The Swiss “Tina Fey Effect”: The Content of Late-Night Political Humor and the Negative Effects of Political Parody on the Evaluation of Politicians

Abstract

This article investigates the content and effects of political humor on late-night television. Besides conducting a systematic content analysis of a Swiss late-night show, this article examines the effects of late-night political parody on competence evaluations of politicians. An experiment manipulated the televised parody of a politician and measured political knowledge. Results show that exposure to a televised political parody decreased competence ratings of politicians only for individuals high in political knowledge. The reason is that viewers must already have an understanding of current political affairs to “get the joke”—that is, the implicit message transported by the parody. The implications of such a negative “Tina Fey Effect” are discussed.

Keywords:

• Competence
• Cynicism
• Political Humor
• Political Knowledge
• Political Parody

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation as a part of “Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century” of the National Center of Competence in Research. We thank Franziska Kohler for her work on this project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jörg Matthes

Jörg Matthes (Ph.D., University of Zurich, 2007) is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Vienna, Austria.

Adrian Rauchfleisch

Adrian Rauchfleisch (M.A., University of Zurich, 2012) is a research associate at the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.