1) SNL, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report are comedies first and foremost. Ann's articles don't run in the funny pages, they run in the Op Ed. What they do is called
satire, or the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc. Their primary function is to poke fun at things like politics, as is made clear in the Pelosi video from SNL. She's making fun of the suggestion that some Republicans make that Pelosi represents "San Francisco values", which is a tremendously bigoted remark. Like Stephen Colbert, she is acting in a way characterized by the right in order to poke holes in the logic.
Bill Maher is a political comedian. And he's damned funny. Just like Jon Stewart, he's there to make you laugh, then to make you think, then to get invited to the Playboy mansion.
It's rare that Ann doesn't cross a line, not only by being madly bigoted, but by misinformation. In the article above, for example:
Quote:
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In addition to not being a country, the "European Union" happens to be composed of people who hate our guts. It is the continent where Moveon.org-style lunatics are the friendly, pro-American types and the rest are crazy Muslims.
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'crazy Muslims'. I'm an atheist and I thought that was bigoted. I've never heard Bill Maher mak a sweeping statement about a race, gender, or creed. If she was trying to be funny, which is possible, she might consider the fact that not even the blue collar comedy tour is comfortable using a phrase like 'crazy muslims'.