Comedy: is the Dam Breaking?

I stopped watching late-night comedy in 2009.

During the first decade (the "oughts") of the 21st century the jokes became more political and vicious, almost exclusively against Republicans and the Bush Administration. (Gone were the gentle chidings of Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, who focused on the personal foibles of politicians of all stripes.) Indeed, some of the fare was funny, but my laughter died down after the same jokes were told every weeknight for eight years.

In 2008 Barack Obama and the Democrats won landslide victories. They didn't need to compromise with Republicans on anything.

In 2009 I thought we'd start hearing jokes about the all-powerful Democrats, as comedians would follow the liberal mantra of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Instead, a year after Democrats won the election

David Letterman, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart still choose to joke about Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney's miscues but largely ignore the rich lode of material produced daily by this Administration.

The comics and their writers did their part by refraining to criticize President Obama for eight years, attacking Donald Trump throughout his Presidency, then laying off Joe Biden for three years as he deteriorated visibly after his election. In early 2024 they were still holding the line.

A new study from the Media Research Center found that 81% of all political jokes told on major late-night comedy shows in 2023 targeted conservatives.

The media watchdog analyzed each of the 9,518 political jokes told between six major daily late-night shows from January 3 through December 22, 2023, and found that 7,729 of them took aim at “someone or something on the right side of the political spectrum.”

The shows analyzed were ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, CBS’s “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “The Late Late Show with James Corden” (until its cancelation in April).

After Joe Biden made his senility obvious at the June 27th Presidential debate, there is no agreed-upon Democratic narrative to protect. Comedians can now direct their cruelties against Democrats (except for Kamala Harris, who may well become the party's nominee ).

Jon Stewart's monologue was something that I've been waiting for over 20 years.