History of Right-Wing Comedians Punching Down

Roseanne was supposed to be the big comedy breakout star of Trump’s America… and look how that turned out. So, why are there so few right-wing Republican comedians who can extend the comedic olive branch across both sides of the political aisle? And how come every time there’s a Republican version of The Daily Show - it fails?

We dive into the fine art of right-wing comedy and its proclivity to punch down rather than punch up….

Today’s episode jumps off from a story I did for the Observer - on the release of Nick DiPaolo’s right-wing comedy special that he deemed “Too dangerous for Netflix and too honest for Comedy Central.”

History of Tim Conway

Tim Conway was one of the greatest second bananas in comedy history. Sadly, he passed away on May 14th at the age of 85. Conway’s comedy career started on a local TV station in Ohio, and he made his mark in sketches alongside Harvey Korman on the Carol Burnett Show. He also starred in the much overlooked TV movie: Roll Freddy, Roll.

We love the comedy work of Tim Conway - and today’s CH101 episode is a tribute!

History of Alex Jones on Austin Public Access TV

Alex Jones began his career in Austin, Texas, back in the ’90s, as a local cable access cult figure - and built a rabid national audience by spewing out conspiracy theories.

To set the stage, ACTV (Austin Community Access TV) in the ’90s was pure Austin at it’s weirdest. Find out how Jones jumped on the scene as an amped up 22-year old - and originally wanted to be a standup comedian. Learn what happened when he got in a fight in the parking lot of ACTV - and claimed he was attacked by a man with “strange goat eyes.”

Read Harmon’s entire story about the incident in the NY Observer.