Red Eye for the late guy

The "ridiculous" Greg Gutfeld

I, along with tens if not millions of others, had never heard of a television show called Red Eye, which is a very, very late-night (or very, very early-morning) show broadcast on the Fox News Channel, until host Greg Gutfeld and his panelists made some ill-informed (or "stupid") comments about the Canadian military. Since this made the news north of the 49th it is probable that Red Eye is still widely unknown in the US, which is hardly surprising at all. Red Eye has been described as a show that covers a wide variety of topics including, but not limited to; news, sports, gossip and entertainment, doing so in a way host Gutfeld describes as "satirical" and they address topics "in a lightheared, humorous and ridiculous manner". It sounds like this is Fox's very own version of Comedy Central's Daily Show, except without being funny.

The show in question started with Gutfeld commenting on Canadian Lt-General Andrew Leslie saying that the Canadian military may need up to a year to recover after the mission in Afghanistan ends. Ok, we can all see the humour potential in that, and even without being disrespecful for the Canadian soldiers who have died. The Canadian army has to kick back for a year and down a couple of beers. All right, ho, ho, ho, and we are done. Gutfeld's actual comment was, "the Canadian military wants to take a breather to do some yoga, paint landscapes, run on the beach in gorgeous white capri pants." Wordily unfunny so it might be time to invest in some new writers, but to each his own and Gutfeld has his own television show and I don't, so I could be wrong, but I don't think so. It's too bad that he didn't have the sense to shake his head and stop talking at this point but he had to carry on and say, "Isn't this the perfect time to invade this ridiculous country? They have no army." I get it, it's like a riff on the Manifest Destiny thing. Very funny.

I wonder if this "humorous" and "ridiculous" show has done much on the US military effort in Iraq? You know, poke some good-natured fun at the average US soldier. Raise moral a bit. When Senator John McCain went to a market in Baghdad and said he felt perfectly safe in being there (while surrounded by US soldiers, air-covered by attack helicopters and wearing a bullet-proof vest) the Red Eye crew must have had a hay-day with that visual. I'm sorry I missed it. An even funnier point, and I am sure that the Red Eye bunch covered it, is that the invasion of Afghanistan was because Ossama Bin Laden (the guy who planned the 9/11 attacks) was hiding there and the Afghan leaders, the Taliban, wouldn't turn him over to the US for trial. Canada, as an ally of the US, joined the invasion of Afghanistan and then, for some reason, the US administration took their eyes off the ball and sent the US military into Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Red Eye must have been all over that story, right? Right?

Another odd thing is that one of the panelists on Red Eye, the "comedian" Doug Benson, blurted out, "I didn't even know they were in the war." It's good to see that these guys are keeping up, at least to Fox News Channel's usual standards (one unfortunate aspect of this deal is that the "comedian" [Doug Benson] had a gig cancelled in Edmonton [that's in Canada] at the West Edmonton Mall. There was fear that an outraged audience member would waste a beer by tossing it on Benson. Bummer. Canada's loss I guess.) You see, Canada has been "in the war" since day one. I guess it is a bit much to expect a "comedian" to keep up with or to understand that sort of thing.

So, I have never seen Red Eye, I will never see Red Eye (of course Fox helps by putting it on the air at 0300 hrs) and I don't think I'm missing anything. Unfortunately the "ugly American" thing is nothing new.

Anyway... Humouroceros

"Comedian" Doug Benson.
Look, he's pretending to smoke marijuana joints!
What a funny guy.
It's like Foster Brooks with dope.