Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy into a Joke / Edition 1

by Russell Peterson

Overview

It is no coincidence that presidential candidates have been making it a point to add the late-night comedy circuit to the campaign trail in recent years. In 2004, when John Kerry decided it was time to do his first national television interview, he did not choose CBS’s 60 Minutes, ABC’s Nightline, or NBC Nightly News. Kerry picked Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. When George W. Bush was lagging in the polls, his appearance on the David Letterman Show gave him a measurable boost. Candidates for the 2008 presidential election began their late-night bookings almost as soon as they launched their campaigns.

How can this be? The reason is that polls have been consistently finding that a significant number of Americans—and an even larger proportion of those under the age of thirty—get at least some of their “news” about politics and national affairs from comedy shows. While this trend toward what some have called “infotainment” seems to herald the descent of our national discourse—the triumph of entertainment over substance—the reality, according to Russell L. Peterson, is more complex. He explains that this programming is more than a mere replacement for traditional news outlets; it plays its own role in shaping public perception of government and the political process.

From Johnny Carson to Jon Stewart, from Chevy Chase’s spoofing of President Ford on Saturday Night Live to Stephen Colbert’s roasting of President Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Strange Bedfellows explores what Americans have found so funny about our political institutions and the people who inhabit them, and asks what this says about the health of our democracy. Comparing the mainstream network hosts—Jay, Dave, Conan, and Johnny before them—who have always strived to be “equal opportunity offenders” to the newer, edgier crop of comedians on cable networks, Peterson shows how each brand of satire plays off a different level of Americans’ frustrations with politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813542843
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	03/05/2008
Series:	NA
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

RUSSELL L. PETERSON teaches American studies at the University of Iowa.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Losing Our Religion
2. "Showmen is Devoid of Politics": The Roots of Pseudo-Satire and the Rise of the Comedy-Industrial Complex
3. Film at 11:00, Jokes at 11:30: Topical Comedy and the News
4. The Personal and the Political
5. Pay No Attention to That Man in Front of the Curtain
6. Truth versus Truthiness; or, Looking for Mr. Smith
7. For Whom the Bell Dings
8. Laughing All the Way to the White House
9. Irony is Dead...Long Live Satire? 
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

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.
—Jennifer Zarr Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

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