MS NOW’s Alex Wagner Says Liberals are the Funniest Folks. Huh

MS NOW’s former primetime host and occasional commentator Alex Wagner got into a discussion with Katy Tur about humor. The general trend of the conversation was that Republicans (conservatives) have no sense of humor — and that is why liberals dominate entertainment. Wagner summed up her comments with the claim that “the funniest people are liberals.”

(I must digress. That last line was an ideal straight man set up. Yes, liberals in some ways are the funniest folks. One thinks of the naked bicyclist protests. The Portland jumping toad demonstrators. The ladies of the left in their pink “pussy” hats or dressed as giant vaginas. And so many other manifestations of humiliating silliness being passed off as political protest. But I digress.)

Apparently, Wagner considers Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Jimmy Fallon to be the only real comedians. They claim that title, but they are not the funniest guys on the small screen. In fact, the most popular late night comedian is FOX’s Greg Gutfeld — and to be honest, this author is not a fan of his brand of humor, either.

What Wagner alleges is absurd on its face. She has failed to notice that left-wing woke ideology, political correctness and identity politics have been producing the worst comedy and simultaneously killing really funny comedy for years.

Jerry Seinfeld, hardly a right wing firebrand, nailed the problem years ago. In a 2024 interview, he lamented that television comedy is being killed by the extreme left and the PC crap. Writers’ rooms have turned into sensitivity seminars where every joke must pass a litmus test to ensure that a joke does not offend any single person of one of the left’s protected classes – especially the snowflakes.

Gone are the days when one could simply watch MAS*H or Cheers and expect genuine laughs. Now scripts get neutered before they reach the screen. Seinfeld pointed out that stand-up barely survives and is virtually verboten on college campuses. Scripted and situation comedy has died under the weight of woke oversight.

One finds similar complaints from other heavyweights. Dave Chappelle has faced relentless woke backlash for jokes about transgender issues, yet his Netflix specials remain blockbusters and he sells out arenas. Why? Because audiences crave humor that is not politically correct – one might even say “conservative humor.” They shun left-wing lectures disguised as punchlines.

Bill Burr has built a career skewering woke sacred cows, from gender politics to cancel culture hysterics — and fans cannot get enough. Ricky Gervais mocks the easily offended class with surgical precision — and his specials dominate streaming charts. Even Shane Gillis, once fired from Saturday Night Live for edgy material, now thrives as one of the hottest tickets in comedy precisely because he refuses to bow to the PC police. In other words, conservative-oriented humor sells despite the woke gestapo.

Meanwhile, the left wing comedy industrial complex churns out one-sided monologues that play like Democratic Party press releases with laugh tracks. Stephen Colbert and company devote nearly all their political jokes to bashing President Trump and conservatives. According to media watchdogs tracking 2025 data, 92 percent of Colbert’s barbs target the right – as do Kimmel’s, Fallon’s and Stewart’s. That is not comedy. That is propaganda with a smirk. No wonder viewership for those shows has plummeted while Gutfeld routinely crushes them in total audience numbers.

Contrast that with more conservative or nonpolitical comedians who dominate because they actually deliver laughs. Greg Gutfeld sits atop the late night heap, proving that irreverent, anti-woke humor resonates far beyond the bi-coastal echo chambers.

Some of the best comedies are those that can zing, but without the political underpinning. Nate Bargatze, who avoids politics altogether, has become the highest grossing stand up artist in the country — filling arenas with family friendly material that entertains. His success shows that humor does not require politics or virtue signaling. It requires wit, timing, and a willingness to poke fun at universal absurdities even if it involves the protected classes.

Left wing ideologues have turned comedy into a minefield. College campuses, once comedy laboratories, now cancel performers for old routines deemed insufficiently progressive. Hollywood scripts get run through diversity checklists that prioritize messaging over merriment. The result is a drought of genuine laughs and a flood of sanctimonious specials that nobody watches twice.

Wagner and her ilk cling to their delusions that liberals own funny because they own the microphones at the networks and on the campuses. But audiences have voted with their remotes and wallets. The real comedy renaissance lives outside the woke bubble, where performers dare to offend the easily offended.

Wagner should stick to commentary. Comedy requires the sense of humor she and her ideological soulmates abandoned long ago.

So, there ‘tis.