Comic Speeches

Comic Speeches

Humor and Politics

The subject of political humor is, essentially, the bearer of some premeditation, activity, and widely understood meaningfulness. The process and result of such humor are socially and politically conditioned and determined by the dominant culture. Naturally, the relevant subjects are dissimilar and cannot be reduced to a specific person, although the structure of the subject can be depicted as a specific, physically palpable person, group of people, or set of ideas and cultural models.

Comic Speeches review

The book How Late Night Comedy Turns Democracy into a Joke by Russell L. Peterson 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." —Library Journal

"A cultural analysis so smart, supple, and frisky that it instantly stands as required reading for every aspiring critic in the country." —Troy Patterson, Slate

"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."—The Chronicle Review

Washington Post online interview with Troy Patterson

Featured in the Chicago Tribune

"Zesty and contentious and sophisticated...part of the fun of Strange Bedfellows is matching up your own likes and dislikes with the author's."—Louis Bayard, Salon

Praise for Strange Bedfellows

This book demonstrates that “Ever since cable TV exposed American journalism as a niche entertainment genre, comedians have rushed in to grab responsibility for safeguarding American democracy. With Letterman, Leno, Stewart, Colbert, Maher, Kimmel and the other witty white boys of the night delivering the news, it was just a matter of time before comedy reviewers caught on and accepted their new role as postmodern metajournalists. But don't take my word for it; read Russell Peterson's Strange Bedfellows.”

—David Marc, author of Television in the Antenna Age

Description

According to the book 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.

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 ...