I've been following the series The History of Comedy on CNN, and last night's episode was about political humor. It didn't take long for me to notice something very strange happening in the broadcast. What should have been a down-the-middle examination of how it is healthy in a free democracy to mock those in power and how using humor can be a more effective method of communication than candidate commercials, policy speeches, or news reports, quickly became an agenda-driven exhibition of political bias.
Shakespeare used the fool/jester/clown character to be the one voice that could speak honestly to and about the king. While that character was often played for laughs, it always served a vital role as a reflection of both the leader's consciousness and the audience's.
However, the fool doesn't pick and choose which type of king to poke fun at. The king is always to be poked fun at. But that is not what most comedians (and in the case of CNN, the news organizations that document and support their messages) do. They claim to be equal opportunity offenders, that they want to expose all political hypocrisy, that they don't pick sides. But, as it turns out, these comedians are some of the biggest hypocrites of all.
After watching for a while, I hit rewind on my DVR and started over from the beginning. I grabbed a pen and paper and began to keep some statistics. Here is what I discovered.
There were approximately 23 straightforward jokes or insults aimed at Republicans (or conservatives), approximately 6 aimed at Democrats (or liberals), and approximately 6 aimed at both groups simultaneously. There were also 6 clear incidents of comedians speaking with fear and sadness about the election of Donald Trump. No such incidents were shown regarding the 2008 election of Barack Obama. The vast majority of Saturday NIght Live clips were about Republican politicians, with clips of Democrats Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Bernie Sanders barely registering as insults or jokes. In fact, one SNL sketch showing Larry David playing Sanders was actually a joke about David and his sit-com Curb Your Enthusiasm, rather than Sanders himself.
In the SNL era, there have been 22 years of Republican presidents and 20 years of Democrat presidents, an amazing balance and a testament to America's ideological diversity. Therefore, for all those comedians claiming they are willing to criticize any party in power, we should see roughly similar numbers of jokes and insults about each party. One interviewee said, "Good comedy is about mocking the status quo." By definition, the status quo has been in both political camps fairly evenly in recent history. However, the amount of ridicule is nowhere near even.
One comedian, Bill Maher, is shown as a stalwart of speaking truth to power. Fellow comic Marc Maron describes how Maher is excellent at skewering both sides, and Maher himself says on camera, "My job is to hold politicians' feet to the fire no matter who is in power." So, how did CNN portray this even-handed comedian? Maher is shown making 5 jokes about Republicans, 0 jokes about Democrats, and 0 jokes about politicians in general. The one reference he makes to Hillary Clinton is actually a point of praise, not an insult. And he is the bulldog of independent political comedy? By the way, let's not forget that Maher personally donated $1 million to the 2012 Obama campaign? Are we to honestly believe that he "holds all politicians' feet the fire"? Funny, I don't remember the Fool being a Beverly Hills-living, millionaire donor to King Lear's campaign against the French.
I was stunned to see that throughout the full hour of the show, not a single jab was taken at Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, both of whom were in office for 8 years and created mountains of material for criticism. Instead, Clinton is shown looking cool and playing saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, and Obama is funny and collected on Between Two Ferns and at the White House Correspondence Dinner.
It's amazing how oblivious both these comedians and CNN are to their own partisanship. I'm not surprised that comedians lack so much diversity that they all have the same political views. What surprises me more is that no producer or editor at CNN, when making this episode, bothered to say, "Gee, we sure have a lot of clips ripping on one side of the political spectrum. Since we are a news network that seeks credibility for non-partisanship, maybe we should seek out comedians with different political views and find jokes that criticize all politicians evenly." But that would take a bit too much self-awareness for these Hollywood-seeking suck-ups.
I like when comedians satirize, or outright castigate, politicians or certain agenda-driven groups. And I don't want these comedians portrayed in this documentary to stop what they're doing. I just hope they would be a bit more open-minded in their social criticism--to see that all politicians should be held to account, that all of them are worthy of mocking, and that it's okay to be funny about people you happen to agree with. Don't worry, no one's going to take away your precious lefty card. If you really believe in free speech--and comedy--broaden your horizons a bit and make fun of everybody. Trust me, your career, and your reputation as a legitimate social critic, will only go up. And in this time when we could all use more laughs, stop looking at only half of society for your material.
