A Paranoid, Right-Wing, Watermelon-Smashing Maniac

July 2, 2010 11:01 AM

The horror of Gallagher
posted by Artw (246 comments total)

Previously though not a double.
posted by GuyZero at 11:04 AM on July 2, 2010

Something event must have happened in his life, because the man is just bitter, bitter, bitter. The AV Club interview touches on this, too.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:07 AM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

s/something/some
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:07 AM on July 2, 2010

No, I think it's just a typical metal degeneration for a lot of middle-aged white males. They have every advantage and still end up unsuccessful. Enter paranoia and persecution complex, stage left.
posted by GuyZero at 11:08 AM on July 2, 2010 [18 favorites]

Punk: Oh, we've got a real funny man. A regular Gallagher, eh?
Brain: You think Gallagher is funny?
posted by inthe80s at 11:09 AM on July 2, 2010 [13 favorites]

Ugh. It doesn't bother me that there are men like this out there -- of course there are, and God bless plurality, no matter how intolerant and bizarre it is. It bothers me that someone can parlay some minor success for gimmick comedy from three decades ago into a forum for hate speech and get paid for it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:09 AM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

I didn't know Gallagher was gay. But who cares anyway.
posted by stbalbach at 11:10 AM on July 2, 2010 [11 favorites]

Never understood his appeal when I was younger. Still don't.
posted by zarq at 11:10 AM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

Holy shit, I was expecting some suspect attitudes and wink-wink racist innuendo, but this is full-on insanity, he's not even trying to hide it.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:12 AM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Metal degeneration, heh. Mental. And by "a lot" I should say "the occasional".

I know. My copy editor isn't getting paid this month.
posted by GuyZero at 11:12 AM on July 2, 2010

I had heard that he was pretty awful and intolerant, but wow. Symbolically smashing Chinese people and gay people? People pay for this? Two hours of "you're gay?" Haven't we all had enough of this in middle school?
posted by Mister_A at 11:12 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Contrasting Ideologies? Self identity crisis? SLEDGE O MATIC!
posted by cavalier at 11:13 AM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

This feels a bit like making fun of a mentally ill person.
posted by BeerFilter at 11:13 AM on July 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

It bothers me that someone can parlay some minor success for gimmick comedy from three decades ago into a forum for hate speech and get paid for it.

Are you talking about Gallagher or Limbaugh?
posted by DU at 11:14 AM on July 2, 2010 [12 favorites]

Next stop on the Gallagher Hate Tour 2010: Texas
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:15 AM on July 2, 2010

Why is a tired and predictable comic whose day has long past of any concern to me or anyone else? Oooh smashing shit and telling racist jokes while doing so, so 1973.
posted by Fizz at 11:15 AM on July 2, 2010

Never understood his appeal when I was younger. Still don't.

Whaddya mean you don't understand the appeal? HE SMASHES WATERMELONS! It's genius.
posted by Kirk Grim at 11:16 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'd like to imagine going to a Carrot Top show and him lecturing the audience for two hours about the fact that only Stalin can save the working man, and then pulling out a few props and making a few puns, and having a career, but I guess America only welcomes the right wing cranks.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:16 AM on July 2, 2010 [27 favorites]

I'd like to imagine going to a Carrot Top show and him lecturing the audience for two hours about the fact that only Stalin can save the working man

Dude is entirely orange, not red. Cut him through the middle and you'd find him to be orange to the core. He is purely composed of the substance of orangeness. So I guess he'd have to give a lecture on, what, Northern Irish Protestantism and the evil of Catholicism?
posted by Artw at 11:19 AM on July 2, 2010 [14 favorites]

He opens a giant can of fruit cocktail and pours it in. He opens a can of some Asian vegetable—water chestnuts, maybe—and pours that in, too. "This is the China people and queers!!!" he screams and takes his sledgehammer to the thing with a fury that is no fun at all.

W.T.F. Seriously, that is either mental illness or actionable hate speech.
posted by DU at 11:20 AM on July 2, 2010

"Two hours of "you're gay?" Haven't we all had enough of this in middle school?"

It's almost always a mistake to treat children as though they are merely smaller adults. I've also learned, slowly and not a little painfully, that it's often a mistake to assume that adults are anything but larger children.
posted by mister-o at 11:21 AM on July 2, 2010 [35 favorites]

"Hey, President Obama," he spits out the name like a mouthful of burning hair. "You ain't black. I don't care what you say—you're a latte. You're half whole-milk. It could be goat milk—you could be a terrorist!"

Christ, what an asshole.
posted by porn in the woods at 11:21 AM on July 2, 2010 [8 favorites]

I'm not going to give him the out of mental illness. It's not fair to mentally ill people. If you read the Onion interview Blazecock linked to, he's entirely lucid. He's just bitter and hateful and mean, and you can be that without your brain chemistry going haywire.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:23 AM on July 2, 2010 [28 favorites]

Is this the actual Gallagher or is it his brother?
posted by daq at 11:23 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't get why guys like this can't just sit on top of their piles of money and laugh.
posted by Mister_A at 11:24 AM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Also, this earlier post.
posted by mecran01 at 11:24 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Something event must have happened in his life, because the man is just bitter, bitter, bitter.

"It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a sledgehammer, to treat everything as if it were a watermelon."
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:27 AM on July 2, 2010 [53 favorites]

Clues to his madness: Gallagher is a Leo; his parents named him Leo. Also he was born within a few weeks of Bill Clinton and George W Bush.
posted by stbalbach at 11:27 AM on July 2, 2010

OK, this may be a sort-of derail but it's something I always wonder about articles like this ... The writer has a lot of quotes in there, all of them very specific, full-sentence things. I doubt she sat at the table with a pen and notepad. So, was she (a) packing some kind of surreptitious recording device, or (b) working from memory when she wrote the article?

If (a), I want to know the make and model of the best one out there. If (b), it's easy to imagine the vitriol in the quotes being not entirely accurate, or perhaps not as extreme.
posted by jbickers at 11:28 AM on July 2, 2010

I don't get why guys like this can't just sit on top of their piles of money and laugh.

I think you may be overestimating Gallagher's financial situation.

Despite Gallagher being a crazy asshole, I'd still totally go see a turducken-made documentary about him.
posted by Saxon Kane at 11:28 AM on July 2, 2010

I don't get why guys like this can't just sit on top of their piles of money and laugh.

You think a guy like this has money, much less could responsibly manage it when he did have some?
posted by Think_Long at 11:28 AM on July 2, 2010

Leo Gallagher, in his own words on the danger of gay percerts.
posted by ericb at 11:28 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I doubt she sat at the table with a pen and notepad.

. . . why? What do journalists/critics/reviewers do otherwise?
posted by Think_Long at 11:29 AM on July 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

"The China people"? He's not even good at being a racist.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 11:29 AM on July 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

Even if she didn't go in planning to take notes, after the first few WTF moments I think you'd pull out a pen post haste.
posted by DU at 11:30 AM on July 2, 2010

"This is the China people..."

Dude, "chinaman" "China people" is not the preferred nomenclature remotely grammatical.
posted by griphus at 11:30 AM on July 2, 2010 [8 favorites]

Whaddya mean you don't understand the appeal? HE SMASHES WATERMELONS! It's genius.

My toddlers would probably think that part of his act was hilarious.

I assume they'll eventually grow up and that sort of thing will lose its appeal, though.
posted by zarq at 11:30 AM on July 2, 2010

Flagged as depressing. Maybe turducken can share some insight into this face of Gallagher, and make me less sad about a man who might now go to sleep with AM right-wing hate radio lulling him to sleep, not a man simply playing to his right-wing audience.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:31 AM on July 2, 2010

He's not mentally ill, he's just another in the list of people I once thought were mildly or extremely amusing but who suddenly or gradually turned into raving right-wing wackos after 9-11. Dennis Miller. Denis Leary. Jeff Dunham. James Lileks.
posted by yhbc at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2010 [18 favorites]

I think you may be overestimating Gallagher's financial situation.

Seriously. He's playing gigs in Bremerton. Presumably his bid for the Emerald Queen Casino was rejected in favor of Loverboy.
posted by Skot at 11:33 AM on July 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

Is that book that ericb links to the same man? The cover page has the author's birthdate as 1929, much older than the comedian. (Also, mis-used "it's" in that book burns my eyes)
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 11:34 AM on July 2, 2010

So, was she (a) packing some kind of surreptitious recording device, or (b) working from memory when she wrote the article?

Surreptitious? Who the heck needs to be surrpetitious when you can just sett your phone on the table in front of you?
posted by dersins at 11:34 AM on July 2, 2010

It's not the same man. Gallagher's middle name is Anthony; this guy's middle initial is D.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:35 AM on July 2, 2010

Best quote from the article:

I cannot believe Bill Hicks is dead and this motherfucker is still touring.
posted by darkstar at 11:35 AM on July 2, 2010 [25 favorites]

*gay perverts*
posted by ericb at 11:37 AM on July 2, 2010

And then, right toward the end, the reveal...

