No laughing matter: SLC & Mitt

Even the hippest stand-up comedians don’t get Utah.

I caught Greg Fitzsimmons, a regular on David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel, at Wise Guys comedy club recently. He’s a guy who pushes humor to the edge—riffing on the aesthetic difference between man and woman masturbation, for instance—but he was taken aback to learn that Salt Lake City is not overwhelmingly Mitt Romney turf.

While grasping for local political material, Fitzsimmons, who lives in Los Angeles, asked the audience at Trolley Square, “You guys probably don’t like jokes about Mitt Romney.”

When the booing and cat calls died down—an obviously perplexed Fitzsimmons called for a hand count of Romney supporters.

None.

“But this is Salt Lake City,” he marveled.

Then someone in the back yelled, “We’re drinkers!”

“Oh, yeah…,” Fitzsimmons said as the light bulb went on.