Shakespeare used the fool/jester/clown character to be the one voice that could speak honestly to and about the king. While that character was often played for laughs, it always served a vital role as a reflection of both the leader's consciousness and the audience's.
However, the fool doesn't pick and choose which type of king to poke fun at. The king is always to be poked fun at. But that is not what most comedians (and in the case of CNN, the news organizations that document and support their messages) do. They claim to be equal opportunity offenders, that they want to expose all political hypocrisy, that they don't pick sides. But, as it turns out, these comedians are some of the biggest hypocrites of all.
After watching for a while, I hit rewind on my DVR and started over from the beginning. I grabbed a pen and paper and began to keep some statistics. Here is what I discovered.
There were approximately 23 straightforward jokes or insults aimed at Republicans (or conservatives), approximately 6 aimed at Democrats (or liberals), and approximately 6 aimed at both groups simultaneously. There were also 6 clear incidents of comedians speaking with fear and sadness about the election of Donald Trump. No such incidents were shown regarding the 2008 election of Barack Obama. The vast majority of Saturday NIght Live clips were about Republican politicians, with clips of Democrats Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Bernie Sanders barely registering as insults or jokes. In fact, one SNL sketch showing Larry David playing Sanders was actually a joke about David and his sit-com Curb Your Enthusiasm, rather than Sanders himself.
In the SNL era, there have been 22 years of Republican presidents and 20 years of Democrat presidents, an amazing balance and a testament to America's ideological diversity. Therefore, for all those comedians claiming they are willing to criticize any party in power, we should see roughly similar numbers of jokes and insults about each party. One interviewee said, "Good comedy is about mocking the status quo." By definition, the status quo has been in both political camps fairly evenly in recent history. However, the amount of ridicule is nowhere near even.
One comedian, Bill Maher, is shown as a stalwart of speaking truth to power. Fellow comic Marc Maron describes how Maher is excellent at skewering both sides, and Maher himself says on camera, "My job is to hold politicians' feet to the fire no matter who is in power." So, how did CNN portray this even-handed comedian? Maher is shown making 5 jokes about Republicans, 0 jokes about Democrats, and 0 jokes about politicians in general. The one reference he makes to Hillary Clinton is actually a point of praise, not an insult. And he is the bulldog of independent political comedy? By the way, let's not forget that Maher personally donated $1 million to the 2012 Obama campaign? Are we to honestly believe that he "holds all politicians' feet the fire"? Funny, I don't remember the Fool being a Beverly Hills-living, millionaire donor to King Lear's campaign against the French.
I was stunned to see that throughout the full hour of the show, not a single jab was taken at Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, both of whom were in office for 8 years and created mountains of material for criticism. Instead, Clinton is shown looking cool and playing saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, and Obama is funny and collected on Between Two Ferns and at the White House Correspondence Dinner.
It's amazing how oblivious both these comedians and CNN are to their own partisanship. I'm not surprised that comedians lack so much diversity that they all have the same political views. What surprises me more is that no producer or editor at CNN, when making this episode, bothered to say, "Gee, we sure have a lot of clips ripping on one side of the political spectrum. Since we are a news network that seeks credibility for non-partisanship, maybe we should seek out comedians with different political views and find jokes that criticize all politicians evenly." But that would take a bit too much self-awareness for these Hollywood-seeking suck-ups.
I like when comedians satirize, or outright castigate, politicians or certain agenda-driven groups. And I don't want these comedians portrayed in this documentary to stop what they're doing. I just hope they would be a bit more open-minded in their social criticism--to see that all politicians should be held to account, that all of them are worthy of mocking, and that it's okay to be funny about people you happen to agree with. Don't worry, no one's going to take away your precious lefty card. If you really believe in free speech--and comedy--broaden your horizons a bit and make fun of everybody. Trust me, your career, and your reputation as a legitimate social critic, will only go up. And in this time when we could all use more laughs, stop looking at only half of society for your material.