At other points during the show, Gallagher says, "Men and women can't live in the same house" and "There's no way men and women can have a relationship." He says he can't remember why he used to feel pleasure in looking at a woman. And, "There's only one kind of homosexual guy, and that's the pretty ones—why do homosexual men have to be so good-looking?"

posted by saulgoodman at 11:38 AM on July 2, 2010 [9 favorites]

He's not mentally ill, he's just another in the list of people I once thought were mildly or extremely amusing but who suddenly or gradually turned into raving right-wing wackos after 9-11. Dennis Miller. Denis Leary. Jeff Dunham. James Lileks.

Also: Craig T. Nelson, Adam Baldwin, Kelsey Grammer, Ben Stein, Scott Baio, Angie Harmon, Kirk Cameron, Kid Rock, Patricia Heaton and the late Ron Silver.
posted by zarq at 11:38 AM on July 2, 2010 [20 favorites]

A One Hit Wonder. (I know he hit a lot of things doing that one routine though) He milked it for all it was worth, and lots of people told him he was a genius, then it is all gone and there ain't no more. It's even worse when your a comedian than it is for a musician.

Gotta be their fault! Sad
posted by Some1 at 11:42 AM on July 2, 2010

. . . why? What do journalists/critics/reviewers do otherwise?

Because in this specific case, I can't imagine Gallagher seeing someone in the audience taking notes and not going nuts over it and making it part of the act, inferring some kind of gay conspiracy or something. And bad on me, because I guess I was picturing a small enough room where he'd be able to see the whole crowd.

Dersins: Of course. Don't know why I didn't think of that.
posted by jbickers at 11:43 AM on July 2, 2010

yhbc: "Denis Leary"

Didn't Leary support Obama? According to his Wikipedia page he did.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:43 AM on July 2, 2010

he's just another in the list of people I once thought were mildly or extremely amusing but who suddenly or gradually turned into raving right-wing wackos after 9-11. Dennis Miller. Denis Leary.

um, where'd you get that list?

dennis leary is an unrepentant hardcore liberal who recently caused all sorts of conservative backlash by remarking that President Obama is the best president ever.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:44 AM on July 2, 2010 [9 favorites]

Whoops. I first typed Denis Leary, then realized I meant Dennis Miller, put him in and forgot to take Leary out.
posted by yhbc at 11:46 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is basically reciting "jokes" from FreeRepublic for two hours with a Stormfront chaser + fruit.
posted by thewittyname at 11:46 AM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

phew. thought you might know something i didn't.
posted by saulgoodman at 11:46 AM on July 2, 2010

He's not mentally ill, he's just another in the list of people I once thought were mildly or extremely amusing but who suddenly or gradually turned into raving right-wing wackos after 9-11. Dennis Miller. Denis Leary. Jeff Dunham. James Lileks.

Also: Craig T. Nelson, Adam Baldwin, Kelsey Grammer, Ben Stein, Scott Baio, Angie Harmon, Kirk Cameron, Kid Rock, Patricia Heaton and the late Ron Silver.

Quite a few of those were right wing wackos long before 9-11. Ben Stein and Kirk Cameron at least. Not sure about Adam Baldwin. (*sighhhhhhh* Oh Jayne.)
posted by kmz at 11:46 AM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Denis Leary is a right-wing wacko? Bollocks.
posted by Brocktoon at 11:47 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

He's not mentally ill, he's just another in the list of people I once thought were mildly or extremely amusing but who suddenly or gradually turned into raving right-wing wackos after 9-11..... Also: Craig T. Nelson, Adam Baldwin, Kelsey Grammer, Ben Stein

Dude, Ben Stein was a speechwriter for Nixon. Not sure why you'd think he's "suddenly" right wing.
posted by dersins at 11:49 AM on July 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

Sad. I enjoyed his rants on the school system and the illogic of the english language back in the day. I guess making fun of the establishment wasn't paying enough.
posted by yeloson at 11:51 AM on July 2, 2010

Craig T. Nelson? Mr. Incredible?

Sad face.

Also, I watched an Amazing Johnathan video not too long ago, and man, his magic was still pretty good, but his comedy has gone downhill (or I've grown up more than I realized).
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:51 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I cannot believe Bill Hicks is dead and this motherfucker is still touring

Bill Hicks was also an opinionated jerk. But Gallagher = thought crimes!
posted by Faze at 11:51 AM on July 2, 2010

"I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No." -- Craig T. Nelson
posted by stavrogin at 11:53 AM on July 2, 2010 [18 favorites]

Bill Hicks was also an opinionated jerk.

But he was a little less one-sided.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:53 AM on July 2, 2010

Is that book that ericb links to the same man?

Oop,s my bad.
posted by ericb at 11:53 AM on July 2, 2010

Addendum to yhbc and zarq's lists: Jackie Mason, Victoria Jackson, Mike Nelson
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:53 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Bill Hicks was also an opinionated jerk. But Gallagher = thought crimes!

Haha, yeah, railing against the Gulf War and marketers is totally the same as being racist and homophobic!
posted by kmz at 11:54 AM on July 2, 2010 [12 favorites]

Actionable? If you buy tickets to see Gallagher, you have no self-worth for Gallagher to offend.

Hate speech is about offense. It's about creating a climate of fear and incitement to violence. If hitting standins and screaming that they are "China people" doesn't do that, I don't know what does. Hammering in effigy.
posted by DU at 11:54 AM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Bill Hicks was also an opinionated jerk. But Gallagher = thought crimes!

So, if someone is a sad, racist, homophobic asshole, then criticizing him is the same as criminalizing his beliefs? That's really fucking stupid.
posted by stavrogin at 11:55 AM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

he's just another in the list of people I once thought were mildly or extremely amusing but who suddenly or gradually turned into raving right-wing wackos after 9-11. Dennis Miller. Denis Leary. Jeff Dunham. James Lileks.

Your assertion that Jeff Dunham was ever funny in the first place makes your judgement questionable to me.

Also Ben Stein has always been conservative, wasnt he a speech writer for Nixon?
posted by BobbyDigital at 11:56 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's always seemd to me that hate crimes are waay underreported and prosecuted in the States as compared to Canada. That's going by the number of high-profile cases that make the news. The closest that I can get to backing this up with numbers is this statistics report - tl;dr, in 1995 the DOJ in Canada estimated 60,000 incidents; in 1998 the US police stats were 7,755 incidents.

How can a country 10 times Canada's population supposedly have 1/10th the number of incidents?
posted by Hardcore Poser at 11:56 AM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Not sure about Adam Baldwin. (*sighhhhhhh* Oh Jayne.)

Steven Baldwin is the crazy right-wing Christian Baldwin.
posted by octothorpe at 11:57 AM on July 2, 2010

How can a country 10 times Canada's population supposedly have 1/10th the number of incidents?

Canada is just that hateful.
posted by dersins at 11:58 AM on July 2, 2010 [10 favorites]

Mike Nelson

Wikipedia: "I read the National Review cover to cover. Check in at Townhall.com every day. Check the Washington Times daily. Listen to Dennis Prager and Michael Medved on a regular basis. Read Mark Steyn with regularity. Read the Weekly Standard. So, yes, I do vote Republican."

God damn it.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:58 AM on July 2, 2010 [11 favorites]

Steven Baldwin is the crazy right-wing Christian Baldwin.

NERD SMACK: Adam Baldwin is not one of the Baldwin brothers (not those Baldwin bros anyhow). Adam Baldwin is a 100% awesome/ right wing Bush II apologist whacko who I would trust with my life unless the money was too good.
posted by Think_Long at 11:59 AM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not sure about Adam Baldwin. (*sighhhhhhh* Oh Jayne.)

Steven Baldwin is the crazy right-wing Christian Baldwin.

Adam's not related to the other Baldwins, but believe me, he's batshit rightwing too. Check his twitter. Or don't, because it'll just make you sad.

(The part I wasn't sure about is if he's always had those beliefs.)
posted by kmz at 12:00 PM on July 2, 2010

Dude, Ben Stein was a speechwriter for Nixon. Not sure why you'd think he's "suddenly" right wing.

True, but going from "speechwriter for Nixon" to writing a pro-creationist "documentary" is still a bit of a journey.

Craig T. Nelson is, of course, infamous for his relatively recent appearance on Glenn Beck's show where he proudly stated that the government didn't give him any handouts when he was on welfare and food stamps.
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:00 PM on July 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

Oh, and count me in as another one who thought Gallagher was funny as a kid, even apart from the watermelon-smashing. "A-C-H-E spells ache. So is this a mistake? No! It's a mustache!" To a nerdy, bookworm eight-year-old, that's brilliant material.
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:02 PM on July 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

You know, it's tempting to call this sad. It really is. This guy is 30 years past what could only with great generosity be called his "prime", spewing hate speech and smashing a watermelon in a schtick that grew tired and uninteresting decades ago, and probably living show to show. We could marvel at how the mighty have fallen, were Gallagher ever mighty.

