If there's anything worse than bad comedy, it's got to be bad comedy that's government subsidized.

Case in point is the CBC's allegedly "satiric" TV show, This Hour has 22 Minutes.

Now, I don't want to get off on a rant here or anything, but if you ever check out this show's Twitter account, you'll find an endless string of terrible, awful and painfully unfunny jokes.

To show you what I mean, here's a random sampling of the show's recent tweets:

• Canada's spy agency expects foreign countries to try to swing 2019 election.  Agency says this is unacceptable… and a little bit flattering!
• Customers say new Tim Horton's coffee lids leak too much.  Company just happy they're not complaining about the coffee's taste.
• Doug Ford threatens to walk out of first ministers conference.  Said the other ministers: "We'd prefer that, actually."

See my point?  Pretty lame stuff, yes?

Truly, a monkey randomly tapping at a computer keyboard would likely come up with funnier material.

Now before I go on let me be clear, I'm only focussing here on the show's Twitter feed, since (full disclosure) I don't watch the TV version of This Hour has 22 Minutes.  (In fact, I rarely watch any broadcast TV shows these days due to the fact that years ago I cancelled my cable subscription.)

However, I do remember watching the show when I still had cable and thinking to myself, "Man, I've seen funnier funerals than this".

But who knows, maybe the TV version of This Hour has 22 Minutes, has vastly improved since then and maybe now it offers up a weekly dose of brilliant satire.

At any rate, that's why I'm only concerned with the show's Twitter feed, which is something I do see on a regular basis.

And I think that's a fair way to judge a TV show, since, after all, we routinely judge politicians, celebrities and athletes by what they tweet.

Anyway, I guess what really bothers me about the show's tweets, besides their painful unfunniness, is that they're often passed off as some kind of witty political satire.

To me that's a total misrepresentation, since, in theory, satire is about using humor to afflict the powerful.

But all too often, This Hour Has 22 Minutes uses its tweets to do the opposite.

It actually defends the high and mighty.

For instance, it regularly uses its twitter feed to propagandize on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

To see what I mean, just consider how the show reacted to that recent news story about Trudeau tweeting a $50 million charity pledge to American late night comedian, Trevor Noah.

Now you'd think any satirist worth his or her salt, would see this Trudeau tweet as an opportunity to mock the prime minister.

Maybe poke fun at Trudeau's obsession with celebrities or joke about his casually using social media to make a policy announcement, or perhaps take a jab at him for what seems like obvious "virtue signalling."

Did the comedians working for This Hour has 22 Minutes do any of that?

Nope, instead they issued this tweet:

"PM Trudeau criticized for tweeting $50M charity pledge to @Trevornoah.  Because world leaders' twitter use should be limited to angry 3am tirades."

So yeah, basically the best they could come up with was a bland and humorless justification of Trudeau's actions.

Sorry, but to me that isn't satire, it's more like anti-satire.

Mind you, I understand the reluctance of the show's staffers to criticize Trudeau too harshly, since let's face it, if he gets upset he might cut their budget.

But doesn't that illustrate the problem with government paying for comedy?

At best, you'll get insipid, timid material; at worst you'll get thinly-veiled government propaganda.

What you won't get is funny.

And that's something the twitter feed of This Hour Has 22 Minutes proves on a daily basis.

Photo Credit: CBC