Glenn Beck: Racist, Hate Monger, Comedian

The only thing that's funny about Glenn Beck's "Common Sense Comedy Tour" is the assumption is that Glenn Beck is the only man in America still subscribing to common sense. If Beck had any common sense, he wouldn't be appearing onstage and in 440 movie theaters simultaneously in pantaloons and sneakers with pretensions to comedy. In the fact, the funniest thing related to this show seems to be the self-deprecating Larry Craig-inspired promo.

The New York Time's Mike Hale reviewed the show yesterday in one of those 440 theaters, drawing a crowd of 14, a number that, according to my best guess, barely exceeds the midnight showings at porn movie theaters largely populated by bare-legged men in raincoats and Pee Wee Herman.

Beck, one suspects, drew the biggest crowd on the 4th in the theater in which he did the simulcast, the (appropriately named) Midland Theater in Kansas City, Missouri. According to the reviewer and the picture below, it was a highly partisan and homogenous lot, with a block of spectators wearing tee shirts dyed a right proper hue of Republican yellow.



And, by all accounts of those who had seen him (except, predictably, for the Freepers), Beck's routine/book-hawking wasn't substantially different from his largely incoherent "Aw shucks" style of racism that has inexplicably made him a valued commodity on three major networks.

While skirting the edge of political correctness, Beck may not have specifically targeted minorities and gays. Yet he had nonetheless affected at times a lisp and groused about "undocumented workers" stealing our jobs and bemoaned the fact that we're no longer as white as our founding fathers, that "we’ve lost touch with how much like us they were."

According to those who'd seen the show, Beck's routine seemed to revolve around making fun of Henry Waxman's appearance, Nancy Pelosi, Whoopie Goldberg, how taxes are evil, spending is evil and damn the NEA, they are tho effete and elititht! Oh, and Beck seems to be heaving his carcass onto a bandwagon that is slowly gaining some serious momentum, one that was set on fire and rolled downhill during last year's GOP presidential debates: the re-burnished Reagan legacy.

To be fair, Beck's show took potshots at Republicans, too, but one mainly suspects it was for them not being as Republican as the 40th president.

So for two hours, those in 441 theaters were subjected to Glenn in both period costume and laceless sneakers screaming, sweating and practically weeping like John Boehner on a high estrogen day in the House paying $40 for the privilege of watching a slightly more distilled form of wingnuttery they could watch on Fox "News" for free.

So, what's next for Beck?

Well, if Glenn Beck sticks to Republican strongholds like Kansas City, Denver and San Diego, he ought to be able to avoid the same fate that befell Ann Coulter last year.

Or maybe people will wake up and realize that Bill Maher and even David Letterman do political comedy a hell of a lot more adroitly and effectively and that we can watch them on HBO and CBS respectively without having to shell out forty bucks for the dubious honor.