Bloggasm

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, with an affinity for not capitalizing letters, has been blogging since July of 2002. The subtle use of humor and sarcasm gives the blog’s political commentary a razor-sharp edge that rises above the normal political blather in the blogosphere. Because of a warrant issued by The United States Grammar Society for Skippy’s arrest, we must refer to the blogger by the alias of Skippy the Bush Kangeroo since capitalization is nonexistent in the answers.

Simon Owens: As a political blogger, do you think that most bloggers create rivalries with other blogs? Are there any bloggers you’d consider a rival?

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: actually, i don’t. personally i try to stay away from dissecting and “fisking” other blogs on the other side of the political aisle, unless the post or blog in question goes to a larger question of media and how political information gets disseminated throughout the public at large.

case in point, i did write about the recent jeff goldstein/deb frisch fracas, and how the right jumped on the non-story. i also wrote about the dead-trees media’s reportage on same.

another blog story i wrote about, because in my mind, it showed the disingenuousness of the blogs and the media on the right, was when the national review blog, the plank, created false memos to indict markos moulitsas of the dailykos as someone trying to control the left side of blogtopia (yes! i coined that phrase!).

but as far as blogs and blog postings go, i think it’s rather self-referential to spend one’s time tearing down a fellow blogger, even if that blogger is 100% diametrically opposed to you politically. most bloggers are, after all, just citizens like us trying to make our voices heard.

it makes more sense to debate the larger news organs and politicians, the people who have the power.

Simon Owens: I’ve noticed that most humorous political blogs are liberal in nature, and most comedians tend to be liberal. As a blogger who often uses humorous sarcasm, why do you think that liberals have more of a sense of humor?

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: yeah, you would say something like that, einstein.

ok, that was humorous sarcasm, i couldn’t resist, you set me up, i knock ‘em down.

interestingly enough, i’ve thought about this very subject for a couple of years, because for a long time in recent history, the conventional wisdom was that the left didn’t have a sense of humor.

people pointed to rush limbaugh and ann coulter and dennis miller and the south park boys as examples of political humor, and they were all right-wing.

i grew up and became politically aware in the 60’s, when liberal politics and humor went hand-in-hand. mort sahl, lenny bruce, the smothers brothers, rowan and martn’s laugh-in, were all anti-establishment and all very very funny.

i wondered what happened to all the humor. and then, as i surfed more thru blogtopia (and yes! i coined that phrase!) i realized that, indeed, the left still has a huge corner of the humor market. it’s just that, like many other “accepted ideas,” the right wing managed to convince the “conventional wisdom” that their meme was the factual one, when in fact it was not.

and one thing i’d say about the left blogs, is that they make actual jokes. that is to say, a joke that can be funny irrespective of your political outlook. i am a comedian first and a liberal second (well actually maybe third or fourth, after writer and actor and husband and citizen). my point is, if it’s not funny, i’m not really going to write it (tho there are many that would disagree with me; eg, i write stuff that’s not funny all the time).

i make an effort to be funny, even in my sentence structure. one time i inserted one or two parenthetical phrases inside a parenthetical phrase i was already writing, so for the hell of it, i added several more parenthetical phrases, along the lines of “(how many parenthetical phrases can i nest inside each other (gee, i don’t know (guess we’ll find out (oh no there’s another one (and another one!)))).”

one of my favorite linguistic jokes is to quote something en toto and (dorothy, too!), which never has anything to do with the politics i’m writing about.

my point, i suppose, is that, in my mind, most right-wing humor depends upon the audience accepting the premises of the right-wing platform. i heard about a conservative stand up comedian whose joke went something like, “of course the liberals want an aids cure, because they all want to get laid.” that was the joke. i even think i made it better in the paraphrasing than it actually was. a very bad, lame, unfunny joke.

a good exception is dennis miller. i hate his politics but i think he’s a riot. here’s an example of his jokes i love: “al gore is so boring, his personalized license plate is a series of random numbers.” now, i like al gore, and i think he’s actually not a boring person, but that joke in and of itself is funny!

i don’t know the answer to your original question, why do lefty’s have more of a sense of humor. i don’t even know if that’s true. i could say something very new age, like we’re all about love and the right is all about war, but that would not be very factual or analytical.

i do think we’re less up tight than the conservatives, and we are more accepting of individuality on the whole. but there are some funny rightists blogs. scrappleFace is pretty funny. but, on the other hand, most liberal blogs are very snarky and sarcastic, and for down-right humor/parody, tom burka’s opinions you should have, along with don davis’s satirical political report, and of course, the godfather of liberal humor, tom tomorrow, are all hilarious.

