Query - Decline and Fall of Conservative Humor
Subject: Query - Decline and Fall of Conservative Humor
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 6/20/10, 17:05
To: bcarlson@theatlantic.com

Ben-

This is Barrett Brown; I'm a regular contributor to Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, The Onion, Skeptic, The Skeptical Inquirer, and a few other outlets, and my second book (which covers the failures of the American punditry) is set for release in August. 

I wanted to see if The Atlantic Online might have use for a piece examining conservatism's failure as of late to produce any quality political humor relative to just ten years ago, and what this may tell us about the state of the conservative movement in this country. Specifically, I'd be pointing to the example of P.J. O'Rourke, who was once among the finest political humorists in American history but who has been seemingly unable to produce anything except ham-fisted boilerplate over the past seven or eight years - concurrently, it seems, with the intellectual decline of the movement itself. I would also point to certain counterexamples, such as South Park and King of the Hill, both of which successfully attack the excesses of liberalism, but which do so from a more libertarian or Goldwater Republican standpoint (hence the coining of the term South Park Conservative a few years back).

Let me know if this idea interests you.

--
Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302