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. He received mixed reviews. He was perhaps most popular with those who watched the program primarily for its entertainment value and somewhat less so with football purists, but demonstrated a substansial knowledge of both the game and its personalities, and was retained for two seasons, until John Madden, who had been with Fox, became available.

After his role ended with Monday Night Football and Dennis Miller Live, he 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. His first guest on the program was California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.The new Dennis Miller show is quite similar to his past program, mixing comedy with commentary, and featuring celebrity guests commenting on the topic of the day.

Miller is a registered Republican and is known for his moderately conservative beliefs. This, in addition to his political interests and style of humor has led for many in the GOP to call for him to run for U.S. Senator 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."

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 one 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)