Is It Funny if No One is Watching? Public Response to Late-Night Political Satire

Abstract

The past decade has seen a dramatic shift in substance and tone in the political humor found on late-night television talk shows in the U.S. Relatively light-hearted political comedy has in many cases been replaced by more politically oriented political satire. This change has been welcomed by media elites, and most hosts seems to have embraced the idea that their material should be socially and politically relevant. However, we know less about how the public views this change. I present evidence that suggests that public reception to late-night political satire is mixed. Using Google Trends, Nielson ratings and public opinion data, I show that the viewing public seems to be ambivalent about tuning into meaningful political satire as opposed to light-hearted political comedy.

Keywords:

• Late-night talk shows
• late-night political humor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jody C Baumgartner

Jody Baumgartner is the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, in the department of political science at East Carolina University. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Miami University in 1998, specializing in the study of campaigns and elections. Baumgartner has authored or edited nine books and numerous journal articles, and book chapters, individually or in collaboration with others, on political humor, the vice presidency, and other subjects.