The hosannas have not been apparent since Greg Gutfeld announced and then aired his last episode of “Red Eye” on Fox News. Perhaps for two reasons: It is on Fox News and was a 3 a.m., show. Not many people are up at 3 a.m., except for college clubbers, pot heads, maidens of the night, paranoid schizophrenics on top-secret missions directed by the CIA, and assorted night-owls and insomniacs. Nevertheless, someone over at the New Yorker, house of genteel liberalism, was paying attention to the slapstick, gags, nonsense, and faux outrage that made “Red Eye” worth the early morning wait.
Calling him a Fox News Jon Stewart, writer Kelefa Sanneh’s piece “In Praise of Fox News’s Greg Gutfeld,” says Gutfeld hosted “the funniest and most unpredictable program on cable news, but that’s what it is—or, rather, that’s what it was.” The piece noted his penchant for over-elaborate sex gags and satirizing the pundit class and cable news culture. It was all in great fun, and usually began with the “Greg-a-logue”—an artful piece of long-winded sarcasm about current affairs. Surprisingly, writes Sanneh, Gutfeld did better than straight punditry/news hosts such as Chris Hayes of MSNBC in the prime audience (25-54) target range, reaching over 339,000 viewers. For a show founded on such an eccentric concept and aired during an ungodly hour, that’s quite the legacy.
