Posted by
Conservative Swordfighters Club on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:37:37 PM
the characters Jack Donaghy of "30 rock" (played by alec baldwin) and Dwight Schrute of "the office" are both conservative.
they have deep character flaws that are related to their being conservative.
conservatism is bad in the world of "30 rock" and "the office"; to be conservative is to be, on balance, a negative influence on the world.
the good thing is that both characters, even tho they are making things bad for all the other characters on the show, are interesting as characters.
it's a tribute to the writers that they can incorporate a few non-negative attributes into a conservative character. they at least acknowledge that conservatives aren't all bad.
donaghy is a conservative stereotype in that he is rich, greedy, arrogant, and self-serving.
as a comedic character, dwight is like homer simpson and maxwell smart in that he is a weird combo of idiotic and brilliant.
as a liberal's idea of a conservative, dwight is like the liberal's idea of george bush and ronald reagan -- not only greedy, arrogant, and self-serving, but also incredibly moronic.
in addition to dwight, a secondary character on "the office" (dwight's love interest, angela) is also conservative. as befits a secondary character, she's more two-dimensional. hollywood's idea of a conservative christian, angela, when she sees a female coworker wearing orange, remarks that the color orange is "whore-ish." later, when the same character is wearing green, she says that the color green is whore-ish.
maybe that's funny to liberals, but it's not an example of the best comedy-writing the writers of the show are capable of.
"30 rock" is funnier. but "30 rock" is also more blatantly liberal; at least once a show, there's a gratuitous cheap shot at conservatives. for example, in one show, tina fey makes fun of the way condi rice talks. that line had absolutely no relation to any other line in the scene. it was just put in there.
"the office" is more realistic; less like a stand-up comedy routine. if the writers make fun of conservatives, at least the comedy usually grows out of the characters.
it's widely known that villains are more interesting than heroes. and so, donaghy and dwight, while not the heroes, are the two most interesting characters in their respective shows.
--Swordfish