Late-Night Political Humor and the Two Presidents of 2021

• In Event: Popular Culture: Communicating and Shaping Political Attitudes

Abstract

The combative nature of Donald Trump's departure from office, together with his continuing efforts to claim the 2020 election was stolen provided a ready source for material for late-night comics who have targeted Trump's years in public life like no other previous president. An examination of the key targets of the humor revealed the two long-running nightly entertainers examined here (Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon) paid considerable attention to Trump and relatively little to the president in office, while Biden received far more attention from the new Fox News humor show of Greg Gutfeld. Three influential once-a-week comedy programs (Saturday Night Live, Full Frontal and Last Week Tonight) examined here likewise offered a great deal of material on the former president in comparison to his Democratic successor.



Using content analysis of nightly host monologues and a qualitative study of a variety of once-a-week comedy programs during 2021, as well as past content analyses of late night presidential humor going back to the Reagan era, this paper examines both short-term joke patterns about the two presidents and key issues of the tumultuous year, including COVID and the January 6th Insurrection. The paper also examines as the longer-term trajectories of political humor via decades of content analysis of political humor. Using public opinion surveys, this project also considers the growing role these late-night comedy programs play in framing the nation’s political discourse and the public's assessments of the two presidents of 2021.

Authors

• Stephen J. Farnsworth, University of Mary Washington

• S. Robert Lichter, George Mason University

• Farah LATIF, Gmu