Dennis Miller
Dennis Miller (born November 3, 1953) is an American comedian and television personality. He studied journalism and graduated at Pittsburgh's Point Park College. Miller rose to fame from 1985 to 1991 as a regular on Saturday Night Live, where he served as a "Weekend Update" commentator.
From 1994 to 2002, he was the host of Dennis Miller Live, a half-hour talk show on HBO characterized by its stark simplicity. The show had no set, band, or even much lighting. It mainly consisted of Miller speaking to the largely unseen studio audience on a darkened stage. There would be one guest per show, who Miller would quiz on the topic of the day. At one time, the show also featured callers, but this was phased out in later seasons. Miller won five Emmy Awards while hosting the show, which aired 215 episodes during its nine-year run.
The highlight of the show were Miller's "rants" on various political issues. The rants always began with the catch phrase "now I don't want to get off on a rant here..." and ended with the phrase "of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."
Miller has a reputation for being very scholarly and intelligent, and his distinct style of humor reflects this. His rants and stand-up routines often feature elaborate metaphors and references to obscure historical and political events. This has prompted some accusations of intellectual snobbery. For example, on The Simpsons there was this exchange:
- LISA: (after reading the C:\DOS\RUN joke) Ha, only one person in a million would find that funny!
- PROFESSOR JOHN FRINK: Yes, we call that the "Dennis Miller Ratio."
(Season 10, episode 22 "They saved Lisa's brain")
In 2000, Miller became a commentator on Monday Night Football. Some feared his humor style was a little too highbrow for football fans. His style was probably more suitable for those fans who watched Monday Night Football more for its entertainment value than primarily as a sporting event, but he demonstrated considerable knowledge of the game and its personalities, although at times he tended to lapse into sometimes obscure analogy-riddled streams of consciousness similar to his "rants". After two seasons, Miller was replaced by John Madden in 2002.
After his stint on Monday Night Football, Miller discovered his conservative side and turned to political commentary. In 2003, he provided regular commentary for the FOX News show Hannity & Colmes, and began a prime-time political show on CNBC in early 2004 called Dennis Miller. Unfortunately for Miller, his conversion to the right of the political spectrum alienated many of his earlier fans. The Nielsen ratings for his new program remain quite low, and a Craigslist ad seemed to suggest that people were being paid by the producers to be in the studio audience of his program.
Miller is a registered Republican and is now known largely for his conservative beliefs. This, in addition to his being one of only a few mainstream comedians to support the GOP has earned Miller a ride on Air Force One and catapulted him to the top of the GOP's "celebrity" A-list. Many in the GOP even called for him to run for U.S. Senator from California against Barbara Boxer.
Quotes
On going to war:
- "And finally, and most importantly, the next time we go to war, don't give a specific reason for the war that the left can seize upon and later flog us with it ad nauseam, just do it. Remember, the first rule of Fight Club is that you don't talk about Fight Club." - Quoted from "Hannity & Colmes," [6/27/03]
On Michael Moore and people like him:
- "We should fight to preserve a country where people such as Michael Moore get to miss the point as badly as he misses it. Michael Moore represents everything I detest in a human being."[1]
On the Abu Ghraib prison scandal:
- "I'm sorry, those pictures from the Abu Ghraib. At first, they, like infuriated me, I was sad. Then like, a couple days later, after they cut the guy's [Nick Berg] head off, they didn't seem like much. And now, I like to trade them with my friends." - From his show [6/8/04].
On Iraqis:
- "A new poll of Iraqis shows that more than half of them believe they would be safer if U.S. troops left their country. In a related story, more than half of Americans believe we would be safer if Iraqis stopped answering poll questions and helped us get their damn lights back on, OK? I love that story, a poll of Iraqis want us to leave." [6/18/04]
Other "Quotes"
In another episode of The Simpsons, the Simpson family upgraded the house to a fully automated, computer-controlled system:
- Dennis Miller-like voice: "Hey, cha-cha, this house has got more features than a NASA relief map of Turkmenistan."
- Lisa: "Isn't that the voice that caused all those suicides?"
- Marge: "Murder-suicides."
(From CABF19)