"Have you seen how miserable and how miserable-looking a lot of the students are. They're deliberately uglifying themselves. You see them on TikTok..."

"They're out of shape. They're asexual. They're, like, rejecting the truth in beauty. They all look like rejects from a loony bin. I'd steer clear of college too."

Said Greg Gutfeld on "The Five" a few weeks ago, and it's become a much-used sound on TikTok. Videos collected here. You can scroll through them for yourself. I'll just select one to show you how young people are arguing back at Gutfeld:

I'm trying to read this Slate article about Greg Gutfeld, but I can't get past the performative garnering.

There's one word I've been following ever since Jeb Bush low-energied his way to defeat, and that word is "garner." There's an upstart word on my radar. I've been talking about it since last Saturday. That word is "performative."

This morning Meade sends me the link to "A Fox News Host’s Strange Backstory Shows How Liberals Lost Comedy/Conservatives now have one of the most popular shows in late night" — and I run into this:

Gutfeld has long demonstrated an obvious knack for garnering attention through what would now be described as trolling. Developing a highly performative, occasionally over-the-top style of comedic presentation....

Speaking of trolling... I don't want to be paranoid... but I feel... summoned. Who does a garner/performative one-two like that?

Anyway, here's a passage from the article, in case you're hankering for the substantive:

"I have a lot more in common with liberals in terms of creativity, music and all that stuff — Republicans are always seen as staid and stodgy."

Said Greg Gutfeld — who likes punk rock and metal — quoted in "Greg Gutfeld has risen to the top at Fox News — and that’s no joke" (WaPo).

Also from the article (and this has nothing to do with Gutfeld's purported commonality with liberals):

The rare panelist inclined to regularly push back against Gutfeld is Tyrus, a 6-foot-8-inch, 365-pound Republican actor and professional wrestler, who towers over the 5-foot-4-inch host. “He’s never asked me to share his vision,” Tyrus says in an interview. Tyrus, who is African American, is a central figure in the show’s relentless lampooning of woke culture. He appears in regular skits as “The Angry Black Male” to mock activists who he and Gutfeld believe overuse and misuse assertions of racial inequities.

"Fox News' 'Gutfeld!' beat all the other late-night shows Wednesday after the liberal hosts collectively hyped their so-called 'Climate Night.'"

"Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, James Corden, Trevor Noah and Samantha Bee traded in comedy for activism on Wednesday night and joined forces to sound the alarm on climate change. Going beyond the opening monologues, Kimmel had multiple climate scientists on his show, Meyers interviewed President Biden's climate czar John Kerry and Colbert spoke candidly with 'Mother Earth.'"

 
Fox News reports.

Meanwhile, The Daily Mail reports: 

Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg has mocked President Joe Biden over his promises to tackle climate change via his 'Build Back Better' plan. During a climate rally in Berlin on Friday, she [said]... "World leaders are talking about 'building back better,' promising green investments and setting vague and distant climate targets in order to say that they are taking climate action.... When you look at what we are actually investing the money in — the money that is supposed to be building back better — it shows the hypocrisy of our leaders."

So... even the lightweight activism of "Climate Night" turned audiences away, but Greta Thunberg won't accept that the U.S.-style climate activism is anywhere nearly enough. 

I want to reprint something I blogged back when the lockdown began, in early April 2020, "Why aren't we seeing the argument that when we phase out the economic shutdown, we need to open it up into the Green New Deal?":

"Fox News found a good thing. They can make fun of liberals and they are doing it to great success...."

"I've been asked over the years many times, 'Why isn't there a conservative comedy?' And I would always give the answer, which I think was the true answer, ‘There’s not good fodder for it. 'You know, the liberals aren't crazy. This was my answer for many years.… Now, I don't think it's the same situation. I keep saying to the liberals, 'If what you’re [doing] sounds like an Onion headline, stop.' And... this is why there's an opening for conservative comedy. Because when you tear down statues of Abraham Lincoln in the Land of Lincoln, 'Land of Lincoln cancels Lincoln,' it's an Onion headline. You know, 'Three-year-olds pick their own gender' is an Onion headline. You know, a lot of this stuff that's going on the left now, it's, you know, 'Seattle votes to decriminalize crime.' Now, the problem is that [conservatives] don't know how to do comedy, but if they found someone who did.... Because comedy goes where the funny is. And there is funny on the left now as well as the right." 

Said Bill Maher, quoted in "Bill Maher amazed by Greg Gutfeld, 'new king of late night': 'Fox News found a good thing'/The liberal comedian says the Fox host has taken advantage of 'an opening for conservative comedy'" (Fox News). 

