it was called The 1\/2 Hour News Hour —<\/p>\n

RUSH: The 1\/2 Hour News Hour, that\u2019s right.<\/p>\n