But, no. No sadness here. For this to be sad, Gallagher would have to be someone whose struggle would be a bad thing. "Without God, we are nothing but dust. What is butt dust? Is that what you get if your homosexual isn't properly lubricated?"? "This is the China people and queers!!!"? Fuck you. You don't deserve pity. You deserve nothing but scorn, and I look forward to seeing you die in the obscurity in which you've lived.
posted by kafziel at 12:02 PM on July 2, 2010

Mike Nelson

Wikipedia: "I read the National Review cover to cover. Check in at Townhall.com every day. Check the Washington Times daily. Listen to Dennis Prager and Michael Medved on a regular basis. Read Mark Steyn with regularity. Read the Weekly Standard. So, yes, I do vote Republican."

Gah. Michael fucking Medved? Ugh ugh ugh.
posted by kmz at 12:03 PM on July 2, 2010

Addendum to yhbc and zarq's lists: ... Mike Nelson

What a bummer.
posted by TedW at 12:03 PM on July 2, 2010

Also, the difference in statistics is because Canada defines "hate crime" a lot broader than the US does. Free speech isn't really a thing up north.
posted by kafziel at 12:04 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

After re-reading turducken's epic comment, I still would rather see his documentary, but I'd hope that he'd at least acknowledge the sort of show that Gallagher does that's described here, and not just the show that he did for turducken's crew.

Also, Lindy West is, with Dan Savage and (occasionally) Ellen Forney, one of the best things about The Stranger.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:04 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

So sad to hear that Mike Nelson is a right-winger. :(
posted by Saxon Kane at 12:04 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I have never seen anybody read Michael Medved without moving their lips.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:04 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No. No. " -- Craig T. Nelson

How can anyone say this and not implode from ironic hull pressure?
posted by Mister_A at 12:05 PM on July 2, 2010 [29 favorites]

After our previous Gallagher thread I admit to feeling a slight tinge of sympathy for the man. But this is outright revolting shit. Fuck him.
posted by slogger at 12:05 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Adam's not related to the other Baldwins, but believe me, he's batshit rightwing too. Check his twitter. Or don't, because it'll just make you sad.

Exactly.

He may very well have. Same with Stein. (Yes, I know his history.) But I personally didn't learn how batshit right-wing they were until after 9-11.
posted by zarq at 12:05 PM on July 2, 2010

He's not mentally ill. He's a guy who, at some point, realized that the entirety of his fame was based around him exploding watermelons with a sledgehammer. That was his single contribution to the sum of humanity.

This kind of personal discovery would be enough to make anyone deeply depressed, because really, at this point you've realized that you are essentially a waste of life; a negative number in the ledger of history The world is no better for you having lived.

So you start to wonder, who is responsible for this? It can't be you, you aren't competent enough to create the kind of sucking vacuum that your existence has become, it must be an external force.

And then it hits you; Watermelon. Fruit. The fruit are seeking their revenge for three decades of merciless slaughter. And they are manifesting as the gays. You must alert everyone to the threat that they, and the rest of the Fruit lovers out there represent!

And here we are. Not madness, just bitterness over being useless manifesting in an awkward and unpleasant way.
posted by quin at 12:07 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

In Mike Nelson's defense, I don't download a Rifftrax and hear crazed hate-speech about "your homosexuals" and "the China people."
posted by cottoncandybeard at 12:08 PM on July 2, 2010 [21 favorites]

This isn't a huge shock. Even when I was a kid, Gallagher reminded me of an adult I knew, an exceedingly bitter veteran, known for hating everything and kicking cats. (He actually kicked cats, as in, I had heard about it, then saw him kick a cat in front of me and I briefly thought about the machete I bought for my friend as a birthday present but I wasn't even in my teens yet, so I thought better of it) He had that hunched over posture and the eye-bright grimace which passed for a smile while nasty things came out of his mouth. He was a miserable human being who actively sought miserable situations and he had this posture that made me remember The Hobbit. I saw Gallagher, on HBO, most likely, skittering about on stage with his hands like claws and little sideways comments about everything, then I thought ... Bruce. The watermelon smashing left me cold.

Now he looks and says the sort of things Bruce did back then. Hope he doesn't have any cats.
posted by adipocere at 12:09 PM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

If that link upthread was from something he wrote he is also a victim of sexual abuse. Which, for some if not all who experience it, mucks up your head something terrible.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 12:10 PM on July 2, 2010

Addendum to yhbc and zarq's lists: Jackie Mason, Victoria Jackson, Mike Nelson

Oh fuck no. Please, don't do this to me. Oh, jeeze.

I didn't need to know this. But I did the research. And now I can't un-know it. I am very sad now. I always knew Joel was better. But I dared to love...
posted by Splunge at 12:14 PM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I'm a bit let down that Mike Nelson is a right winger, but he's still... you know... funny.
posted by brundlefly at 12:15 PM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

You know, when I had to step away for a second, I imagined Faze slipping into this thread to either come to a faux defense of Gallagher or pathetically attack a MeFi sacred cow, presumably one invoked in this thread in a thoughtful way.

Bill Hicks was also an opinionated jerk. But Gallagher = thought crimes!

Dude, you are not exactly in a place to be critiquing comedians for a tired, tired schtick. Off to the beach, have fun playing troll.
posted by joe lisboa at 12:16 PM on July 2, 2010 [9 favorites]

Mike Nelson

Wikipedia: "I read the National Review cover to cover. Check in at Townhall.com every day. Check the Washington Times daily. Listen to Dennis Prager and Michael Medved on a regular basis. Read Mark Steyn with regularity. Read the Weekly Standard. So, yes, I do vote Republican."

Joel kicks his ass in a free fight, anyway.
posted by SPUTNIK at 12:16 PM on July 2, 2010 [6 favorites]

Mike Nelson? Really? Man, why did I read this thread all the way down.
posted by Tesseractive at 12:17 PM on July 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

Dennis Miller...Jeff Dunham. James Lileks.

Also: Craig T. Nelson, Adam Baldwin, Kelsey Grammer, Ben Stein, Scott Baio, Angie Harmon, Kirk Cameron, Kid Rock, Patricia Heaton and the late Ron Silver.

Addendum to yhbc and zarq's lists: Jackie Mason, Victoria Jackson, Mike Nelson

Don't forget John Ratzenberger:

Actor John Ratzenberger, known partly for his role as Cliff Clavin in the 1980s sitcom "Cheers," slammed the Democratic bill as a form of socialism
"These are Woodstock Democrats," he said at the rally. "We have to remember where their philosophy comes from. It doesn't come from America. It comes from overseas. It comes from socialism. And socialism is a philosophy of failure."
posted by PlusDistance at 12:20 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Whoa, Mike Nelson? I had no idea. :(
posted by zarq at 12:20 PM on July 2, 2010

I've met both Joel and Mike several times. Both are nice, gracious men, and thoughtful. Mike remains close with the other MST3K members who he worked with, who are not, from my experience, raving right wingers. I have no idea what Joel's politics are.

I try not to let a man's politics affect my experience of their art, unless it directly informs it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:20 PM on July 2, 2010 [20 favorites]

Please, please, PLEASE let Joel be a Democrat.
posted by grubi at 12:22 PM on July 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

Obama again: "If Obama was really black, he'd act like a black guy and get a white wife."

OK, this makes sense both for a crazy comic to say and for a writer to point out.

Trans people: "People like Cher's daughter—figure that out. She wants a penis, but she has a big belly. If you can't see your dick, you don't get one."

And this.

Michael Vick: "Poor Michael Vick."

What?
posted by aaronetc at 12:23 PM on July 2, 2010

I read Ratzenberger's "Made In America" a couple of years ago. He's reactionary, and spent a little time ranting against the "intellectual elite" and praising GWB as a politician who doesn't condescend to blue collar folks.

It was sad, and a bit depressing.
posted by zarq at 12:24 PM on July 2, 2010

"Dave Letterman ain't comin' here. Robin Williams ain't comin' out here. You gotta say, you know, Gallagher came here, and he did two hours."

You went all the way out there? Just to entertain those people? And you didn't even take a dime for all that effort?

Oh wait...You did?...How much?

Ah well, fuck you then. Robin Williams ain't coming to my office, either.
posted by PlusDistance at 12:25 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I always knew MST3K was a right-wing conspiracy.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:25 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I suspect a good portion of Ratzenberger's income now comes from his voice work for Pixar, as they have adopted him as their sort of good luck charm. The Pixar guys I have met are basically communists, so he's a hand-feed-him-biter if there ever was one.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:26 PM on July 2, 2010 [11 favorites]

Wow.

