A “1/2 Hour Comedy Hour” Review

19 Feb, 2007 by John Hawkins

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Fox’s widely discussed, new conservative comedy show, “The Half Hour News Hour,” debuted this week-end. Here’s the blow by blow breakdown of the opening show:

— The opening segment with Rush and Ann wasn’t terrible.

— Next was a news segment, which was so-so until they got to the book segment that was painfully, horribly bad. Additionally, it featured atrociously drawn book covers. Small detail, but it makes them look small-time and amateurish.

— There was an Anti-ACLU joke ad that should have been good, but wasn’t.

— Back with the news that led into the Barrack Obama bit that was released early. So-so.

— Ed Begley jokes about his electric car. It was OK.

— There was a T-Shirt guy bit. It had its moments, but would have been a lot better if it wasn’t so preachy and if one of the writers had stolen some material from The People’s Cube.

— Another fake ad featuring an actress talking about celebrity something or another. Lame.

— More of the Ed Begley bit. This was semi-funny.

— The Six degrees of global warming skit. This was the best part of the show. Fairly funny.

— Stop the ACLU commercial #2. Again, should have been good, wasn’t really.

— The Ed Begley bit continued. A little funny.

Summary: This show was not timely at all and at times you felt like their first priority was getting across a message, not making people laugh. Perhaps more importantly, this may be the least edgy show made since Leave it to Beaver. I don’t know if that’s because they think conservatives are easily offended or because the writers know Hollywood is run by liberals and they’re afraid if they really rip the left, they won’t be able to get jobs elsewhere.

I will say this, if the show doesn’t get a LOT FUNNIER than this, it’s doomed — and that’s from someone who wants the show to succeed and encouraged people not to rush to judgment last week.