I’ve been struggling with the same question for years, and I’ve never quite been able to pin it down. 

Why does “right wing comedy” often fall flat? My answer for a long time has been that they tend to place the ideology before the funny. And while I still believe that is a strong component, it doesn’t quite answer the question.

This fell out of my head tonight, and although it still doesn’t quite make it all the way there, it’s another step that direction. It’s one of the primary tenets of comedy. Has been since Aristophanes, and probably before that. You can throw punches upward toward those in power, or who assume power. The sympathetic characters are those the powerful stand on.

The game is to knock them off.

The problem with right wing comics is where they perceive the power. They still throw the punches at the powerful, but they have a skewed view that sees that dynamic upside down. 

The shiftless poor take their tax dollars, and they game the system for a free ride. They have to sit through phone instructions in Spanish. Liberals are driving their country into the ground. Minorities, LGBTQ, women all get better treatment, better stuff, than they do.

They are powerless. They are the sympathetic character, defiantly telling the uncomfortable truth. 

And that is where their punches go.