Dennis Miller and the Conservatives of Comedy

The subject of the first two segments on The O'Reilly Factor tonight was the back-and-forth between Jon Stewart and Bernie Goldberg (and Bill O'Reilly). (For those who missed last night's Daily Show, Stewart absolutely eviscerated Goldberg and Fox News.)

During both segments, O'Reilly repeatedly complained that conservative comics don't have their own shows.

In fact, O'Reilly's own query on the matter illustrated exactly why conservative comedy isn't funny:

I also said there are no conservative comics who have their own television program. Now, I don't want to be racist, but is there a blacklist?

Wow. Unfunny and borderline offensive. Sounds pretty much like conservative comedy.

As it turns out, there must not be any funny conservative comics.

Take Dennis Miller, who happened to be making his umpteenth appearance on The Factor to make some unfunny and borderline offensive jokes of his own. Miller cracked that Obama would “rather be at home figuring out how to tax this volcano.” Zing!

As for Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Miller said that advocates for repealing it will never see eye-to-eye with the military brass, because “the only time they wanna see a guy dressed up in a uniform is when they're going to see the Village People.” (A joke so lame and predictable even O'Reilly replied, “I knew the Village People were going to come up.” When O'Reilly calls you predictable...)

Miller also threw in a childish shot at Speaker Nancy Pelosi, something he does virtually every time he's on. (An even unfunnier Don Rickles?)

Oh, and Miller suggested that they rename the Pew Poll the “Aromatic Poll or get Airwick to sponsor it.” Hey-O!

Dennis Miller is clearly the foremost “conservative comic.” And he appears on Fox News regularly.

So why doesn't Fox News offer him a show?

It's not as though Fox News hasn't ventured into comedy before (Glenn Beck aside). Remember The Half Hour News Hour? Yeah, me neither. But according to TVNewser, the news satire show ran for 15 episodes in 2007.

The Half Hour News Hour had conservative star power. Rush Limbaugh made appearances, including as the President with Ann Coulter as his Vice President.

The show even had ratings. It won its Sunday night time slot practically every week.

So why was it cancelled?

Perhaps it wasn't funny. Based on these clips, it clearly wasn't.

Fox News VP Bill Shine said it “performed admirably in the ratings” but “we are considering ways to retool the show for future scheduling needs.”

You can draw your own conclusion, but if O'Reilly really wants to know why are there are no conservative comics with their own shows, he should ask his employers.