Ask anyone who has seen at least two minutes of The Daily Show and they’ll tell you that the Fox News Channel has the capacity to be outrageously funny. Not “ha ha” funny, more like “the world is so absurd that I can either laugh or scream” funny, but funny nonetheless. Now, though, Variety says the network has decided to stop being the butt of everyone else’s jokes and start making some jokes of its own. It’s doing so with The Greg Gutfeld Show, a “comedic news hour” hosted by Fox News commentator/humorist Greg Gutfeld. The show will offer “parodies on current events, conversation on key issues, and signature monologues showcasing Gutfeld’s eclectic humor” as well as interviews with “newsmakers, [cultural] critics, and media personalities on major headlines of the week.” You know, like The Daily Show.
Longtime Fox News viewers—at least those who have yet to succumb to the network’s memory modification rays that make everyone forget about the George W. Bush presidency—will recall that this isn’t the first time the network has tried its hand at purposeful comedy. Back in 2007, Fox News launched The 1/2 Hour News Hour, a more directly satirical show with a right-wing bent. According to Wikipedia, it boasted such beloved recurring segments as “Guy White: Closet Conservative” (a cartoon about a conservative man with the most appropriate name a conservative man has ever had), “I’m the ACLU” (a series of fake ads making fun of an organization that’s stupid enough to stand up for people’s rights), and “Presidential Addresses” (a glimpse into a terrifying alternate reality in which Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are the President and Vice President).
Surprisingly, The 1/2 Hour News Hour was canceled after 17 episodes. The Greg Gutfeld Show, which will probably last longer than that, will premiere on May 31.