I don't love this show but I don't hate it either. It isn't news and it isn't meant to be. It's mildly entertaining. I only watch it because it's the closest Fox can come to a conservative version of the Daily Show and Colbert Report, and so it at least offers a somewhat worthy alternative perspective. I must admit, though, that I generally get way more insight from Stewart and Colbert... not that I watch those shows for insight.
Even though I'm not a conservative, I do have some libertarian leanings and so that is why I watch this show sometimes. I do wish it were a bit more entertaining and I'd prefer it had less of the superficial edginess. Stewart and Colbert actually make me laugh out loud, but I've never laughed out loud for this show. Gutfeld's humor often falls flat for me.
On the plus side, the people on this show seem to be enjoying what they do and they don't take themselves too seriously. My main complaint is that Gutfeld often makes broad generalizations. I get the sense that he is partly just trying to incite discussion and so is purposely exaggerating, but I also get the sense that he lacks ability towards subtle analysis.
In trying to be humorous, Gutfeld often comes off as snarky or sophmorishly crude. I've noticed that some of his guests are put off by his low level of humor and his overt sexist comments are only forgivable as he at least puts some thought in to them. I actually love crude humor when it's highly intelligent such as with Monty Python, but Gutfeld never reaches that level of intelligent humor.
One thing that I like about shows like the Daily Show is that Stewart usually comes off as sincere and even humble in his interviews, but Gutfeld doesn't usually come off as either sincere or humble... not saying that he exactly comes off as the opposite of those but for whatever reason I don't get any genuine sense of who Gutfeld is as a person. On the other hand, compared to other conservative commentors, Gutfeld doesn't come off as having a severely biased agenda. He is who he is. For me, it's partly just an issue of personality or maybe it's just Gutfeld's tv persona. There is just something that slightly annoys me about Gutfeld, but it doesn't annoy me too much.
Part of the problem with this show is that since it plays late it doesn't attract interesting guests. If Gutfeld had a show like Bill Maher with a wider variety of big name guests, then this could be a good show. Maher even has extreme conservatives like Coulter on his show.
I wish there was a conservative version of the Daily Show or Colbert Report. Sadly, no such show exists. This is apparently the closest that conservative mainstream media comes to humorous political commentary. I suppose it's better than nothing.
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Sat, Oct 24, 2009Season 2 : Ep. 608 (43:42)
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