Tosh.0 Retrospect

Welcome to another installment of Lemon’s TV Corner.

A few days ago, I was reading the great blog

Cracks in Postmodernity

and stumbled upon this post about comedian Matt Rife. All I knew about Rife beforehand was that he has a jawline chiseled by the Greek gods themselves (no hetero) and got in trouble for joking about domestic abuse. But the article goes more in-depth about what a guy like Rife means for the Post-Woke era:

“Rife has earned his kinship with gays because he is honest with us. His lack of squeamishness toward making gay jokes tells us that we are worthy to be placed within his line of fire. The same goes for women, blacks, the handicapped, trans, and so on. If you leave us out of the act, that’s where you insult us most. The stringent arbiters of think-kind consciousness have become cultural accountants, annoying the hell out of everybody and mucking up the fun. Comedians break that up. They bring everyone together to sit in the auditorium with everyone else. Rife is contending with the cultural war, not by cloyingly preaching how things ought to be, but by bluntly pointing out how things already are.”

This made me think of a similar comic, Daniel Tosh, who’s best known for his Comedy Central series Tosh.0. Like Rife, Tosh has managed to avoid longterm cancellation (do people still use that word, or does it already sound boomerish?) and enjoys mainstream success by mixing a “loveable asshole” bro persona with a general twinkish disposition. It’s a reoccurring joke on the show that Tosh gets mistaken for gay because he’s somewhat effeminate and dresses pretty fly. But I’m pretty sure he’s just a straight guy (he’s married to a woman) who genuinely likes gay male culture and sensibilities- the male Hag. They’re rare but they do exist, especially in Los Angeles.

Tosh.0 first aired in 2009. This was when the internet and real life were just beginning to merge, and web happenings were novel and exciting instead of a pain in the ass that wedged into our everyday lives. This was back when random videos would go viral completely organically- no astroturfing needed. The format went like this: Tosh would show the studio audience a clip of a viral video, usually something weird or embarrassing, and riff on it. Basically a watered down, TV-14 version of internet lolcow culture, where people oooh and aaah at those whose eccentricities can be milked for lulz.

What made Tosh.0 unique was the “CeWEBrity Profile” segments, where Tosh and Co. would fly the subjects down to LA to share their side of the story. Tosh used this to humanize these so-called “lolcows,” reminding us that behind the goof there’s still a person.

Viewers at home breathe a sign of relief that they didn’t actually witness bullying or some bizarre Marquis De Sade humiliation ritual. These are adults, they consented to being poked fun of, they got a free trip to California and a chance to meet Daniel Tosh. The audience is reassured that for the past 20 minutes they were laughing with someone, not laughing at them.

Compare and contrast this with another talk show host you might have heard of named Ellen Degeneres. Ellen spent her career crafting the image of a squeaky-clean wholesome chungus “nice gal” who made #BeingKind her whole thing. But as we know by now, being kind is a virtue, not a brand. In late 2019, the facade broke when countless people spoke up about how Ellen was actually kind of a jackass to them. Eventually, interviews resurfaced of her treating guests poorly. Ellen’s show was cancelled, her career crumbled, and the last I’ve heard of her she became British or something. Meanwhile, Daniel Tosh cracks jokes about women, minorities, and online oddballs, but posts from people who appeared on his show claim he’s actually a chill guy. In short, Ellen was a mean person pretending to be nice, while Tosh is a nice person pretending to be mean.

When I posted about writing a Tosh.0 retrospect on Notes, someone said that “Daniel Tosh has made more racist jokes than any comic I’ve ever seen, but he puts on a patina of anti-racism and clowning on Republicans and gets away with it- absolutely genius.” The last season of Tosh.0 aired in 2020, and watching later episodes I’m pleasantly surprised how long he kept the same 2000s style political incorrectness. Daniel Tosh did this without pivoting to Troll’s Remorse or becoming an anti-woke “lol, did I TRIGGER a special snowflake???” grifter.

In a 2016 segment, Tosh invited a boomer Democrat on his show who went viral for making a song in support of Hilary Clinton that was, to put it mildly, not a bop. The episode is pretty much the last example of non-partisan political humor put on television. Tosh seems to be free from the toxic findom relationship that most entertainers have with the DNC, casually saying no to Democratic gimp suit (sorry to put that image in your head). He doesn’t make a remark like “yeah he’s cringe but he has a point, we gotta vote blue no matter who!!!” The entire interview, Tosh stares at the adult theater kid with an expression that screams “is this guy for fcking real.” He pulls no punches with Hildawg either, calling her unlikeable, joking about her husband’s infidelity and cracking wise how Trump wears too much makeup while Hilary doesn’t wear enough (ouch). Stark contrast to nowadays when talk shows shamelessly operate as propaganda machines for the Dems.

Of course, in the same breath Daniel Tosh will mock the “backwards hicks” he grew up with in Florida to woo back the liberal crowd. Is it hacky? Maybe. But that’s showbiz, baby.