Late-Night Iraq: Monologue Joke Content and Tone From 2003 to 2007

Abstract

The current study examines late-night comedy about the war in Iraq. Specifically, a content analysis was conducted to examine late-night comedy jokes from March 2003 to March 2007. Results indicate jokes told (N = 986) about Iraq were anti-war, had a negative tone, and depicted the U.S. government negatively. The most common type of comedy employed to discuss Iraq was informative. The topics discussed in the jokes varied. The study also found differences in comedian ideology (anti-war), tone, and depiction of the U.S. government over time.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Allurie Kephart and Karin Steinbock, undergraduate students in the College of Communications at Penn State University, for coding the late-night monologue jokes. This study was funded by a Research Initiation Grant from the Penn State College of Communications.

Notes

¹The Pew Research Center (2008) released a report for the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War. More than 50% of people did not support the U.S. decision to go to war in March 2008. The figure grew slightly (from 49% to 54%) from 2007. When the Center asked the question during the first 2 years of the war, adults were still in support of going to war. It appears the longer the war goes on, public support decreases. The percentage of people saying there is progress in Iraq as well as those wanting to bring the troops home continues to be split almost equally. In an earlier Pew Center Report (Pew Research Center, 2007), the Center found the same trend. Public support of the war declined from 2003 to 2007.

²Jay Leno told more political jokes than other late-night hosts in this study. This pattern supports previous research. Williams and colleagues (2004) found that Jay Leno told more jokes about Iraq than other late-night hosts. The CMPA (2002) found that Leno told more political jokes from 1989 to 2002, and Niven and colleagues (2003) also found that Jay Leno told more political jokes per year. Jay Leno tells more political-oriented jokes than other late-night hosts—whether they are about issues (as in this study) or political figures (as previous research suggests).

³Late-night comedy shows such as Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien are available in 15 million more homes than The Daily Show because these are aired on network channels rather than cable channels. Gorman (2008) reported that Jay Leno won the ratings war over Letterman for the adults 18 to 49 categories as well as in percentage of total viewers. Conan has more viewers than Craig Ferguson and also won the adult 18 to 49 category as well as total viewer numbers.

Note: The definitions are from Williams et al. (2004, p. 133).

Note: Means (standard deviations) are listed for dependent variables and the independent variable of comedian. Comedians' ideology on the war was coded by altering Williams and colleagues' (2004) measure. They coded comedians' ideology as pro-war (hawk), anti-war (dove), or in the middle (sparrow). This study placed anti-war and pro-war along a 7-point continuum. On this scale, 1 was an anti-war position and 7 was a pro-war position. The mid-point 4 serves as a neutral stance about the war in Iraq. Overall tone of coverage was assessed using a global attitude measure adapted from Burgoon et al. (1978). It consisted of six, 7-interval semantic differential scales. Depiction of the U.S. government was measured using the Individualized Trust Scale developed by Wheelus and Grotz (1977). It is based on four, 7-interval semantic differential scales.

^a n = 190. ^b n = 109. ^c n = 687.

Note: Mean scores for the tone measure. Overall tone consisted of the mean score from six, 7-interval semantic differential scales. On this scale, 1 was negative and 7 was a positive. The mid-point 4 serves as neutral. There were no jokes scoring below 2.00 or above 5.0 on the scale. Means are given in unequal ranges in the table, but are based on natural clustering of joke tone scores within those ranges or on a specific score.

Note. Means (standard deviations) are listed for dependent variables ideology, tone, and depiction, as well as the independent variable of comedian. Scales are described in the note to Table 2.

*Significant within dependent variable compared to 2003, 2004, 2005 at p < .05 by Tukey's Honestly Significance Difference test.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michel M. Haigh

Michel M. Haigh (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, 2006) is Assistant Professor in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests are mass media influence and strategic communications.

Aaron Heresco

Aaron Heresco (M.A., The Pennsylvania State University, 2009) is a Ph.D. student in the College of Communications at The Pennsylvania State University. His research interests are international and political communications.