The Ides of Laughs: The Politicisation of American Late-Night Talk Shows Over Time and Under Trump
Dominic Stephens
Abstract
The election of President Trump has not just shaken traditional politics but also traditional American late-night talk shows. Partisan comedy in late night has dramatically risen in response to Trump’s own polarising rise and hosts have stopped sitting on the fence to become figureheads of the anti-Trump resistance. Little academic research has so far been conducted into this phenomenon. This paper uses in-depth, elite interviews to offer a comprehensive account of how the humour of American late-night talk shows and Saturday Night Live has changed from apolitical to proudly partisan. Findings suggest there are now three types of political comedy: superficial, analytical and partisan. For decades, late night went by the adage of ‘political neutrality keeps the audience happy’, with hosts mocking simplistic political caricatures (superficial political comedy). However, increased media proliferation has reduced audience sizes, and therefore reduced the risk of audience alienation, leading to a rise in more substantive political comedy and commentary. New partisan comedy would appear to be a ratings winner and shows no signs of letting up until at least the end of Trump’s presidency.References
Baum, M. A., 2002. Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy to the Inattentive Public. The American Political Science Review, 96 (1), 91109. Available from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3117812 [Accessed 13 February 2018].
Baumgartner, J. C. and Morris, J. S., 2006. The Daily Show Effect: Candidate Evaluations, Efficacy, and American Youth. American Politics Research, 34 (3), 341-367.
Baumgartner, J. C. and Morris, J. S., 2014. 'It's Just A Joke!'...Or is it?: The Promise and Pitfalls in Political Humor in an Age of Polarized Politics.
Extensions, 4, 16-22. Available from:
https://issuu.com/cacextensions/docs/winter2014 [Accessed 11 January 2018].
Baumgartner, J. C., Morris, J. S., & Walth, N. L., 2012. The Fey Effect: Young Adults, Political Humor, and Perceptions of Sarah Palin in the 2008 Presidential Election Campaign. Public Opinion Quarterly, 76, 95–104. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfr060 [Accessed 17 February 2018].
Bushkin, H., 2013. Johnny Carson. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Buxton, R. A., 1987. The Late-Night Talk Show: Humor in Fringe Television.
Southern Speech Communication Journal, 52 (4), 377-389.
Carter, B., 1994. The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night. New York: Hyperion.
CMPA, 2008. The Comedy Campaign: The Role of Late-Night TV Shows in Campaign '08. Media Monitor, 22 (3), 1-8. Available from: https://cmpa.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2008-2.pdf [Accessed 11 April 2018].
CNN, 2015. Dave's Disciples: Conan & Kimmel on Looking Up to Letterman (May 19, 2015). Video. YouTube: Absolutely. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHhdBobLF6U [Accessed 4 April 2018].
Corliss, R., 2004. That Old Feeling: Paar Excellence. TIME, 30 January 2004. Available from: http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,585397,00.html [Accessed 11 January 2018].
D'Addario, D. and Rothman, L., 2015. Stephen Colbert, David Letterman and the History of Late-Night Torch Passing. TIME, 16 December 2015. Available from: http://time.com/3599738/stephen-colbert-report-david-letterman-lateshow/ [Accessed 2 April 2018].
Flanagan, C., 2017. How Late-Night Comedy Fueled the Rise of Trump. The Atlantic, May 2017. Available from: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/05/how-late-night-comedyalienated-conservatives-made-liberals-smug-and-fueled-the-rise-oftrump/521472/ [Accessed 8 January 2018].
Fox, J. R., Koloen, G. and Sahin, V., 2007. No Joke: A Comparison of
Substance in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Broadcast Network Television Coverage of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 51 (2), 213-227. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233366995 [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Freeman, H., 2017. Seth Meyers: ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better target than Trump’. The New York Times, 26 February 2017. Available from:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/feb/26/seth-meyers-i-couldnthave-asked-for-a-better-target-than-trump [Accessed 8 January 2018].
Golshan, T., 2016. Bill Clinton's first major appearance at a convention almost destroyed his career. Vox, 26 July 2012. Available from:
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/26/12285312/bill-clinton-dnc-1988-speaker-latenight [Accessed 12 April 2018].
Grierson, T., 2017. The Year in TV: How Late-Night Hosts Became the Resistance. Rolling Stone, 6 December 2017. Available from:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/the-year-in-tv-how-late-night-hostsbecame-the-resistance-w513437 [Accessed 8 January 2018].
Hart, R. P. and Hartelius, E. J., 2007. The Political Sins of Jon Stewart. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 24 (3), 263-272. Available from:
https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180701520991 [Accessed 16 February 2018].
Hindman, M., 2008. The Myth of Digital Democracy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Itzkoff, D., 2017. Jimmy Fallon Was on Top of the World. Then Came Trump.
The New York Times, 6 December 2017. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/arts/television/jimmy-fallon-tonight-showinterview-trump.html [Accessed 4 January 2018].
Jennings, F. J., Croker, C. R., Bramlett, J. C., Reed, J. L. and Bolton, J. P.,
Late Night with Donald Trump: An Exploration of the Combined Effects of
Political Comedy and Political Advertising. In: Warner, B. R., Bystrom, D. G.,
Mckinney, M. S. and Banwart, M. C., eds. An Unprecedented Election: Media, Communication, and the Electorate in the 2016 Campaign. Santa Barbara:
ABC-CLIO, 235-252.
Jones, J. P., 2010. Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Leamer, L., 1989. King of the Night: The Life of Johnny Carson. New York:
HarperCollins.
