The “Humoralist” as Journalistic Jammer: Zondag met Lubach and the Discursive Construction of Investigative Comedy

ABSTRACT

This study contributes to ongoing discussions on the societal role of satire as a platform for public debate. To this end, we analysed the metajournalistic discourse surrounding the Dutch television news satire show Zondag met Lubach to assess how it has been received and discussed in the Dutch media landscape. Through an analysis of 64 media appearances (2014–2020) with the host and staff members of the show, we zoom in on how discursive exchanges between Zondag met Lubach and media professionals reflect and shape understandings of the journalistic. Thereby, we distinguish three phases of identity construction for the show. Our findings reveal how Zondag met Lubach entered the Dutch media landscape as a comedic non-journalistic outsider, but has gradually become legitimated as a quasi-insider to the journalistic field, embodying the nuanced role of investigative comedy. We conclude by discussing how the concept of investigative comedy elicits reflection on the epistemic authority of novel incantations of journalistic storytelling, and how it contributes to the expansion of conventional assumptions among satirists and media professionals about what journalism can or should be.

KEYWORDS:

• Satire
• political entertainment
• investigative comedy
• metajournalistic discourse
• journalism
• Zondag met Lubach

Disclosure Statement

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

Notes

1 After recurrent peak ratings over two million, the final season of Zondag met Lubach broke its previous record with 2.3 million views, engulfing conventional evening news programmes on both the public and commercial broadcaster for that evening.

2 Lubach proposed to have himself elected Pharaoh of the Netherlands, launching a successful petition on the topic receiving more than 65,000 signatures making it legally fit for assessment in Parliament.

3 Follow The Money is a Dutch digital independent journalistic platform which strives to hold power accountable by “following financial flows, addressing societal problems and malpractices, reveal complex connections and offer solutions” (http://www.ftm.nl/over-ftm).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the nederlandse organisatie voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek (grant number 016.Veni.195.123).