The segment continued, with Katty Kay saying "Gutfeld!" is like a Trump rally, but Ralph Reed saying: "I know Greg. He's funny. He's smart. He's quick. And particularly when you put him with an ensemble as they've done where he gets to play off other people, it works."

While Kay complained that Gutfeld's show is "pretty predictable," Maher pushed back. "I could say the same thing about the [liberal late-night] shows. Absolutely... It is the one true opinion out there. If you don't have the one true opinion, don't go in front of the audience that comes because they don't like it.... And they're there more to clap for the opinion they already believe in than to laugh. And that's what changed.... Everything became partisan. … It became more important to cheer for your team than to actually have a laugh." 

I don't think that's "Bill Maher amazed by Greg Gutfeld." It's more Bill Maher disgusted that partisanship has taken priority over comedy on what are supposedly comedy shows and acknowledging that the conservatives are now able to do that too, notably on "Gutfeld!"

Here's that segment in its original context, beginning with some anti-conservative memes:

"This is my last day hosting The Five. Covid taught me a lot of lessons. As the show goes back to the New York studio, I’ll be staying in DC."

Said Juan Williams, quoted in "Juan Williams Is Suddenly Out at Fox News’ ‘The Five’—And Insiders Are Blaming Co-Host Greg Gutfeld/Multiple sources familiar with the matter said one of the major drivers behind Williams’ departure was Gutfeld’s desire for 'The Five' to return to the studio" (The Daily Beast).

I don't watch news shows on TV much at all, but this is one show I end up seeing now and then, because the TV is on in my vicinity. It's hard to picture the show without Williams, but I think the group needs to be around the table together to get a good dynamic going. 

I don't like the way the headline makes a quick reader think Gutfeld disliked Willliams, but it's also obvious that the issue was getting back together in the same place, not personal antagonism. The article does try to generate a sense that the on-air fighting over political issues had something to with Williams's departure. But that's the show! The disagreement was the idea. Why wouldn't Greg like that?

In case the idea of Don Lemon leaving CNN is distressing you, Don Lemon says "Relax! I'm not leaving," smiles a charming smile, and says he'll explain everything on Monday.

Hey everyone. Not what you think. I’m not leaving CNN. Tune in for the handoff on Monday at 10pE and I’ll explain. pic.twitter.com/oOwDferY2i

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) May 15, 2021

Okay. That's what I got from clicking on the Twitter sidebar. Here's the NY Post article on the subject:

Lemon shocked viewers by ending his news show Friday with... “It’s been really, really great. This is the last night that will be ‘CNN Tonight with Don Lemon.'” he said. “So, I appreciate all the years of ‘CNN Tonight with Don Lemon,’ but changes are coming, and I will fill you in.”

No NYT article yet, but I see something there from a month ago: "CNN Is in a Post-Trump Slump. What Does That Mean for Don Lemon?/The prime-time host on the future of cable news, the urgency of conversations about race and whether CNN is a boys’ club." It's a podcast interview. Excerpt: 

"[Pelosi] used a remarkable number of writing implements – more than three trays littered with them – to sign her name on the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump."

"The pens, engraved with her signature, were intended as souvenirs for Pelosi’s allies. She carefully signed the documents, apparently stroke by stroke, using different pens for each portion of her signature. Then she distributed them to impeachment managers and committee members."

From "Pen-t up anger: Republicans pounce on Pelosi over ceremonial writing tools" (in The Guardian), which I'm only reading because I noticed the headline in a sidebar while I was writing a post that was largely about an odd use of a hyphen and I was extra-curious about "Pen-t."

People got angry about pens, and a pun was in reach — "pen"/"pent" — and the headline writer strained for it, deploying that hyphen (putting the pun in punctuation).

It really is a strain, too, because not only was the "t" in "pent" a problem, but the whole idea of "pent-up anger" is wrong. I don't think the pens really made anyone angry. Trump supporters simply jumped at a great opportunity to savage and mock their opponents. And if that counts as anger, it wasn't "pent-up," because Trump supporters have been expressing themselves all along, every chance they get. We're very expressive these days.

Speaking of very expressive, here's Greg Gutfeld:

Here's @greggutfeld losing his mind over Pelosi giving away pens she used to sign impeachment articles, followed by footage of Trump giving away dozens of pens like candy mere hours ago following his China deal signing ceremony pic.twitter.com/91R27O5nim

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 15, 2020

And Rupar has lost his mind if he believes Gutfeld was losing his mind. Gutfeld was performing an excellent comic riff. It was effective and entertaining, and I presume Rupar knows it and is just rather dully using the boring internet approach of characterizing anything colorful as crazy.

