So Bad it’s Good

I wonder how much of National Review’s readership is due to there being a pretty good-sized market for hilariously deranged nonsense.

As I’m mentioned previously I enjoy trolling conservative blogs as a commenter, but my fascination with NRO is something else entirely. Even among the looney tunes faction of political writing in this country, National Review stands out as remarkably unaware self-satire. There is something perversely impressive about blaming the Newtown shooting on the school’s women-to-men ratio. It’s hard to even comment when the natural inclination is to tilt one’s head and stared in dumbfounded, awed wonder.

I get much the same feeling reading NRO as I do watching Tommy Wiseau’s film “The Room.” At some point the badness approaches such critical density it’s broken your desire to criticize point out flaws, and what’s left behind is a sort of amused affection. At the TV Tropes’ “So Bad it’s Good” page, they open with a quote by H.L. Mencken – “It’s so bad, a kind of grandeur creeps into it.” There’s no reason this same phenomenon wouldn’t apply in other situations.

I assume that’s why it’s hard for me to hate NRO. They’re the Ed Wood of opinion journalism.

~ by kroveechernila on December 20, 2012.