March 16, 2006
Just Joking Around
Follow JewishJournal.com on 
Being a right-winger nowadays may seem like no laughing matter, but there really are conservatives with a sense of humor. Even ones who tell jokes professionally. Even Jewish ones. And some of them appear at "Right to Laugh," a comic showcase staged most recently at the Friars Club in Beverly Hills earlier this month.
But are they funny? You decide:
"If God had known all his chosen people were gonna turnout socialist, he would have left all our [rear ends] in Egypt.... Jews may have been the Chosen People once, but somewhere between Monica Lewinsky and Chandra Levy, I think God gave up. At this point, it's between Christians and Muslims...." -- Julia Gorin
"How do I understand a liberal? I take a conservative, then I take away reason and accountability."
"I'm a Jew and an American, so I have so many reasons to dislike the French.... We bail this country out every 30 years.... They helped us during the Revolutionary War, and they've been milking that ... but wasn't that right after the French and Indian Wars...? The last war France won was led by a 12-year-old girl." -- Keith Barany
"I heard that 'Republicans are the daddy party' and 'Democrats are the mommy party....' Well, folks ... mommy is no longer with us. We Republicans are now single parents. There is now only the grown-up party and the kiddy party.... Once you understand Democrats are children, you understand everything you need to know about them.... Why Democrats are children: Children and Democrats have a very rich fantasy life ... a hard time differentiating between fantasy and truth.... When you don't believe in truth ... your job becomes to indoctrinate others, to undermine other people's belief in truth.... That's why they don't like intelligent design -- they don't like intelligent anything." -- Evan Sayet, presenter of "Right to Laugh"
Fans include Jim Gilchrist, founder of The Minutemen. "Jack Benny ... and Jackie Gleason were conservatives," he asserted. "I don't really have an appreciation for the irresponsible liberal [comedians] because they tend to be risqué, insulting and offensive."
Another enthusiast is David Horowitz: "Howard Dean is an unintentional laugh riot.... The stance of conservatism is to see irony.... So of course, the conservative viewpoint is compatible with comedy."
He added: "Comedy is often the compensation of the victimized, excluded and oppressed.... Who's more persecuted in the laugh culture and literary culture than conservatives?"
For more information, visit www.idolonfox.com.
