The various obits and other reactions to Hunter S. Thompson’s death have crystallized something that I’ve been thinking for awhile: the political left used to be good at being funny, and they’re just not anymore.
Look at the ‘60s, and all the stories that used to be told by my college mentor, Jerry Cohen: There was Thompson. There was Abbie Hoffman. There was the SDS and Bernadine Dohrn, known for sporting a button that read “cunnilingus is cool; fellatio is fun.” There was The Realist, reporting that LBJ had sexually assaulted JFK’s neck wound on Air Force One. Say what will you about the veracity of their politics and their ultimate legacy- the New Left was never short on laughs.
Compare that with the shrill, humorless dolts who make up most of the left today. It probably started with the wretched rise of political correctness, which sought to take anything that could ever possibly be construed as funny and turn it into a thought crime. The job was then finished by the rise of the I-hate-Bush movement, which is so serious in its single-minded obsession that it’s incapable of mounting any comedic argument apart from “Bush is a moron, na na na na na na.”
(Yes, Jon Stewart is a singular exception. But while he’s certainly left-of-center, Stewart is clearly a comedian first and a liberal second, and his job also entails bashing Democrats nearly every day).
Even a legitimate genius like HST himself fell victim to this late in life. But speaking of Thompson, consider his legendary 1994 anti-obit of Richard Nixon, “He Was a Crook.” It’s vicious, biting, and hilarious- and you sense that it channels the collective bile of an entire leftist generation. When Reagan died last year, did anyone even come close to such a thing? Of course not. And I doubt they will whenever Bush passes on either.
No, I’m not saying that I want the Chicago Seven, Weathermen and SLA to come back. But look on the bright side: if they did, maybe they'd kidnap Paris Hilton.
Posted by Stephen Silver at February 22, 2005 11:09 PMcunnilingus is cool; fellatio is fun.
oh, were that Bernardine Dohrn *my* law clinic professor. I would have worn that button every day for a semester.