I used to work in comedy, running a comedy club way back in the day. He never played my club, but Gallagher was known as a specific type of pro comic. He had a thing for a specific audience, he did that thing for that specific audience. They laughed, you cut him a check. Done. Over. Not ground-breaking. But he had the same fill-in-the-blank certainty that, say, Carrot Top has now.

Yeah, sure, his act was part bitter "what's-the-deal-with-X" schtick, before he got to the melon-smashing.

This, though? Wow.

Oh well.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:29 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

How can a country 10 times Canada's population supposedly have 1/10th the number of incidents?

Canadian laws regarding hate speech are a lot stricter and more encompassing than those of the US.
posted by zarq at 12:33 PM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

He's not mentally ill, he's just another in the list of people I once thought were mildly or extremely amusing but who suddenly or gradually turned into raving right-wing wackos after 9-11. Dennis Miller. Denis Leary. Jeff Dunham. James Lileks.

Really? Lileks? I read his site and blog occasionally, and it's usually hilarious, but I can't actually remember terribly much punditry... Is he one of those "small-c" conservatives?
posted by schmod at 12:33 PM on July 2, 2010

Please, please, PLEASE let Joel be a Democrat.

I don't know if he's ever specified, but based on the political tone of most Cinematic Titanic stuff, I would guess he is. The most liberal of that group appears to be Frank, which is just another reason why Frank rules.
posted by cottoncandybeard at 12:34 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Oh, and a quick thing about Jeff Dunham. You may not like his politics, and he's slipped quite a bit, purely from a technical perspective on ventriloquism (he used to be the best ever, from a standpoint on pure timing, voicework and can't-see-the-lips-move).

But ... he was among the nicest comics I ever met, and he can be funny without the dummies if wanted to be.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 12:35 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Speaking of racist, bitter middle aged white males who used to be famous...
posted by codacorolla at 12:35 PM on July 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

The older I get, the more liberal I get, though I'm pretty much a commie now. I was musing the other day why it seems many people go in the other direction.

Never liked Gallagher and really don't now.
posted by maxwelton at 12:36 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Really? Lileks? I read his site and blog occasionally, and it's usually hilarious, but I can't actually remember terribly much punditry... Is he one of those "small-c" conservatives?
posted by schmod

After 9/11, he went through a phase of telling Those Goddamned Terrorists that he was just like Tony Soprano, in that if you came after his family he was going to fucking kill you. I think he's kind of slowly dropped that, but I'm not sure.
posted by COBRA! at 12:37 PM on July 2, 2010

Really? Lileks? I read his site and blog occasionally, and it's usually hilarious, but I can't actually remember terribly much punditry...

Buuuuddy, lemme tell ya. He has an entire section of his site dedicated to such "screeds" where he can use his own daughter as a symbol for his rage. NO MAN DARE ATTACK MY CHILD LEST I PUMMEL HIM WITH MY TINY FISTS OF RAGE.

Kind of comes across as an angry milquetoast who, in a real fight, would wet himself.

Is he one of those "small-c" conservatives?

No. he's one of those "Terra-ists scare me!" conservatives.

I don't know if he's ever specified, but based on the political tone of most Cinematic Titanic stuff, I would guess he is. The most liberal of that group appears to be Frank, which is just another reason why Frank rules.

These things are awesome to me.
posted by grubi at 12:37 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Really? Lileks? I read his site and blog occasionally, and it's usually hilarious, but I can't actually remember terribly much punditry... Is he one of those "small-c" conservatives?

No, Lileks is batshit insane. He wets himself over terrorism.
posted by maxwelton at 12:38 PM on July 2, 2010

Ratzenberger has come a long way from being the hippie/drummer special ingredient in Farmer Vincent's special sausage.

However, if you want a real kick in the pants, read Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese. Now, I like Mike's work on MST3k, a lot. I'm not precisely sure why I like his half of MST3k more than Joel's — more obscure references? less of a feeling that I needed to be stoned to enjoy it? — but Movie Megacheese shows a new side of Nelson. He doesn't seem to like anything at all. Gone is the self-effacing butt of the joke on the Satellite of Love, to replaced by what is apparently a crotchety old guy with the rheumatism and a touch of Satan sciatica, wearing a relatively young guy as a disguise. He's got this princess and the pea discomfort with nearly everything. At the end of the book, I wanted to know if anything did make him happy.

Makes me wonder if Joel ought to smoke him out a bit.
posted by adipocere at 12:39 PM on July 2, 2010

So, grubi and maxwelton, is there some sort of "Go, Team Venture" salute the 3 of us are supposed to do now?
posted by COBRA! at 12:39 PM on July 2, 2010

A long while back, I read this review of a show Gallagher tried to do in Cerritos, CA. The show was supposed to be bilingual, he played to a largely empty community center and the review was one of the most (rightfully) ruthless things I've read in a long, long time.
posted by jquinby at 12:40 PM on July 2, 2010 [12 favorites]

I was musing the other day why it seems many people go in the other direction.

What's the old right-wing joke? A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged.
posted by zarq at 12:41 PM on July 2, 2010

Really? Lileks? I read his site and blog occasionally, and it's usually hilarious, but I can't actually remember terribly much punditry... Is he one of those "small-c" conservatives?

A while back, he diverted most of his political stuff into the section aptly called "The Screed." I suspect he did this when he realized his views were costing him readers. He was a MeFite back in The Day and quit this site in part because of its politics. If you're looking for a sample of his political views, wander back to the 2001-2005 era or so in his archives.
posted by entropicamericana at 12:41 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

"When you're young you can't help but be liberal, when you're old you can't afford but to be conservative" is the little gem of wisdom that my father is fond of using.
posted by codacorolla at 12:42 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

So, grubi and maxwelton, is there some sort of "Go, Team Venture" salute the 3 of us are supposed to do now?

I'll work on a secret handshake.
posted by grubi at 12:45 PM on July 2, 2010

No, Lileks is batshit insane. He wets himself over terrorism.


Damn. This must be what conservatives feel like when they find out one of their children is gay...
posted by schmod at 12:46 PM on July 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

MeFi needs a ratimg system on posts that tells you how safe it is to hate on someone. In fact, the rating should be a part of the posting process, just in case you're not clued-in enough to be like, "Oh, hey, Gallagher. There's a thing people will love to snark about!"

At some point, we become a parody of ourselves.
posted by Eideteker at 12:48 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

From jquinby's link:

Man smashes food with 16-pound mallet. Man says, inexplicably, "Todo el mouthwash el hits me en el crotch-o."

What is his fascination with mouthwash on his crotch?
posted by codacorolla at 12:48 PM on July 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

It's not fun to hate him. There's no joy in this article. This is just sad. What a paranoid, confused man.

And why are right wingers so hung up on Obama being half-black if they brag that they're color blind and/or post-racial so much?
posted by mccarty.tim at 12:52 PM on July 2, 2010

The older I get, the more liberal I get, though I'm pretty much a commie now. I was musing the other day why it seems many people go in the other direction.

Me too. I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but I went through a kind of crazy reactionary conservative swing at one point when I was in college (before 9/11, which actually had the effect of jolting me back in the other direction).

Luckily I recovered and am now firmly on the side of good.

When it happened to me, I think an ill-considered urge to reconnect with my immediate family--who had been Reagan Republicans when I was a kid--played a part in it, although perhaps not coincidentally, I was also kind of losing my shit more generally, mental health-wise in those days. There was definitely an antisocial component to my experience. In hindsight, I'm pretty sure a lot of it can be chalked up to a poisonous mix of callowness, egotism, naiveté, fear of the unknown, and a relative lack of real-world experience.

Is it possible Gallagher's career has in some ways sheltered him from the real world? Maybe that's part of it.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:53 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Is this really any worse than Andrew Dice Clay? Maybe so, because we all seem to be assuming Gallagher is really like this. His shtick is the watermelons and the queer baiting and racism is the real guy.
posted by Nelson at 12:55 PM on July 2, 2010

What's the old right-wing joke? A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged.

There's also the (apocryphal?) Churchill quote:
"Show me a young man who's a conservative, and I'll show you a man with no heart. Show me an old man who's a liberal, and I'll show you a man with no brain."

I imagine this is a just-so story that many a cranky, old right-winger has to tell himself in order to sleep at night.
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:55 PM on July 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

Astro Zombie: I went to school with a guy who now works for Pixar, and he regularly posts regurgitated Glenn Beck rants on facebook. So, there's at least one guy there who agrees with Ratzenberger.
posted by sleepinglion at 12:59 PM on July 2, 2010

I can just see my neoconservative grandfather forwarding one of Gallagher's unedited, xenophobic rants, and saying something along the lines of "More and more Americans know what's going on and don't need the PC police to keep them muzzled."

