Somewhere, Jon Stewart is mourning the death of an impression.
Glenn Beck is leaving Fox News, and the reasons provided are many and varied. Falling ratings were a factor, as was a major advertising boycott. And then there’s the penchant for conspiracy theories.
Maybe the old blackboard just wasn’t working its magic any more, but we’re almost sad to see him “transition off” his show. We used to treat 5 p.m. as our dark comedy hour; it was funny because of Beck’s ridiculous paranoia and a little scary because we knew some of the watchers weren’t just hearing his theories but were internalizing them. Even with the third-rated cable news show, it didn’t surprise too many when Fox made plans to pull the plug. Beck was just too far in left field (or is it right field?) to appeal to anyone not watching out of morbid curiosity or intense fear.
However, rumors say that he may be looking into his own television network akin to Oprah’s OWN. He may not have anywhere near her wealth, but rest assured, lovers of crazy people on TV, that he is being paid enough to fund such a move. With that in mind, we challenge you to imagine what a 24-hour Beck-controlled broadcast would look like. Logical fallacies and non-existent connections would be used as frequently as a drunk girl in Midtown uses the word “like.” In short, it would be a glorious fount of comedy fodder.
