Is there room for laughter in public radio?

[Matt Fleeger]

Don't get me wrong, I find Car Talk ultra-funny from time to time. Occasionally, This American Life makes me chuckle as well. The two quiz shows are sometimes funny. A Prairie Home Companion? - well, not so much (maybe it's just my age).

This is really a self-serving question, since I produce sketch comedy for public radio (but not for a national outlet).

Is there room for funny on public radio? Or, does a focus on hard news make it difficult to encorporate comedy into programming?

[Keith Hopper]

I'm a fan of The Sound of Young America and Jesse often features comics on his show, but I imagine he struggles with the traditional P.R. audience and is having to break new ground in this medium. I can imagine that sketch comedy might be even more difficult. So I think you make a good point.

[Matt Fleeger]

Oh, I totally forgot about TSYA! That show is great, as are the spinoff podcasts.

[Jessica]

Of course there is room for funny in public radio. Those shows you mention make a lot of money for stations in fund drives and whenever those stations can get those programs to come to town, so I think that is a resounding YES from the audience (And I personally think they are reliably funny, not sometimes funny!) And some shows are really forward thinking in bringing humor to their programs. I'm thinking of the bloggers round table on News and Notes-it's always hilarious. There is regular laughter on the talk show I produce as well.

As for in the big shows, ATC and ME, is there room for funny...well...honestly in order to be able to pull it off, the hosts have to be 100% committed. And I just don't see it happening. As the host of a flagship program like that, I certainly would not want to risk my name on something I am not necessarily gifted in.

But as for whether there is room for SKETCH comedy in public radio. Hmm.. Sketch comedy is so polarizing. People either love it or hate it. Witness the thousands of conversations our culture has had about the value of SNL over the years. With public radio working hard to maximize its audience I don't know how that would work. And sketch comedy is very political comedy. Would that satire undercut the objectivity mission of the journalism-or even if it didn't, lead to annoying allegations that it was? For that reason alone I think it would be difficult for NPR to be the producer of this kind of content. I could see it coming out of PRI or APM with less discomfort.

[Joe Cassara]

Yes, there most certainly is room for all styles and genres of "humor" programming on public radio. As pubcasters, we have to shake the notion that "public radio" itself is a format dictated by the monolithic NPR, remembering that free-form, experimental alternatives to mainstream media are at the root of what we do.

Remember: if NPR doesn't like it, or the programming isn't concurrent with their stylistic/programmic agenda, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be pursued.

Don't forget Harry Shearer's "Le Show" on KCRW.

[Mark Jeffries]

And let's not forget that Harry Shearer and the Capital Steps were fixtures on "ATC" before that show got more serious.

But you get still people complaining about Kellior after all these years (and Feldman, and the Magliozzis, and "Wait, Wait...")--why is there this view that everything on public radio has to be deadly serious? Is it the listeners' fault or is it the stations?