He did it with Pat Boone, too, which was really depressing after laughing at Pat Boone on Wonkette just earlier in the week. Pat Boone's a full-on birther, in case you didn't know.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:01 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Mike Nelson is the rare funny conservative comedian mostly because he doesn't use his comedy work as a channel for right-wing talking points or assaults on the powerless, which makes him pretty much unlike every single right-wing comedian in existence.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:08 PM on July 2, 2010 [14 favorites]

I have never heard Mike Nelson say anything overtly offensive or overly political in a MST3K (open the file in VLC for a stream!) or Rifftrack, and those are pretty much 40% of my media diet. So, uh, I guess kudos to him for being able to have gone conservative without going mad. Since he hasn't done anything offensive or shown himself to be a small, fearful person, I guess that just leaves me to respectfully disagree.

But to some degree, it's a bit like when I found out Beck was a Scientologist.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:09 PM on July 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

Adam Baldwin is a 100% awesome/ right wing Bush II apologist whacko who I would trust with my life unless the money was too good.

What if there was a woman?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:11 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Mike Nelson sucks anyway and you all know it.
Joel built up acres of good will and that's why no one admits Mike sucks.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:11 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Yes Rifftrax sucks too.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:12 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

"This is the China people and queers!!!"

This brings a whole new, extra-double-racist dimension to the watermelon smashing...
posted by Xoder at 1:13 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

That's just silly. Mike was with the show from day one and was one of the lead writers. A bunch of the lines Joel read? Written by Mike.

The best summary I ever heard was along the lines that Mike was determined to be the best damned snarky guy who got marooned in space with robots and was forced to watch bad movies that he could be, while Joel gave the impression of having rolled out of bed and smoked up before coming into work. Different styles, is all.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:13 PM on July 2, 2010 [10 favorites]

To be fair, what communist would write the script for The Incredibles? Wasn't the argument of that film the opposite of "power to the people?"
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:14 PM on July 2, 2010

To be fair, what communist would write the script for The Incredibles? Wasn't the argument of that film the opposite of "power to the people?"

Fair warning, I got yelled at the last time I brought that up.
posted by Pope Guilty at 1:17 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

The troubling and confusing one for me is Adam Baldwin.

Sure My Bodyguard is all covert Libertarian with private security handling a problem the state fails to remedy...but D.C. Cab (!?!?) ...brother that is socialism and it works bigtime!
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:20 PM on July 2, 2010

>1995 the DOJ in Canada estimated 60,000 incidents; in 1998 the US police stats were 7,755 incidents.

>How can a country 10 times Canada's population supposedly have 1/10th the number of incidents?

I took a glance at that powerpoint and I mean no offense Hardcore Poser, but the stats seem to be measuring different things. Look at the methodology in the report. Also, look at the bottom of slide 14 / top of slide 15, which come up with 1,700 or so incidents. And the article makes clear that it's preliminary

Here are some good stats, based on mid-2000's data. The police stats are about 892, which fits with the American's 7-8,000. The victimization data gives 260,000, which apparently is consistent with previous surveys. The real number is, as always, somewhere in between.

Oh, and Also, the difference in statistics is because Canada defines "hate crime" a lot broader than the US does. Free speech isn't really a thing up north.

Don't be a jerk, spouting off your tired generalizations at the first set of data you see to confirm your biases.

Like I said, HP, not criticizing your use of the report. It just underscores how different the police stats and the victimization stats are!
posted by Lemurrhea at 1:21 PM on July 2, 2010

Janine Turner?! Her website.
posted by zarq at 1:26 PM on July 2, 2010

In defense of Mike Nelson, in his book, A Year At the Movies, Kevin Murphy speaks quite highly of him as a person and as a friend, and Murphy is about as dyed-in-the-wool liberal Democrat as they come.
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:26 PM on July 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

We need to put this list somewhere we can work on and refer to it. Conservapedia?

You can add Victoria Jackson (appeared on Fox with loathsome talking heads) and John Ratzenberger (campaigned for McCain, called the health reform bill socialism).

On Mike Nelson, he's mentioned it a couple of times but he doesn't seem to be as hard-core about it as others. It seems that co-Riffers Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett are pretty left, and they still get along and make jokes, so I assume he's not so much a wingnut who goes off and says stupid things on Fox News and Parties Tea.

(I've defended Mike despite his right-wing beliefs here before. Just to clarify, I've never met the man, although I've met the Cinematic Titanic guys and Corbett at DragonCon. I actually ran into Frank Conniff who was sitting after-hours in a darkened mall food court last year. My heart skipped a beat when that happened.)
posted by JHarris at 1:26 PM on July 2, 2010

The troubling and confusing one for me is Adam Baldwin.

I followed him on Twitter for a while, and I'll be the first to admit, that the guy is really articulate and thoughtful (completely out of character for his typecast), but his views are so antithetical to my own that I just didn't want to continue.

I still respect him and enjoy the rolls he takes, I'm just sad that his absurd right wing paranoia requires less acting skill than I thought.
posted by quin at 1:28 PM on July 2, 2010

Victoria Jackson was actually too crazy for Fox.

Also, can I go on the record that one of the pillars in my life is the belief that Jeff Dunham is not a funny man? He seemed a bit far right in his shtick, too. It wasn't overt, but I couldn't imagine a liberal being comfortable getting big laughs joking that people look gay in blue Priuses. But maybe it was the grumpy old man puppet reminding me of all the surly old right wing old men I've made contact with.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:32 PM on July 2, 2010

To be fair, what communist would write the script for The Incredibles? Wasn't the argument of that film the opposite of "power to the people?"

The theme of it, to me, seemed to be: to each according to their needs, from each according to their abilities.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:34 PM on July 2, 2010 [8 favorites]

Now, I like Mike's work on MST3k, a lot. I'm not precisely sure why I like his half of MST3k more than Joel's — more obscure references? less of a feeling that I needed to be stoned to enjoy it? — but Movie Megacheese shows a new side of Nelson. He doesn't seem to like anything at all. Gone is the self-effacing butt of the joke on the Satellite of Love, to replaced by what is apparently a crotchety old guy with the rheumatism and a touch of Satan sciatica, wearing a relatively young guy as a disguise. He's got this princess and the pea discomfort with nearly everything. At the end of the book, I wanted to know if anything did make him happy.

I own a copy of that book and enjoyed it, and I didn't come away with that impression, although I suppose in theme it isn't as positive and wonderful as Murphy's A Year at the Movies.
posted by JHarris at 1:34 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

jquinby - wow.
posted by Artw at 1:35 PM on July 2, 2010

The theme of it, to me, seemed to be: to each according to their needs, from each according to their abilities.

I never realized it was based on the Sermon on the Mount.
posted by GuyZero at 1:36 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Aaah, you guys had already added the names I offered. Damn longcat threads.
posted by JHarris at 1:37 PM on July 2, 2010

Jbickers, whenever I am interviewed the reporter does indeed scribble stuff in a notebook throughout or else records it openly. (secretly recording is a big no no). I prefer it being recorded as they are less apt to misquote you, some people don't. . There is one reporter I will only talk to via email. He still misquotes me but at least I have the proof!

I've been misquoted every time I've been interviewed pretty much, usually just minor stuff. Still it makes you wonder.
posted by fshgrl at 1:37 PM on July 2, 2010

No, I think it's just a typical metal degeneration for a lot of middle-aged white males. They have every advantage and still end up unsuccessful. Enter paranoia and persecution complex, stage left.

See this is why I assume I'll fuck everything up anyway and end up a complete burning wreck. Everyday this doesn't happen is a beautiful miracle.
posted by The Whelk at 1:37 PM on July 2, 2010 [12 favorites]

And I don't think Mike Nelson is nearly as crazy as these guys, at least not publically, advocatingly crazypants.
posted by The Whelk at 1:39 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Also, can I go on the record that one of the pillars in my life is the belief that Jeff Dunham is not a funny man?

Trust me, he can be funny, and even without the dummies.

I still laugh when I think of his routine about moving from Texas to Los Angeles for the first time. "The nerve of these people. Yes, I have a truck, but that doesn't make me white trash. It wasn't like I was parking my truck on my lawn and chaining my dog to it."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:39 PM on July 2, 2010

That's beautiful, The Whelk. You should pitch your philosophy on Oprah.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:40 PM on July 2, 2010

Victoria Jackson was actually too crazy for Fox.

What loopy pills is she taking? That looks like some fun medication.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:40 PM on July 2, 2010

ALSO I thought we ALL AGREED a LONG TIME AGO to Never bring up THAT DEBATE ever again. RIght Msties?
posted by The Whelk at 1:40 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

It's unfair to mention Mike Nelson and James Lileks in the same breath as Gallagher. Nelson's comedy is essentially gentle and very human, despite the sharpness of the jokes. The guy who mercilessly mocked Bob Dornan in Starfighters, as well as a creationist short film about how God made carnivorous plants, is not on the same plane as "This is for the China people and the queers!" Lileks, too, is good to humans, above all. This is what I prize in writers.

