Besides themselves. A potent political force needs to be measured outside of the fun they poke at Tucker Carlson.

The right has had their own unchallenged mouth piece for the last 20 years thanks to talk radio. We need to make them pay for that. Can we keep up our relentless attacks on the right the way we have the past five years, especially with a democrat in the White House? Will the momentum die once we are back in office? We don't just need to challenge Bush or McCain or whoever is in power at the time, we need to challenge Fox and Rush and all the other liars that will still be around regardless of outcome.

... and the Right has cornered the market for it. So the Left has finally wised up and tried for humor? Good for Stewart, Colbert, Franken, Stephanie Miller, and the rest!

Seriously, for years, lefties have been shaking their heads about how we're in a "post-irony" era, and generally intellectualizing the fact that the far right wingnuts have discovered that there is no bottom to how low you can go; that the more outrageous your actions, the less likely anyone will speak up, because geeze, they'll come across like conspiracy theorists.

The only effective way to counter the over-the-top absurdity of Today's Republican Party™ is to laugh at it. Point out the ridiculousness. Connect those dots ... into a clown face.

People are more than ready to laugh, and once they're laughing, the old appeals to fear will stop working.

After all, reality has a liberal bias.

What's all this about the failure of Air America? It's still broadcasting on 60 or 70 stations and in cities where it's got strong signals it's doing fine. It's an indictment of the commercial media that it's still so hard to find Air America stations on the radio spectrum. The fact that Air America has survived five years is a victory.

...was Stephen Colbert calling W out right in front of him. It was the only thing to actually rise to the absolute psychotic absurdity that was the Bush White House; everything else pales in comparison. I'm just thankful-- and surprised-- the dude's still alive!

"re: The Right has cornered the market for rage..... so the Left has finally wised up and tried for humor"...well said Zandru

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you know there are progressive sites/media that do rage too...often they're informative and a good read. but other times i walk away more informed...but feeling worst....troubled by all the wrongs of the world, i guess. i think the humor of stewart and colbert does help with the digestion of all the troubling and/or absurd news.

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i find not only colbert's correspondence dinner pivotal, but also stewart's visit on crossfire and his claims that all their blathering was hurting america. both pieces were brilliant.........and so needed at the time!!

Humor is the best weapon and always has been. Progressives lost ground because for a long time we were dry and preachy and, well, dull. If the left has "rediscovered" humor, it's all to the good. Because pumped-up pompous politicians cannot handle being mocked -- not in private, not in public. It leads them to overreact.

Humor often works better than facts. People don't like to be found wanting in information and understanding but they do fear ridicule. Satire does work.

-The Onion's "Holy Fucking Shit!" edition.

-John Stewart in 2003.

I swear I'd have been a stark raving lunatic. It was like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and it was a dark, lonely time for those of us not snatched away by propaganda.

I wouldn't include the Onion along with the Daily Show and Colbert in terms of being from, or on, the left; its humor and satire seem be genuinely non-partisan and non-political to me.

I think we all owe a debt of gratitude to Al. He really was out there first with Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot. For a guy earning a living as a comedian to risk alienating half of his potential audience in order to puncture the bloviating, triumphalist king of right-wing talk took a lot of guts. This may be an exageration, but for me personally this burst of belly laughs marked a turning point in the tide of intimidation.

Really.

The court jesters were able to speak truth to power precisely because they couched it in humor. Without the wit and wisdom of the writers and presenters of these shows, who knows just how much darker and in the dark the citizenry and country would be?

I consider them all to be true patriots because they took - and are still taking - real risks in order to present fact over fiction in the klieg lights of scrutiny by very powerful entities that want nothing more than to extinguish them and their message - figuratively and literally. Lapel flag pins all around, and a bouquet of yellow flag magnets.

One last thought - what about a bow to SNL, Laugh-In and The Smothers Brothers, which were the grandparents and parents of the current teevee political satire venues? What's a presidential campaign race without Pat Paulson, anyway?

I have a hair-trigger response to most of the left-wing bias of most of the cited comedy. But the Onion is so brilliant because it does not take the easy left-wing approach. I submit the recent Onion headline over a picture of Barack Obama: "Black Guy Asks Nation for Change."

Humor will always be more poulist, more lefty, more anti-establishment than society at large. It has always been that way, from Charles Dickens to Charlie Chaplin to the Three Stooges. Comedy doesn't work when the big guy wins; the little guy has to prevail, and mock the powers that be. The downtrodden win in comedy. But in real life, who the hell wants to be downtrodden? Not me!

And if you think there aren't any leftist icons and overlords to be brought down, just have a look at South Park.

Since we're talking about the media, a perspective from them older days might be in order.

You will not be able to stay home, brother.

You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.

You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,

Skip out for beer during commercials,

Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox

In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.

The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon

blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John

Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat

hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the

Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie

Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.

The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.

The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.

The revolution will not make you look five pounds

thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May

pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,

or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.

NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32

or report from 29 districts.

The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down

brothers in the instant replay.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down

brothers in the instant replay.

There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being

run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.

There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy

Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and

Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving

For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville

Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and

women will not care if Dick finally gets down with

Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people

will be in the street looking for a brighter day.

The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock

news and no pictures of hairy armed women

liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.

The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,

Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom

Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.

The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message

bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.

You will not have to worry about a dove in your

bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.

The revolution will not go better with Coke.

The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.

The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,

will not be televised, will not be televised.

The revolution will be no re-run brothers;

The revolution will be live.

-Gil Scott-Heron 1971