Lichter, S. R., Baumgartner, J. C. and Morris, J. S., 2015. Politics Is A Joke:
How Comedians Are Remaking Political Life. Boulder: Westview Press.
Macks, J., 2015. Monologue: What Makes America Laugh Before Bed. New York: Blue Rider Press.
Marchese, D., 2017. In Conversation: David Letterman. Vulture, 5 March 2017. Available from: http://www.vulture.com/2017/03/david-letterman-inconversation.html [Accessed 1 April 2018].
Miller, J., 2003. From the Great Plains to L.A.: The Intersecting Paths of
Lawrence Welk and Johnny Carson. Virginia Quarterly Review, 79 (2), 265-279.
Miller, J. A. and Shales, T., 2015. Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests. New York: Back Bay.
Molla, R., Lightner, R. and Tovar, C., 2015. As Colbert Ascends 'The Late
Show' Throne, a Look Back at Late Night TV Show Ratings. WSJ.com, Wall Street Journal. Available from: http://graphics.wsj.com/late-night-tv-showratings-and-hosts/ [Accessed 3 April 2018].
Nesteroff, K., 2015. The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy. New York: Grove Atlantic.
Nickerson, R. S., 1998. Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises. Review of General Psychology, 2 (2), 175-220. Available from:
http://pages.ucsd.edu/~mckenzie/nickersonConfirmationBias.pdf [Accessed 21 February 2018].
O'Connor, J. J., 1997. How a Taste for the Offbeat Led to an Institution. The New York Times, 7 May 1997. Available from:
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/07/arts/how-a-taste-for-the-offbeat-led-to-aninstitution.html [Accessed 8 January 2018].
PBS, 2016. Pioneers of Television: Late Night TV. PBS.org, PBS. Available from: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/pioneers-of-television/pioneering-programs/latenight-tv/ [Accessed 10 February 2018].
Peifer, J. T., 2012. Can We Be Funny? The Social Responsibility of Political Humor. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 27 (4), 263-276. Available from:
https://doi.org/10.1080/08900523.2012.746110 [Accessed 15 February 2018].
People, 1989. Johnny Carson. People, 4 May 1989. Available from: http://people.com/archive/johnny-carson/ [Accessed 11 April 2018].
Peterson, R. L., 2008. Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy Into A Joke. London: Rutgers University Press.
Robinson, J., 2015. Why Seth Meyers Might Be the Real Heir to Jon Stewart.
Vanity Fair, 1 October 2015. Available from:
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/10/seth-meyers-plannedparenthood-daily-show-jon-stewart [Accessed 5 February 2018].
Rogak, L., 2011. And Nothing But The Truthiness: The Rise (And Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert. New York: Thomas Dunne.
Rutenberg, J., 2017. Politics, It Seems, Has Jolted Even the Idiot Box Awake.
The New York Times, 14 May 2017. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/14/business/media/tv-politics-donald-trumpera.html [Accessed 15 March 2018].
Schultz, D. A., 2004. From Saxophones to Schwarzenegger: Entertainment
Politics on Late-night Television. In: Schultz, D. A., ed. Lights, Camera, Campaign!: Media, Politics, and Political Advertising. New York: Peter Lang, 215-238.
Sella, M., 2000. The Stiff Guy vs. the Dumb Guy. The New York Times, 24 September 2000. Available from:
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/24/magazine/the-stiff-guy-vs-the-dumbguy.html [Accessed 10 April 2018].
Severo, R., 2000. Steve Allen, Comedian Who Pioneered Late-Night TV Talk Shows, Is Dead at 78. The New York Times, 1 November 2000. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/01/arts/steve-allen-comedian-who-pioneeredlate-night-tv-talk-shows-is-dead-at-78.html [Accessed 4 April 2018].
Shepherd, J., 2016. Jimmy Fallon criticised for 'humanising a monster' by messing up Donald Trump's hair on The Tonight Show. The Independent, 16 September 2016. Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/artsentertainment/tv/news/jimmy-fallon-criticised-for-humanising-a-monster-bymessing-up-donald-trumps-hair-on-the-tonight-a7310826.html [Accessed 8 January 2018].
Smith, C., 2016. The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests. New York: Grand Central.
Strachan, M., 2016. People Are Justifiably Infuriated With How Jimmy Fallon Handled Trump. HuffPost, 16 September 2016. Available from: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jimmy-fallon-donaldtrump_us_57dbecd4e4b0071a6e06801e [Accessed 8 January 2018].
Sunstein, C., 2001. Republic.com. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sweeney, D., 2006. Backstage at The Tonight Show: from Johnny Carson to Jay Leno. New York: Taylor Trade Publishing.
The Associated Press, 2005. Carson Helped Clinton Turn It Around. Today, 23 January 2005. Available from: https://www.today.com/popculture/carsonhelped-clinton-turn-it-around-wbna6858728 [Accessed 3 April 2018].
Tryon, C., 2016. Political TV. New York: Routledge.
Young, D. G., 2004. Late Night Comedy in Election 2000: Its Influence on Candidate Trait Ratings and the Moderating Effects of Political Knowledge and Partisanship. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 48, 1–22.
Webster, J. G., 2005. Beneath the Veneer of Fragmentation: Television Audience Polarization in a Multichannel World. Journal of Communication, 55
(2), 366-382.
Zillmann, D., & Bryant, J., 1985. Selective Exposure to Communication. New York: Routledge.