Frankly I blame the Tea Party for polarizing us all, because -- hey wait.
posted by Countess Elena at 1:42 PM on July 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

The read of the article's author, and my read, is that Gallagher is among that dying breed, the self-hating closeted gay. This is where you find your most outspoken and vitriolic homophobes. The ones with the weird idea that the gays are somehow out to get them. The ones with the really uncomfortable to listen to "fucked in the truck stop restroom by surprise" fantasies. I get that everyone just wants to hate the guy, but this sort of person always makes me feel really sad. Whatever pain you might wish upon him, I doubt it's anything compared to what he's put himself through every day of his life.
posted by rusty at 1:43 PM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

It's the sort of thing that makes me wonder if Bingo Cards aren't as massively stupid as all that.
posted by Artw at 1:43 PM on July 2, 2010

I get that everyone just wants to hate the guy, but this sort of person always makes me feel really sad. Whatever pain you might wish upon him, I doubt it's anything compared to what he's put himself through every day of his life.

I don't hate Gallagher. I feel sorry for him, I don't find him funny, I think he is — for whatever reasons — full of poison, but I don't hate him.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:46 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Gallagher is like a dog tied to a tree that barks and scares all the kids. You don't hate him. You just feel bad for him, even though he's being an ugly SOB about his situation.

Still, what's even more sad is that Gallagher tied himself to that tree.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:47 PM on July 2, 2010

Ah, Pat Boone.

Pat Boone: Hating the Gay.

Pat Boone Compares Prop 8 Demonstrators to Mumbai Terrorists.

posted by ericb at 1:51 PM on July 2, 2010

Is this really any worse than Andrew Dice Clay?

Once you even get near being in that ballpark...
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:51 PM on July 2, 2010

> Really? Lileks? ... Is he one of those "small-c" conservatives?

Not really. His account here is still active, so you can read his comment history if you'd like.
posted by ardgedee at 1:55 PM on July 2, 2010

Man, someone should make a web filter so that you don't discover if your favorite people have gone crazy or just plain mean.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:57 PM on July 2, 2010 [7 favorites]

A while back, he diverted most of his political stuff into the section aptly called "The Screed." I suspect he did this when he realized his views were costing him readers. He was a MeFite back in The Day and quit this site in part because of its politics

Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy....*shakes head*
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 1:59 PM on July 2, 2010 [12 favorites]

Another comic who switched from left to batshit insane after 9/11 was Larry Miller. That made me really sad; I loved his stuff.

As for Gallagher, what can one say. Waaaaaay back in the day, he was fuckin' funny (at least, IMO). How sad.

Also, there's a flip-side to the quote "A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged;" - "A liberal is a conservative who's been arrested."

To finish out, my favorite quote about conservatives, because I do believe that there are lots of conservatives who aren't bugfuck nuts, but... they're not the ones we see:

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill
posted by tzikeh at 2:06 PM on July 2, 2010 [15 favorites]

Artw: It's the sort of thing that makes me wonder if Bingo Cards aren't as massively stupid as all that.

:nod: Just because something is simplistic and snarky doesn't mean it isn't also true.
posted by tzikeh at 2:08 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I saw Jeff Dunham live, and he was funny, and the crowd was certainly not made up of hicks or yokels. Well, maybe there were a few, but it was a very diverse crowd.

His jokes about gayness are all riffs on one of his establishing themes... that his wife doesn't respect him, emasculates him, and teases him about being "gay" because he is a grown man who plays with dolls. For a living.

I wish he were more progressive, like practically 90% of people I know, but I don't get the impression at all that he is some sort of hate monger. But, I also don't follow him outside of his "act"... so if his blog or twitter is full of hateful spew I wouldn't know.

If he says hateful rhetoric, then I condemn it, just like I would condemn it if anyone said it.

But his show is enjoyable. Not incredible or life changing, but a funny hour and a half.

Also, I know others can see it differently, and I don't really want to bean-plate it, but I thought the introduction of the Dead Terrorist puppet was actually a brilliant commentary, mocking someone who participated in those activities, showing them to be inept and not at all scary. Hasn't that been the progressive call for a while now, to remove the ability for "terrorists" to frighten us just by being terrorists? To remove fear as one of their weapons? Showing them as cartoon characters or jokes seems fair game to me.

Note the character is not the Dead Muslim or the Dead Arab, it is, specifically, the Dead Terrorist... a failure of a terrorist that blew himself up by mistake.
posted by discountfortunecookie at 2:10 PM on July 2, 2010

:nod: Just because something is simplistic and snarky doesn't mean it isn't also true.

Heh. Intervening posts probably obscure that I wrote that in response to the potential outbreak of an Incredibles conversation...

(and they are still stupid, in general)
posted by Artw at 2:11 PM on July 2, 2010

Another comic who switched from left to batshit insane after 9/11 was Larry Miller. That made me really sad; I loved his stuff.

Was he left wing back then? I vaguely remember him espousing conservative (anti-Clinton) views on Bill Maher's network show during the 90's. I could be wrong, though.

Mostly, I remember his 5 Stages of Drinking and "First Time Skiing" standup bits.
posted by zarq at 2:13 PM on July 2, 2010

The read of the article's author, and my read, is that Gallagher is among that dying breed, the self-hating closeted gay. This is where you find your most outspoken and vitriolic homophobes.

Without more evidence, I am going to reject that interpretation. I feel it gets thrown around too much, and has the unintended effect of placing the blame for homophobia squarely on the back of self-hating gays. There are some out there, to be sure, but I would wager a majority of the most rabid homophobes are straights who see their privileged status in the world as being somehow threatened by gays and lesbians.

This author's only evidence is that Gallagher makes a few jokes about gays being pretty, which is thin sauce when you're dealing with a comedian who is increasingly trading in being shocking, and that he seems to hate women. Again, I would bet the people who most hate women are straight men.

He also seems to hate the Chinese, but we're not searching his DNA record for evidence of Mandarin blood.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:19 PM on July 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged.

The other half is "A liberal is a conservative who's been arrested."

Neither is necessarily true, but I get a little OCD about only hearing half a joke.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:23 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Slow on the draw, Moofoo, gotta learn to preview.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:24 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I remember his 5 Stages of Drinking

From like 1986. Classic. "And this time... I mean it!"
posted by grubi at 2:28 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Damn. This must be what conservatives feel like when they find out one of their children is gay...

Yeah, this thread is making me realize that finding out someone I admire or respect^* is a crazy right-wing Republican gives me that same sinking, incredulous feeling I get when I find out someone is a scientologist. I really wish I could still listen to Beck without throwing up in my head a little bit.

Mike Nelson? Sort of surprising, but I'm not seeing too much evidence of Gallagher/Victoria Jackson style crazy... I can live with that.

^*(I would like to state for the record that I did not particularly admire or respect Gallagher before this thread)
posted by usonian at 2:29 PM on July 2, 2010

Do all scientologists take it totally seriously? Or is it just like a Knights of Columbus for really famous people?
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:32 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Holy shit, I was expecting some suspect attitudes and wink-wink racist innuendo, but this is full-on insanity, he's not even trying to hide it.

What? We're talking about Mel Gibson now?
posted by philip-random at 2:32 PM on July 2, 2010

The older I get, the more liberal I get...

You know, I noticed that with myself, too. Although I also noticed that the more money I make, the more liberal I get. I'm not sure what's correlation and what's causation, though.

except I know for sure that being more liberal is not causing me to age or make money
posted by davejay at 2:33 PM on July 2, 2010

Or is it just like a Knights of Columbus for really famous people?

Yeah, I've wondered that myself. Is Beck, like, really praying toward the Star of Xenu every night, or is it just schtick to enhance his weirdo image?
posted by Mister_A at 2:35 PM on July 2, 2010

usonian, that's how I felt when Lileks lost his head. I was loving his site, his devotion to Target, and his personal feelings towards retro styles... and then... POOF.
posted by grubi at 2:35 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Can we talk more about the awesomeness of Lindy West, the author of the original article? No one's even mentioned her brilliant takedown of SATC2. I've been following her RSS feed since that review was linked to here (also by Artw), and I have not been disappointing.
posted by Xalf at 2:36 PM on July 2, 2010

or is it just schtick to enhance his weirdo image?

No, he was *raised* Scientologist.
posted by grubi at 2:37 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Actually I have been disappointing at times, but Lindy West's RSS feed hasn't been.
posted by Xalf at 2:37 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged.

