Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy into a Joke
In the bleary late-night haze the twenty-four-hour urgency of CNN, Fox, and MSNBC blurs into the bubbling frivolity of Jay and Dave and The Daily Show in a strangely intimate way. Late-night comedy does more than simply induce apathy and dumb down our discourse. It adds its own dimensions to the interpretation of current events, even as it shuts out others.\ From Johnny Carson to Jon Stewart, from Chevy Chase's spoofing of President Ford on Saturday Night Live to Stephen Colbert's roasting of...
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According to election-year surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, a substantial portion of the public, especially those under 30 years of age, get much of their information about politics and national affairs not from on line resources or the broadcast news but from late-night comedy shows such as Jay Leno and David Letterman instead. To many media watchers, it is frightening to contemplate that jokers have superseded journalists as the arbiters of the nation's political discussion. In fact, comedy has bled from these programs to news broadcasts and from both to the highest levels of power in such a way that it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the branches of comedy. Russell Peterson briefly and humorously delves into the history of political satire in the nineteenth century, where he locates prototypes in print of the televised variety we are more familiar with today. He distinguishes between genuine satire, which is purposeful, and pseudo satire which jokes about trivia to no purpose apart from keeping viewers laughing at teh expense of all politics and politicians. Jon Stewart is found in the camp of true satirists, while Jay Leno holds court with other sell-outs. He goes back into the history of Jack Parr, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson, and other hosts of earlier television shows to locate precedents for and differences from those who entertain us now. Why does any of this matter and how does it work? Peterson argues that the type of humor on late-night talk shows is seeping into every political encounter and cheapening it. He demonstrates over and over again the infiltration of this type of mockery into politicalappearances, ads, campaigns, and debates. Everyone is a showman (or show woman) at the moment. Our leaders are remembered for their quips or jokes about them more than they are for their policies and actions. This is a devastating—and funny—critique of our whole political culture. Read it and weep while laughing out loud. Jennifer Zarr Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information - School Library Journal What's so funny about democracy? Here, Peterson (American studies, Univ. of Iowa) takes on the big three late-night comedians-Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brian-and critiques their approach to current American politics. Classifying all three comedians as pseudosatirical and safe, he contrasts their humor with the genuinely satirical, political, edgy brand of cable television's John Stewart, Steven Colbert, and Bill Maher. Although he focuses on the current climate of comedy and politics, Peterson does take a historical approach, introducing us to Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby, 19th-century pseudonymous print equivalents of Jay Leno and Steven Colbert. This book takes an insightful look at the increasingly complex media landscape, where "legitimate" cable and network journalists, cable-news pundits, and TV comedians all fall under the same category of "infotainment" and political leaders and celebrities alike are both ridiculed and revered. He also raises the question whether late-night comedians have a moral role to play as individuals who reach a mass audience with their jibes. Especially timely now that the election season is underway, this book is strongly recommended for large public and academic libraries.
Introduction 1Losing Our Religion 5"Showmen Is Devoid of Politics": The Roots of Pseudo-Satire and the Rise of the Comedy-Industrial Complex 21Film at 11:00, Jokes at 11:30: Topical Comedy and the News 39The Personal and the Political 62Pay No Attention to That Man in Front of the Curtain 88Truth versus Truthiness; or, Looking for Mr. Smith 125For Whom the Bell Dings 146Laughing All the Way to the White House 170Irony Is Dead...Long Live Satire? 194Acknowledgments 209Notes 211Index 245
\ School Library JournalWhat's so funny about democracy? Here, Peterson (American studies, Univ. of Iowa) takes on the big three late-night comedians-Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brian-and critiques their approach to current American politics. Classifying all three comedians as pseudosatirical and safe, he contrasts their humor with the genuinely satirical, political, edgy brand of cable television's John Stewart, Steven Colbert, and Bill Maher. Although he focuses on the current climate of comedy and politics, Peterson does take a historical approach, introducing us to Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby, 19th-century pseudonymous print equivalents of Jay Leno and Steven Colbert. This book takes an insightful look at the increasingly complex media landscape, where "legitimate" cable and network journalists, cable-news pundits, and TV comedians all fall under the same category of "infotainment" and political leaders and celebrities alike are both ridiculed and revered. He also raises the question whether late-night comedians have a moral role to play as individuals who reach a mass audience with their jibes. Especially timely now that the election season is underway, this book is strongly recommended for large public and academic libraries.\ —Jennifer Zarr Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information\ \ \
