Have you ever wondered what happened to comedian Dennis Miller? I heard recently that he’d interviewed former U.S. Veep Dick Cheney on his internet “radio” show, and decided to check it out.
As you might know, after leaving “Saturday Night Live,” Miller starred on a series of short-lived cable TV shows that all, to one degree or another, cannibalized the format of the “Weekend Update” segments that Miller successfully helmed during his tenure on SNL. Most of these shows belonged, ostensibly, to the realm of comedy, although over time it became apparent that Miller was taking his role as social commentator ever more seriously.
It also became apparent that Miller was anything but a wild-eyed radical. If you had to assess his political sympathies, you might rate him as Rush Limbaugh Lite. And what do you get when you cross right wing politics with comedy? You guessed it. Fox News. So it’s no surprise that Miller has ended up as a semi-frequent guest pundit on such shows as “Hannity” and “The O’Reilly Factor.”
I have to assume that Miller would love to have a bona fide radio show, of the sort that has made Limbaugh the de facto head of the Republican Party, but Miller’s ratings as a solo act, in television at least, have always been a bit dodgy. It’s a fair bet that the same would hold true in radio.
But the beauty of the internet is that any yahoo can launch a movie, TV show or radio program from the confines of his home office. Of course, these are just virtual shows, that exist nowhere but on internet bandwidth, which would seem to make the web the true last refuge for scoundrels.
Miller seems to have taken the home-grown aspect of virtual broadcasting to heart. He features video segments he calls “Bathrobe Sessions,” which look as though they might have been produced in Miller’s basement. True to the title, Miller wears a bathrobe, and looks generally mussed as though he’s just crawled out of bed. This is “Weekend Update” in need of rehab.
Another curious feature of the site is that Miller is promoting various products and services which are typically the province of Fox icons such as Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. For example, one of Miller’s sponsors is twinspires.com, which is some kind of gambling site. I’d thought that internet gambling had been outlawed in the U.S., but perhaps there’s a loophole for former comedians who ingratiate themselves with Roger Ailes.
Miller is also hawking gold coins, an investment opportunity favored by Glenn Beck among others. While Beck is something of a wingnut, Goldline International, Inc. is “trusted & recommended by Dennis Miller,” according to the ad. How can you go wrong?
Check out the clip.