elfs | Laugh. Because the alternative is rage.

America has a tradition of political mockery. H. L. Menken was surely one of its greatest practitioners, and Mark Twain competes with him for the title. Although written mockery was commonplace, even more commonplace was the caricature or editorial cartoon, with Thomas Nast as its traditional progenitor and people like David Horsey and Peter Bagge the modern carriers of the tradition.

That that tradition would do well in other media, such as, oh, say, television. And such a tradition does well on a continuum: at one end of the spectrum we have The Onion, with its War for the White House, which uses fake newsclips and sketch comedy well-informed by real-world politics, and at the other end of the spectrum we have Rachel Maddow, who with a wit far more biting and accurate than anything the right wing currently has, presents herself as a legitimate pundit using the real news and talking points of the day on which to base her commentary and interviews. In the middle we have Stephanie Miller, John Stewart and Steven Colbert, who use video and audio clips of politicians and pundits saying ridiculous things, and then mock them with sketch comedy of their own.

Right now, there ain't a whole lot of this coming out of the Republican side of the media. It might be because there's not a whole lot funny about an unending and yet unendurable war, our children's future in hock to the current generation of fat-cats, our image loathed around the world, a broken military, or a failing economy.

But while outrage and bile are the order of the day on ~~talk~~shout-show show television, wit and laughter are apparently beyond the pale, and I've now heard or read several pundits dismiss Maddow for refusing to identify herself as "a comedian" the way Dennis Miller does.

Nast and Menken found the long enough lever with which to move worlds. So have Stewart and Colbert, and even the Onion makes its own nasty points with like "John McCain Accidentally Left In Campaign Bus Overnight" and "Obama Promises To Stop America's Shitty Jobs From Going Overseas." If anything, these people have managed to significantly raise the level of discourse by making the news much more palatable. John Stewart is by far the best interviewer on the air, surpassing Letterman and Leno, and Maddow's indignant "really?" whenever a pol says the indefensible serves a public purpose far better than either O'Reilly or Olbermann's posturing at the camera.

In the meantime, the correct response is not to label Maddow dismissively, or to argue that she shouldn't label herself; it's to to better, to make your points more clearly and with style. At this point, though, the circular firing squad of drunk Republican attack monkeys clearly has its paws full, and finding the next generation of spokespeople for conservatism. And that's going to be hard when the litmus test for whether or not you deserve the support of the Republican party is going to be, "Do you support Sarah Palin?"

You know that old joke about how a guy goes to jail, and the jokes are so old that prisoners just shout out "number 21!" "number 57!" and the rest of the prisoners laugh? And so the newcomer tries, "Number 90!" and nobody laughs, and his cellmate says, "Well, some people just don't know how to tell a joke."

If you're old enough, you might remember this one, too:

A vast wasteland, filled with ice and snow.

It'll remind her of home.