Russell L. Peterson: Scholar argues that late-night comedians, by offering political cynicism instead of satire, foster electoral apathy
Jay Leno may be annoying, but is he a threat to American democracy? That is the eyebrow-raising charge that Russell L. Peterson levels at the host of The Tonight Show and his mainstream comedy peers in Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy Into a Joke (Rutgers University Press).
Peterson, a visiting assistant professor of American studies at the University of Iowa, has clearly spent a great deal of time with a remote control clutched in his hand, clicking his way across the late-night comedy landscape. His conclusion? Comedy about politics is as "common as crabgrass" — but actual political comedy, which Peterson defines as satire aimed at advancing a serious critique, is "so rare that we might be tempted to conclude it is extinct." When we tune into Leno, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brien — whom Peterson scolds as "evangelists of apathy" — we get cynicism instead of satire. ...
Read entire article at Chronicle of Higher Ed
Peterson, a visiting assistant professor of American studies at the University of Iowa, has clearly spent a great deal of time with a remote control clutched in his hand, clicking his way across the late-night comedy landscape. His conclusion? Comedy about politics is as "common as crabgrass" — but actual political comedy, which Peterson defines as satire aimed at advancing a serious critique, is "so rare that we might be tempted to conclude it is extinct." When we tune into Leno, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brien — whom Peterson scolds as "evangelists of apathy" — we get cynicism instead of satire. ...