Simon Owens: Are there any liberal blogs that you actually try to distance yourself from, because they don’t represent your views particularly well?

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: no. i believe that there’s room for discussion about everything by everybody.

but there’s plenty of liberal blogs i don’t link to, for one reason only: they don’t link to me.

my link policy is pretty self-serving. i only link to blogs on my blogroll that link back to my blog. for that reason, i don’t have links to some pretty big, important blogs. woolcott won’t link to me, crooks & liars, tho they throw me a link now and then, won’t put me on their permanent blogroll, americablog won’t link to me, wonkette won’t link to me, tapped won’t link to me, even tho i’ve asked them all real nice. w/the exception of wonkette and john amato of c&l, those blogs won’t even answer my emails.

now, i love all those blogs and their politics, but i would rather use the bandwidth to link to the smaller blogs who do link to me, and give them some linkage love, than waste my time/space/cyber energy linking to someone who won’t return the favor. and it’s not at all about political points of view.

i have a few conservative blogs on my roll, too. instapundit, vodka pundit, doxagora, mister helpful, chuck simmons…these are rightist blogs that are very civil to me, and link to me.

i try to encourage debate, and civil debate, and i think the only hope for this country is for people of differing viewpoints to be able to talk rationally and calmly amongst themselves, without vitriol and hyperbole.

tho, as we’ve established, i am sarcastic. so i guess i reserve the right to snark.

Simon Owens: Is it becoming harder and harder for new political blogs to emerge and find readers? Do you think your blog would have been as successful if you’d started it much later?

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: good question. maybe not. but on the other hand, there have been some amazing success stories in the past year, of blogs hitherto unknown, suddenly gaining huge readership. my friend jane hamsher’s firedoglake is now considered one of the major players in liberal blogtopia (yes! i coined that phrase!), and her blog has only been around for a little over a year and a half, maybe two years at this point. also, glenn greenwald, who just started blogging a few months ago, is a must read for most people now. maryscott o’connor’s my left wing is a success story, and she’s gotten a lot of main stream media coverage. i’d also point to man eegee, and down with tyranny, as blogs which are relatively new but have made a big impact, both with quality of work and with readership, in a short time.

as to my own blog, i like to think that my writing talent would find its own level/audience whenever i started, as i am a writer/performer for a living. i will concede that, having started around the same time as talkleft, atrios and dailykos and the smirking chimp, i was fortunate enough to exchange links with those blogs early on. and i was also very lucky to be singled out by such giants as tom tomorrow and the late, great media whores on line, may the horse rest in peace.

but i am still able to convince people who previously hadn’t linked to me to give me a link. i just finished an email exchange with steve gilliard of the news blog, and he promises to give me a link when he re-does his template. i’m still working on a link with the next hurrah. links are the key. woolcott doesn’t even return my emails, the bitch! and don’t get me started on arianna huffington!

Simon Owens: What are the five blogs you’d recommend to supplement the reading of your own?

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo: wow. interesting question. i am currently trying to come up with a reading pattern that avoids daily kos, which used to be the second blog i’d read every day. nothing against markos or the gang at all, but like yogi berra says, nobody goes there any more, it’s too crowded.

dkos and atrios are good places to find the big stories of the day, and the diaries at dkos are a good place to find the little stories you might otherwise miss.

aside from skippy (and with skippy, who needs anyone else?) i’d suggest firedoglake, as i mentioned before. crooks and liars is also a good place to get video captures, even tho they don’t link to me on their permanent blogroll (the bitches!!). i’m a fan of amada’s work over at pandagon, and mahablog, and i love michael berube’s meanderings as well. and my buddy bob harris, who also writes for tom tomorrow, has an interesting blog (as does tom himself). it’s hard to just stop at 5. i didn’t even get to the smaller, boutique blogs, like pacific views or echidne of the snakes or majikthise or steveaudio. and i can’t forget the gang at sadly, no! then, there are the specfic state blogs. i was born in colorado so i read square state, and being in california, i read calitics.

ok, i gotta stop, i could go on and on, there’s so many good ones. if i didn’t have a real life, i could spend all day surfing thru the blogs. and the great thing about them all is that they all inter-link to each other, so you’ll never miss out. mrs. skippy already thinks i waste too much time blogging.