I got mugged once. Didn't move me to the right at all. I just don't buy drugs from strangers anymore.
posted by philip-random at 2:41 PM on July 2, 2010 [14 favorites]

I don't think the guy is gay -- I mean, he might be, sure, but I don't think that's the issue. Gallagher had fifteen minutes twenty-some-odd years ago. Fifteen more or less inexplicable minutes, but I'll bet they made perfect sense to him: At last, the recognition I have always deserved! Never mind that he didn't, particularly. So when the gravy train rolls away, what you have left is someone who feels cut down in his prime; and in the meantime, the world moves on and it seems like the brown/yellow/gay/actually-talented-people have taken over!!, and what do you do about it? Bitch to the only people who care, who are victims of downsizing and shitty education and just plain old age, and I guess they'll at least tolerate you, even if they don't think you're all that funny, because you're playing a county fair or some shit and it's like ten bucks to see you and there's nothing new on TV because it's summer so whatever, you know. I don't see a point to wishing any ill will on such a person. He's clearly in a hell of his own making.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 2:47 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

he was *raised* Scientologist.

Thanks, grubi. Beck aside, though, my question about Scientological intensity in Entertainmentland still stands.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:48 PM on July 2, 2010

I've been following her RSS feed since that review was linked to here (also by Artw)

Yeah, I should probably ease up on Stranger related posts. That said I saw this and thought the WTF was sufficient to share.
posted by Artw at 2:56 PM on July 2, 2010

zarq - Miller might well have been a small-c conservative before 9/11 (I don't recall), but he lost his mind afterwards.
posted by tzikeh at 3:01 PM on July 2, 2010

Thanks, grubi. Beck aside, though, my question about Scientological intensity in Entertainmentland still stands.

I started to think about trying to answer, but you should just page scalefree on that.
posted by anazgnos at 3:02 PM on July 2, 2010

I'm actually a bit let down to learn Denis Leary is a Democrat.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:07 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

...but he lost his mind afterwards.

Very true!
posted by zarq at 3:08 PM on July 2, 2010

The book ericb linked was written by a different Leo Gallagher.
posted by stavrogin at 3:35 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

But to some degree, it's a bit like when I found out Beck was a Scientologist.

I thought Beck was a Mormon. But what do I know? I'm always conflating subtly different varieties of crazy.

:P
posted by BoatMeme at 3:48 PM on July 2, 2010

Recently watched "The Aristocrats" for the sixth or seventh time and noticed for the first time that Gallagher is kind of the "go to" punchline for lousy comedian in that film?

Jeez, what must that be like? To know that a sizable chunk of your community regards you with that much contempt?

Anyhow, I guess there's a sizable number of people who feel the same way that he does and he makes his money entertaining them by doing low-brow recognition ("we feel the same way") humor. Hopefully, they see him smashing a watermelon that represents everything they irrationally hate and it, for a moment, purges them of the desire to act on their hateful beliefs.

I see a lot of his jokes are at a similar intellectual level as Jay Leno's (though Jay is not reactionary, just opportunistic). They are of the "hey, politicians are dumb. ha ha!" level.

To provide a pair of contrasts, Mike Nelson is conservative, but he is a smart man who crafts more intelligent jokes with virtually no political content. Bill Hicks was a liberal and did political comedy, but he crafted intricate, detailed jokes that looked at an issue like a fine piece of crystal before smashing it into pieces.

It is possible that Gallagher's humor has drifted this way because he's realized that this is how to please the audience that comes to see him. It is more likely that Gallagher's audience comes to see him because "Gooble gobble, gooble gobble! We accept him! We accept him! One of us! One of us!"
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:12 PM on July 2, 2010 [6 favorites]

Seriously, people, the poor guy played Bremerton. That ought to be punishment enough.

Bremerton. Think about it.
posted by warbaby at 4:12 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Another comic who switched from left to batshit insane after 9/11 was Larry Miller.

Oh stop it now. STOP IT!
posted by Splunge at 4:19 PM on July 2, 2010

I know. I have a hard time thinking of the guy who coined the phrase, "Do you see a parabola up my nose?" as being a rightie.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:21 PM on July 2, 2010

Beck aside, though, my question about Scientological intensity in Entertainmentland still stands.

Scientology actively recruits actors and actresses and treats them to retreats at their "Celebrity Centers". The experience of a normal Scientology member and a famous Hollywood celebrity is very different. Some of them even get private apartments and cottages paid for by Scientology. I'd like to state upfront, this isn't libel, it's from a signed affidavit, so it's documented evidence.

Scientology recruits celebrities because they know the huge amount of influence they have on our culture. They can use them to further recruit normal (money-paying) people.
posted by formless at 4:23 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

MetaFilter: throwing up in my head a little bit.
posted by Splunge at 4:24 PM on July 2, 2010

Gallager always creeped me out. I used to think it was because I hate getting sticky and the thought of being covered in watermelon gore was disturbing.

Now I know it was just my gut telling me that the guy is just bad news.
posted by TooFewShoes at 4:31 PM on July 2, 2010

From jquinby's link:

Man hits Pop Tarts with tennis racquet. Man says "Un muchacho quiero comer," which means "I want to eat a boy" and the boys look scared.

If he is a self-hating closeted homosexual, then that is a damn funny joke his subconscious is pulling right there.
posted by formless at 4:32 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

man, I remember as a kid seeing Gallagher on TV and being like WOW HE GETS TO SMASH FRUIT! Seriously throwing up in my head a little.
posted by Wuggie Norple at 4:33 PM on July 2, 2010

Speaking of Bremerton, I think the only reason we're even hearing about this show is because it happened kinda close to Seattle. We're not going to hear about his HUGE BLOWOUT that happened last Saturday in Rooster Poot, Kentucky or his Big Show in Horse Head Holler, WV.

Yea, I made those towns up because I'm having a really hard time imagining places where he could do that act without getting his ass kicked. Sorry KY and WV!
posted by snsranch at 4:58 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

From what my formerly Mormon husband tells me about Mormon theology, it would give Scientology a run for its money on the wackmeter. Just saying. But the average Mormon freaks me out a lot less than the average Scientologist.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:03 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

It doesn't sound too far off from the John Valby show I had the misfortune of working in New Haven, CT about a dozen years ago. Don't think he got his ass kicked at any point that night.
posted by jtron at 5:03 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Well, lets face it. People who see Gallagher In Concert and say, "Okay, I'm going to that", aren't going to kick his ass. They are his audience, as has been discussed up-thread. They're his people.
posted by Splunge at 5:09 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Gallagher - Extremely Not Funny.

I cannot believe Bill Hicks is dead and this motherfucker is still touring.
Can't say this enough.
posted by Dr-Baa at 5:09 PM on July 2, 2010

my gut telling me that the guy is just bad news.

As a kid I saw his vhs concert vids from the early 80's. They seemed innocent enough.

Have we established if this is the original Gallagher or is this the brother/stand-in?
posted by archivist at 5:21 PM on July 2, 2010

Re Lileks, this piece has a bit about his switch from interior-design critic to frothing warblogger.
posted by emjaybee at 5:37 PM on July 2, 2010

Thanks, formless. Sadly, that's kinda what I suspected.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:42 PM on July 2, 2010

The older I get, the more liberal I get...

You know when I was a teenager I was kind of a dreamy liberal, a kind, thoughtful liberal who imagined that everything would turn out for the best once a few old fogies died off. Now I've turned into a crabby old bitch who just wants to kick a few tea baggers in the ole tea bags. I think I've become less tolerant in my progressive views because this country is racing into Right Wing Territory on a Nascar fueled with soda.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 5:59 PM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

Well. That was...

Anyway,

Tries to say "espectaculo," which means "show," but says "specta-culo," which sort of means butt-gazer.

in the "Gallagher es muy mala!" link made me laugh.
posted by blue funk at 6:17 PM on July 2, 2010

Heh. I've gone from a hormone fueled 16 year old to a religious 16 year old to an occult, Crowley reading 16 year old to a married 16 year old to a divorced 16 year old to a liberal anarchist mindfuck 16 year old to a depressed suicidal 16 year old to a coke addled 16 year old to a remarried 16 year old with a child to a second divorce 16 year old to a depressed no suicide 16 year old in therapy to a 16 year old with the love of my life who dropped me like a sack of shit 16 year old to a bunch of years that are blurry with me getting hit by a car and dieing on the operating table 16 year old to a getting my shit together 16 year old to a found my love and my life partner on the internet and we have been together for 15 years and now I'm 51 and I realize that I can't stay 16 all my life 51 year old with a bad attitude but a wonderful girlfriend and a 26 year old son...

...kind of guy.
posted by Splunge at 6:32 PM on July 2, 2010 [3 favorites]

Gallagher's "mouthwash on my balls!" obession about gays wanting to taste them reminds me of this.
posted by mccarty.tim at 6:44 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I can't believe it took 223 comments before that Onion article got linked.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 6:48 PM on July 2, 2010 [6 favorites]

The older I get, the more liberal I get...

Yup.

