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IMDb user comments for
"The ½ Hour News Hour" (2007)

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75 out of 113 people found the following comment useful :-
Oh Jesus this is bad, I just threw up in my mouth., 18 febbraio 2007
Author: oregonjon da New Jersey

I'm assuming that this is the debut episode of The Half Hour News hour, airing at 10 PM on Sunday, February 18th and it is awful. The "comedians" hosting it are to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert what Colt 45 is to Dom Perignon. The jokes, if you want to call them that, are all followed by a terrible laugh track that would embarrass the worst of the 1980s sitcoms. It really isn't an issue for me that its slanted so far right, but it also seems to be slanted towards idiots who laugh at anything, or those who are partially lobotomized. The jokes are terribly unfunny, and if they put this up against Colbert or Stewart, I don't see it lasting that long. Comedy Central's newsy-ish shows may be tilted slightly to the left, but they do make fun of everyone, not just liberals, Democrats, the ACLU, and revolutionary historical figures. Avoid this show if you can, but I don't think you'll have to worry for long anyway. You might like this show if you meet two out of three of the following: 1. You dislike homosexuals. 2. You believe that global warming is hoax made up by liberal elitist "so-called" scientist. 3. You're still holding out for those WMDs in Iraq.

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52 out of 81 people found the following comment useful :-
A complete travesty, 23 febbraio 2007
1/10
Author: Avengers93 da United States

The 1/2 Hour News Hour is a complete debacle in every way. For one, it is just not funny. Even the audience its meant for (conservatives) has mostly given it a bad reaction (according to RightWingNews.com). That in itself (show meant for conservatives) presents another problem.

First it implies that the Daily Show and Colbert Report are liberally biased. While Stewart and Colbert may be liberal, the Daily Show is actually quite central, about 60-40. The tilt only being there due to a currently republican president. Just so conservatives realize this, making fun of Bush doesn't necessary make something completely liberal. Its audience has cheered Colin Powell, John McCain and even Trent Lott, while making fun of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry many times. The Colbert Report just echo's conservative thought. I think Joe Scarborough is a big fan.

Second, the Fox News Channel, a supposedly "news" channel has had major criticism for being conservatively biased. And now, they air a self-proclaimed conservative comedy show. LOL

In addition, why is the Fox News channel airing this. For one, the Fox News channel is supposed to be a "News" channel. Comedy Central airs its fake news programs since it is a "Comedy" channel. Fox News has already been attacked for spreading false information (most recently Obama's supposedly religious youth terrorism school. Proved false BTW) and now this.

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15 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
A Sad Travesty, 12 giugno 2007
1/10
Author: bohicaa da United States

Not much more to add to those already rating this show poorly. The laugh track is about the most pathetic one I have ever heard. The timing is poor and the writing is worse. I guess we can be grateful that it is only a half hour and not the hour it might have been. Also, how is it that a News Channel has a "Comedy" show?

I can't believe that some here have compared this to SNL; it doesn't even come in 50th behind it. Saturday Night Live, at its very worst, never aired a Weekend Update that was so unerringly bad.

This show seems to be a hit piece at The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. While both those shows are decidedly slanted, they take shots at both liberals as well as conservatives. TDS and TCR have great timing and great talent in both delivery and writing.

If this show would get a live audience, make comedy more important than a political agenda (they could even keep 2/3s of the political agenda), hire comedians and writers that are in the upper 40% of their respective fields then this show might have a shot at being entertaining.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Fox News needs a better approach to comedy, 19 ottobre 2007
1/10
Author: Tonkanator15 da United States

This show was canceled after 16 episodes, and rightfully so. After watching Fox News's answer to the "Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" for a few seconds, you instantly get the feeling that the show comes off as a little too....... fake.

Lets start with its production values, to be more specific, the laugh track. My god, it is an abomination of television. The show's content was not funny enough to film in front of a live studio audience, so they took the route of the midnight infomercial. The laugh track is the most comedic part of the show and the reason why I watched every episode, it fades in and out very fast and the volume of the laughter varies every joke.

Secondly, the "comedy" presented in the show and the message the producers were trying to get across never once strayed from conservatism. "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" have had success, largely due to the criticism of the political process as a whole, not just one side of the spectrum. The ways the "1/2 Hour News Hour" presented itself were not only extremely bias, but left its American viewers feeling more divided at the end of the day. Every show followed the same format, they attempted to make jokes about liberal people, organizations, and politics. They would then go on to have actors portray liberals as guests on the show, often dumb, drug users, "artsy", and Hollywood types. My biggest concern was, where were the real guests? The two Comedy Central Shows have them on every night, real guests, both liberal and conservative, with real answers to questions directed at them. Giving the other side a chance to answer is fair, and informative, and leaves viewers with a feeling that they actually just watched the news. Fox News, however, felt that it would be more effective to paint a picture of a liberal and argue with that instead, leaving the viewer with an eerie feeling as if you watching propaganda and knew it.

In the end, this show got what was coming to it. There are still talks about reworking it to have it back on the air, but regardless of whether it does or not, season 1 will go down in the history books as one of the bigger flops in cable television history.

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15 out of 25 people found the following comment useful :-
Way Too Much Like A Bad Weekend Update..., 11 marzo 2007
2/10
Author: landress da United States

I'm basing this after just two episodes, so it could get better. Actually, it'd almost be impossible for it to get worse. The premise *could* work. The country is polarized enough that, basically, a right-wing only show could develop a niche. But for that to work, I'd have to think it would need to be better than this.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure the two anchor format works for this type of show. The feel of it is trying to be a Jimmy Fallon/Tina Fey exchange from Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live. Only, the exchanges were really forced. The set seems inappropriate for the show, looking much more like a local access news show than that of a national show. The laugh track takes even more away from the show, making it look even more like a local access show.

