Political Satire Has Real World Implications
Our country is so fractured that we somehow let a tiny handed, neon orange scalped sycophant run our country. The only Americans currently happy with our current administration are alt-right trolls and those in complete denial about who he truly is and what he is dismantling on a daily basis. After the election results came in optimists pointed to one fact that they thought would soothe liberal psyches: “At least comedy shows are going to be so hilarious. They must be glad for all this new material.” No they’re not. Shut up. You are the worst.
Here’s the thing: Comedy always informs politics, and it is always needed in a democratic society, the same as freedom of the press. Political satire has been a part of American politics from the beginning. Benjamin Franklin wrote great social satire during and after the American Revolution, and Thomas Nast became wildly popular for his cartoons in the early 19th century. These forms of humor started the American Revolution and took down New York’s Boss Tweed by showing the absurdity of political life in a palatable, relatable, and funny way. Fast forwarding to the beginning of the 21st century, we didn’t have enough lambasting of the political elite. We had Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect, but the humor emphasized bitter cynicism rather than actual satire. Satire did pop up in shows like The Simpsons and South Park, but it was too broad in scope. Jon Stewart took over the Daily Show desk in 1999 and began his reign as king of late night political humor. Today many people connect Bush and Stewart as the two polar opposites in American ideology during that administration. Without Stewart’s wit, some of the worst aspects of Bush’s presidency might have gone unnoticed and uncriticized. Stewart became our Walter Cronkite, blending together humor and ball-busting commentary on the state of this country, and became a voice of reason as well as an advocate.
Mo Rocca, Walls Carell, Lewis Black, Colbert, Vance DeGeneres, Stewart, and Carell in 2000.
By Al Levine/Comedy Central.
Now we are here, in the Trump era, and the original Daily Show contributors have come out in full force to voice their dissent. John Oliver has become wildly popular via YouTube clips of his show, for his lengthy commentaries on various political and social topics such as the Miss America pageant, Net Neutrality, and the Dalai Lama. His lack of censorship, via his platform on cable, has given him a true voice that brings to light unpopular or unknown issues. His team exhaustively researches every topic, and many times this attention to detail has created very funny and wastefully expensive gags that have lent to things such as the FCC website getting flooded with angry internet users, televangelist chain letters getting continuously mailed, and commercials being produced to air during Trump’s favorite show Fox and Friends. Oliver is probably the most popular political commentator and comedian working right now, and his humor has lent to real political change that is honestly refreshing and gut-bustingly funny.
Equally amazing is compatriot Samantha Bee’s TBS program Full Frontal which has a confrontational feminist vibe that pumps you up. Bee’s team has delved into the Black Lives Matter movement, local political elections, and the lack of follow-through from the Resistance after the Women’s March. Bee is flagrantly funny and unabashedly amazing, just as she was in her former Daily Show role. In the late night realm Seth Meyers has become the network answer to John Oliver as he has been deep diving into topics and is nothing but apathetic and unforgiving in his assessments of Trump’s current performance. He was especially poignant on January 30th, when he ripped apart Trump’s first immigration ban, calling it both heartless and poorly thought out. There’s also The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and the newly created Problematic, and The President Show also on Comedy Central.
Though all of these comedians have been hitting hard at Trump and really creating quite funny and introspective satire, sometimes it feels like it’s too much. Trump is not George W. Bush, a hick with little intelligence and a penchant for chortling to himself. Trump is a megalomaniac who doesn’t care about the consequences of any of his actions. There’s a point when you can’t make fun of people like this. There’s a point when you can’t wring hilarity out of the actions of a man who values his own comfort over the lives of his constituents. Stephen Colbert has already snapped, calling Trump’s mouth “Putin’s cock-holder,” and may be investigated by the FCC because of it. Alec Baldwin has hung onto the Trump role on SNL well past the candidate’s election, and there’s no telling what the future will bring for the impression. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have declined to go on with their election storyline from this past season, because they say they can’t make humor out of something that’s already ridiculous. There really comes a point when humor won’t do, when political action and fervent ire make more sense than making a pointed comment about Kellyanne Conway’s dead eyes or Sean Spicer’s gum chewing habit.
Why then, do we have satire at all? It’s because humor at a ruler’s expense is necessary in a free democracy. Satire doesn’t just entertain, it balances the scales of power and creates an open dialogue between a country’s citizens and politicians. The most popular dissenter in the realm of political satire is Egypt’s Bassem Youssef who hosted Al Bernameg from 2011 to 2014. Viewers saw his sets and type of humor and quickly compared him to Jon Stewart. During his tenure he was jailed, threatened, and censored by the Egyptian government. He had to end the show in 2014 amid many threats to his and his family’s life. Since then he has been the subject of a documentary and is still resisting the totalitarian government he lives under by creating comedy. Now that is a prime example of the power of satire and political comedy. Bassem being censored shows a weakness Egypt’s leadership and a need for change. This too is the reason why Trump tweets about Alec Baldwin at two in the morning, and why he publicly comments on any form of disapproval or criticism of his political organization. In essence Trump isn’t as bad as President Morsi or many other dictators, but that’s because we have obstacles in place to stop certain actions by power hungry leaders. If there weren’t we would be in dire straits.
While political action, protest, funding courageous actions and organizations, and calling your representative are better uses of your time, watching political satire to educate, enlighten, and entertain yourself is a good first step to joining the Resistance. Fight however way you want, but always fight.
