“Scarborough Country Unplugged”

This blog has been a little rough on the recent changes to Joe Scarborough‘s MSNBC program. But Eat the Press has a different take: “Funny Joe” is a “new niche that totally works.”

MSNBC.com calls it “Scarborough Country Unplugged:” Humorous video segments on subjects like the Gallup poll and Tucker’s dancing.

“The market for funny, riffy humor pieces is ripe for plucking, and MSNBC is wise to give Scarborough free rein in giving this new side of him a whirl, especially when the major cable nets have largely left humor alone,” Rachel Sklar writes. “It’s a great opportunity for Scarborough, who, with this sudden new access to the YouTube-clip-passing generation, has an opportunity to expand his audience, not to mention his cred…”

> Update: 1:18pm: “Scarborough Country started out very humorous when it launched a few years ago,” an e-mailer says. “They’d play music appropriate (and usually irreverent) to certain topics, and would have MANY segments that would produce certain stories in a humorous, and again irreverent, light. I was sorry to see the format change, but now it looks like he’s bringing the humor back into the program.”