As I said, potentially this show could develop an audience and develop. However, based off the first two episodes, it has a lot of work to do. This success or failure of this show won't have as much to do with left/right, right/wrong, Republican/Democrat, but rather whether or not it simply becomes a better quality product.

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18 out of 32 people found the following comment useful :-
Painful to watch, 13 maggio 2007
1/10
Author: duch304 da United States

I thought this was beyond awful. There are some truly(intentionally) funny Cons out there, but none are associated with this show. I mean Dennis Miller, a frequent FauxNewsChannel guest was amazing on SNL's Weekend Update.While I didn't expect him to appear on the show, it seems like he would have been a far better choice to develop/create/ consult on a show of this nature that a wrong wing idealogical hack, who is responsible for 24, the show which glorifies torture, & the propaganda piece on 9/11 that aired on ABC last year. Penn, of Penn &Teller, is also a Con(Libertarian, actually).HE could have consulted on this & added real humor, even if it was skewed to the wrong side.Colin Quinn, also an SNL Weekend Update alum, is also a Con(if you saw his show that ran on Comedy Central, you;d know this). Danny Bonaduce showed his Con side in his ad libs on his recent GSN show.Even Rupert Murdock is funny.

ANYONE with even an ounce of humor would have made this work,even to a devout Liberal, such as myself, if only it thought about what was really funny. I laugh at Miller & Quinn all the time, despite the fact that I disagree with nearly everything they say. I do so because they are actually funny, unlike this show. Duchess

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24 out of 44 people found the following comment useful :-
Politics aside....It's just not funny, 5 marzo 2007
1/10
Author: kingdomemariner da United States

Everything in this show is done on the cheap; the casting of two people who between them have no noticeable success in entertainment, the horrible writing, the campy laugh track, and the guest appearances. Regardless of if you are from the right, middle or left, funny is funny, and this is NOT FUNNY. A right wing comedy could work if the writers could write and the actors act, this show can do neither. BO Magazine? Ed Bagley Jr (has he been in anything in the last 10 years? he is the biggest liberal they could mock?) Condoms in New York (I gotcha condom right her pal?) It is a show of Right-Wing talking points masked with a laugh track. This does not make it funny. If you find this show funny, you may like other "greats" like Two and a Half Men, Yes Dear, and According to Jim. All of these are train wrecks, but none rise to the level of the 1/2 Hour News Hour.

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11 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Thank God it's only 1/2 an hour!, 23 luglio 2007
1/10
Author: kapop69 da United States

This show is so awfully amateurish it is agonizingly uncomfortable to watch. What's worse is the overzealous audience who hoot and holler at jokes that are more ideologically pointed than funny. The director compounds this forced laughter and applause during the shows credits when the audience tries applaud and cheer for 2-3 minutes.

I feel sorry for the "actors." I know I have seen a couple in other shows on Comedy Central and in TV commercials. They are really hitting rock bottom with this turkey. The worst example of this is Dennnis Miller, whose rapid-fire, arcane references are so beyond the ken of the audience that the timing of their laughter is not in sync with his not-so-funny and very bitter punch lines. What is it with conservativism and comedy? Miller used to be a hoot when his observations weren't such blatant attempts to attack one side of the political spectrum.

Like Miller, the conservatives who write for this show are so consumed with trying to score political points against the left that they miss being funny by a long shot. One skit had "God" smiting secular humanist authors (to quote O'Reilly) and the audience not only laughed but cheered as each met their fate. Now who wouldn't find that funny? Good Christian humor, huh? I suppose the kool-aid drinking Fox News die-hards will force themselves to laugh and keep watching but it won't last long. I've watched three episodes and even on a good night this show is worse than a high school comedy routine.

As Lewis Black observed, "If this is supposed to be a 'fake' news show on Fox News, shouldn't it be a real news show?"

To those faithful acolytes of all things Fox, keep trying to laugh while you cringe inside.

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23 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
wow that was bad, 4 marzo 2007
1/10
Author: cenestrad da United States

Well the only good thing to say about this horrid show is that it will be certainly be short lived. The "jokes" are truly unlike anything I have ever seen on television before in that they have absolutely no bias towards humor. Also it makes you wonder how Fox News will be able to continue to claim to be fair and balanced after laying this egg. Unlike the Daily Show it was meant to mimic the HHNH makes no attempt at throwing jabs at both sides of the political spectrum. The show leans so far right it's a wonder it doesn't fall over (that was a bad joke, but it is far funnier than anything you'll see on the HHNH). On the other hand it should be fun to watch Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh continue to pretend that this stinker is funny.

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10 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Awful, just plain awful, 20 maggio 2007
1/10
Author: mokona7 da United States

First off, I don't really see the logic in placing this on Fox News to begin with. The Daily Show and Colbert Report are on Comedy Central, a network intended for humorous, entertaining broadcasts. Fox News is meant to be part of the news media. Stewart/Colbert comparisons aside, this show is poorly executed. Most of it isn't even funny. It's propaganda with a laugh track. Jabs at Rosie O'Donnel, Jack Murtha, and Nancy Pelosi are followed, not by an original joke, but by quotes of said figures and others followed by canned audience laughter. The show frequent attacks the ACLU viciously without so much as even a joke ANYWHERE in the segment. But for some reason, there is still laughter and applause following it. Without the laughter artificially inserted, this show would simply be Hannity's America. Oh, and did somebody say "OJ Simpson? He murders people!" Ha, this show is sooooo current in its comedy. Overall, it's a crying shame that this show is still on the air. It shouldn't matter what ideology a comedy show leans towards. What matters is funny writers, well-timed delivery, and a producer other than the one who does 24. 1/2 Hour News Hour is none of the above.

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