Now I've turned into a crabby old bitch who just wants to kick a few tea baggers in the ole tea bags.

Yup.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 6:52 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

He doesn't seem to like anything at all. Gone is the self-effacing butt of the joke on the Satellite of Love, to replaced by what is apparently a crotchety old guy with the rheumatism and a touch of Satan sciatica, wearing a relatively young guy as a disguise.

I'll tell ya one thing - I got to meet Mike about two months ago (brag!), and he is absolutely, fucking, totally, truly GORGEOUS and looks like he's maybe 35. Seriously, he's ripped and tan and tall and just so, so hot. When I first met him I literally didn't realize that "Mike" was "MIKE FUCKING NELSON." If it's a disguise, it's a goddamned good one for real rrrowwwrrrr.
posted by tristeza at 8:02 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Gallagher was never funny.
posted by mike3k at 8:08 PM on July 2, 2010

No, I think it's just a typical metal degeneration for a lot of middle-aged white males.

You mean something like this?
posted by krinklyfig at 8:14 PM on July 2, 2010

Sad. I enjoyed his rants on the school system and the illogic of the english language back in the day. I guess making fun of the establishment wasn't paying enough.

At best he was a very low-rent, prop-comic version of George Carlin - and that's really a stretch, because Carlin was a true pro. When I was a teenager I confess to liking Gallagher, at least when I was really stoned, but even his old stuff doesn't hold up for me. He was never very good, but back in the day he was less angry and reactionary.
posted by krinklyfig at 8:40 PM on July 2, 2010

Don't forget John Ratzenberger

That quote sounds like something Cliff Clavin would say. Not that far off from his character. Sort of like Craig T. Nelson, Kelsey Grammer and Scott Baio, too (who is alarmingly like Chachi in reality). It's not a surprise to me that any of them are conservative. Kirk Cameron is a bit more on the evangelical side, which also doesn't surprise me. Mike Nelson, well, I wouldn't have known either way, but I still like MST3K. Joel was better, but that was always true.
posted by krinklyfig at 8:53 PM on July 2, 2010

Bremerton. Think about it.

I've been thinking about it for the past couple of minutes. I still have no idea what you're trying to say, or why.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:04 PM on July 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

It has very nice nuclear vessels.

Other than that there's not a lot to recommend it.
posted by Artw at 9:19 PM on July 2, 2010

I realized Gallagher sucked at about exactly the same time I realized pro wrestling wasn't real.

I was 7.
posted by rollbiz at 9:27 PM on July 2, 2010

It surprises you that people pay for this? Have seen Larry The Cable Guy's routine?
posted by NortonDC at 9:34 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm amazed that the conversation has gone on this long without anybody mentioning Joel Hodgson's undying enmity towards Gallagher. Hodgson (another '80s prop comic prior to creating MST3K) once met Gallagher when they both played the same comedy club. Apparently, Gallagher was really rude and insulting and started messing with Joel's props, breaking a few of them in the process. IMHO, there was a little bit more detail about the incident in the MST3K Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, but not much more than that.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:10 PM on July 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Wait, replace that IMHO with an IIRC. That's what I get for drinking while Mefi-ing.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:11 PM on July 2, 2010

Not much to say here that I didn't say the first time around... Though I'd add that the ineptitude of Gallagher's race- and gay-baiting is a sign of its impotence. It's literally clownish. ("China people" is almost politically correct, when you think about it.) He's Archie Bunker in a fright wig, and some people still find it funny -- or at least they don't mind it, while they wait patiently for the smashing.

Also, Cool Papa Bell is absolutely right about Jeff Dunham. But Dunham's stage act, and his criminally unfunny TV show, may do him in with St. Peter.

But far important in this thread is the fact that I went to college with Ellen Forney, and had a massive crush on her in drawing class.
posted by turducken at 12:24 AM on July 3, 2010

I'm amazed that the conversation has gone on this long without anybody mentioning Joel Hodgson's undying enmity towards Gallagher. Hodgson (another '80s prop comic prior to creating MST3K) once met Gallagher when they both played the same comedy club.

The early seasons of MST are liberally sprinkled with digs at Gallagher. Check out the sketch "Things that are funny floating," in Rocketship X-M.

Apparently, Gallagher was really rude and insulting and started messing with Joel's props, breaking a few of them in the process. IMHO, there was a little bit more detail about the incident in the MST3K Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, but not much more than that.

I don't recall reading that but it's been awhile since I perused the Guide.
posted by JHarris at 2:44 AM on July 3, 2010

I know I'm a little late on this, but I just learned that Michael Jackson was a Jehova's Witness... This was kind of surprising, and, given the way Witnesses discourage people from forming relationships with non-Witnesses, kind of helps to explain a few things.
posted by kaibutsu at 2:52 AM on July 3, 2010

Janine Turner?!

Oh fucking hell. There goes a boatload of fantasies.
posted by DarkForest at 4:00 AM on July 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

An interview from the venerable Ain't It Cool News:

"Hodgson: (Laughing) That was a little personal vendetta I had with Gallagher. I met him once at a club, and he was picking through my props and looking at them. I said, "Yeah, I do prop comedy, too!" And he said, "You call them 'props'!?!? When a surgeon goes in to work on somebody, do you think he calls his instruments 'props'?" And I just kind of went, "Whatever, man. They're 'props'!" He was kind of a dick, so any chance I had to take a shot at him, I would. That's his thing. He's a very bombastic man, so it's okay."
posted by cottoncandybeard at 5:38 AM on July 3, 2010 [3 favorites]

Wow, what an asshole. And he hasn't had a hit record playing in his brother's band for, like, ages.
posted by clvrmnky at 5:39 AM on July 3, 2010

Astro Zombie: CrayDrygu said it better than I did. I don't mean at all to imply that all homophobia is secretly gay people. Just that there's a particular vibe that those people give off, all wrapped around how tempting and enticing the gay life is, that straight homophobes don't tend to display. Basically, in my view, there's two kinds of homophobes -- the "gee that's icky I wish they wouldn't be all up in my face about it" kind (i.e. the straight ones) and the "those pretty gay boys are lurking everywhere waiting to corrupt and entice TOTALLY STRAIGHT MEN LIKE ME with their irresistible buttsechs!" Those are the ones that, if they're high profile enough, eventually get caught with a wide-stance rent boy. I'm saying Gallagher strikes me as the latter sort.
posted by rusty at 6:30 AM on July 3, 2010

And he said, "You call them 'props'!?!? When a surgeon goes in to work on somebody, do you think he calls his instruments 'props'?"

How jaw-droppingly appropriate, then, that he's famous for using a massive sledgehammer.
posted by PlusDistance at 7:52 AM on July 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

Incidentally, if anyone wonders if Lileks is still crazy after all these years, note this post on Roy Edroso's blog where Lileks fulminates about his now-nine-year-old daughter hearing the president say "ass". (Lileks fans here probably want to believe that he's just taking the piss, but when you read his original post, not really so much, sorry.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:49 AM on July 3, 2010

Oh, I didn't mean to accuse you specifically of anything, rusty; I just think that collectively, there's starting to be a "Oh, he's so homophobic he must be a homosexual" thing going on, reflected in this specific piece. And I suspect it's popular because all of a sudden it clears straight people from responsibility for homophobia. But even if it were true -- even if homophobia is primarily perpetuated by self-loathing gays and lesbians -- it's still straight people who benefit from it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:19 AM on July 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

Gallagher is a preview of what Sarah Palin will be like in 20 years, but without the mallet.
posted by warbaby at 1:05 PM on July 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm scared to google the political views of anyone I have ever found funny now. Are Tim and Eric neo-Nazis?
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:11 PM on July 3, 2010 [4 favorites]

I will admit to being a little surprised to hear that Mike Nelson is conservative, but the more I ponder on it, the more I'm glad to hear it -- not only for the reasons others have mentioned upthread (i.e. Joel and Kevin love him, he's gracious to fans, he doesn't advance extreme and odious political arguments via weaksauce comedy), but also for this one: Any conservative who can make fun of Robert K. "B-1 Bob" Dornan for 90 minutes is my kind of conservative.

I also seem to remember Mike taking a dig at G. Gordon Liddy at least once, but that could be a sexual fantasy faulty memory on my part.
posted by bakerina at 7:35 PM on July 3, 2010 [1 favorite]

As a kid, I liked Gallagher on "Make Me Laugh" but when the contestants didn't laugh he could get kinda scary...
posted by jeffen at 12:16 AM on July 6, 2010

A new post from the author of the original article:

In case you just can't get enough of the wacky world of Gallagher, I typed up all the right-wing, homo-obsessed, crazybrains "jokes" that I didn't have room for in my article.

posted by Xalf at 2:51 PM on July 8, 2010

In fairness, I would call those racist, homophobic and misogynistic, not necessarily "right wing."
posted by dersins at 3:22 PM on July 8, 2010