Dennis Miller’s New Radio Show
413 words.
Out of curiosity I listened to Dennis Miller’s first radio show over the weekend. I’ve always been a fan of his comedy, but I think he jumped the shark somewhere during the Dennis Miller Live show on HBO. (It was hip and edgy at first, but by the end he was doing that high-pitched giggling thing way too much.)
Now everyone knows Dennis Miller has “turned conservative” since 9/11, but I’ve only had a chance to hear his new ideology in short, 5-minute interview segments, where it’s hard to get a sense of him. So for that reason it was nice to get a chance to hear him in a more unfiltered setting (it turns out there’s much I would agree with him on in theory).
The first show wasn’t fantastic, but it wasn’t bad, either. It certainly wasn’t a comedy show, so anyone expecting that kind of material should definitely look elsewhere. It was serious commentary with a few one-liners thrown in here and there (much like his stint on Monday Night Football). One thing I liked is the sense that he’s mulled over the issues and genuinely believes what he’s saying. That’s pretty refreshing compared to people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, who just pander to the conservatives regardless of the topic. I also felt like he has some sense of humility — a recognition perhaps that his viewpoint is not the only viewpoint. (There wasn’t much opportunity to verify that, since there were only a couple of callers on the first show.)
Another thing I liked is that the last hour was completely devoted to a non-political topic (it was Dana Carvey reminiscing about Saturday Night Live). It seemed like a subtle way of saying, hey talk radio listeners, there’s more to life than partisanship. But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
On the downside, I was a little disappointed to hear the same conservative-talking-points-of-the-day that everyone else used throughout the day on blogs and radio. Last Monday the themes were the Congressional vote on troop funding (“giving a timeline to the enemy”) and Katie Couric’s interview of John Edwards (“she used ‘some people say’ a lot in her questions). (Seriously, do they have a conference call every morning or something?)
If I could listen to Internet audio during the day I’d probably tune in now and then, but it wasn’t anything to get excited about. Overall I’d give it a solid “average” rating.
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