ADDED: Trump's signing of the China deal is not like what Pelosi did at all. He quickly signs his name with one pen then hands a whole lot of pens over to be distributed as the ceremonial pens. Pelosi writes her signature in little segments, switching from pen to pen, so that each pen has the special magic of having been used to sign the document:

"I didn't roast Hollywood for being a bunch of liberals. I myself am a liberal. Nothing wrong with that. I roasted them for wearing their liberalism like a medal."

"I'm such a snowflake, liberal, I can't even really hate them for it. But my job is to take the piss. I did that."

Tweeted Ricky Gervais (after some people criticized his comic performance as host of the Golden Globes).

On Fox News ("The Five"), Greg Gutfeld analyzed the politics and guessed at the structure of Gervais's emotions:

"He's [Gervais] is upset because he's so confident in his liberal ideas that the refusal to listen to other ideas, which is happening right now on the regressive left, enrages him.;.. It's a pathetic sign of weakness...and I think that's what's fueling his fire and why he's so disgusted and angry -- but do not mistake that for him becoming a conservative."

I don't know if that explains Gervais, but I understand the dynamic. What Gutfeld said would work as a key to explaining what I've been doing on this blog these past 16 years. Suddenly, I think Gutfeld is talking about himself. I read Gutfeld's Wikipedia page, which links to this 2009 interview in Reason, where he says:

As a teenager, I was a liberal. It helped me in school.... I started to re-examine myself when I went to Berkeley. It was a really bad idea. It was just walking around with a target on your back.

I became a conservative by being around liberals and I became a libertarian by being around conservatives. You realize that there's something distinctly in common between the two groups, the left and the right; the worst part of each of them is the moralizing. On the left, you have people who want to dictate your behavior under the guise of tolerance. Unless you disagree with them. Then the tolerance goes out the window. Which kind of negates the whole idea of tolerance. That's the politically correct moralizing. Then when you become a conservative, the other kind of moralizing comes from religion....

I'm enjoying this Twitter spat between Greg Gutfeld and Molly Jong-Fast (the journalist/daughter of Erica Jong who got the big scoop interview of Lisa Page).

I don’t want to call it too early, but I think @greggutfeld may have the dumbest take on my Lisa Page interview. https://t.co/b9FDjYl1c9

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 2, 2019

Thats no rebuttal. You’re the recipient of media welfare and the drooling posts after your “scoop” prove it. https://t.co/tXdb6xJ9Jb

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) December 2, 2019

We talked about the interview yesterday, here. I didn't think there was anything in it worth reading. I just was fascinated by Page's calling attention to Trump's imitation of her boyfriend's orgasm. So I'm inclined to believe Gutfeld's "You’re the recipient of media welfare and the drooling posts after your 'scoop' prove it."

And while I'm here and talking about the attention given to the imitation orgasm, let me show you this other tweet from Jong-Fast:

Honestly, I’ve watched that clip a bunch of times and I think at this point it’s done some psychological damage. https://t.co/ZGJVtGngjW

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 3, 2019

We'd have all forgotten Trump's fake orgasm if Page and Jong-Fast hadn't dug it up and thrust it in our face yesterday. Take some responsibility.

And I think there are quite a few of us who remember having kids who suddenly needed explanations about Bill Clinton having oral sex in the White House.

But the news is the news. Keep your children away from all the news if knowing about the world as it is seems more damaging than protecting them from reality. There are so many things in the news that could hurt a youngster. Hearing a hard-breathing "I love you, I love you" from Trump is close to nothing unless the parent chooses to go graphic about it and explain what adults know. Why couldn't you just say "Oh, he's being silly and exaggerating how these 2 people were so in love with each other"?

I'm giving this my "using children in politics" tag because Hasan and Jong-Fast are just dragging children into view for their own political purposes. It's the desperate old what-about-the-children? plea.

IN THE COMMENTS: Freeman Hunt said:

Windows 10 was popping up little news notifications on our new computer, so when my ten year old logged on to math class this morning, he was greeted with the news that teens tortured a deer and a woman hung her children with a leash. The notifications are now disabled.

I think I can handle explaining Trump's impression.

Betrayed by dogface.

"Pretty sure there was a better photo of me," thinks the dog, wistfully. https://t.co/RhHoJanw98

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) November 29, 2019