Strange Bedfellows: How Late-Night Comedy Turns Democracy into a Joke

by Russell Peterson

Overview

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 political institutions and the people who inhabit them, and asks what this says about the health of our democracy

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813544762
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	03/05/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

RUSSELL L. PETERSON teaches American studies at the University of Iowa.

Table of Contents

Introduction     1
Losing Our Religion     5
"Showmen Is Devoid of Politics": The Roots of Pseudo-Satire and the Rise of the Comedy-Industrial Complex     21
Film at 11:00, Jokes at 11:30: Topical Comedy and the News     39
The Personal and the Political     62
Pay No Attention to That Man in Front of the Curtain     88
Truth versus Truthiness; or, Looking for Mr. Smith     125
For Whom the Bell Dings     146
Laughing All the Way to the White House     170
Irony Is Dead...Long Live Satire?     194
Acknowledgments     209
Notes     211
Index     245

Editorial Reviews

What's so funny about democracy? Here, Peterson (American studies, Univ. of Iowa) takes on the big three late-night comedians-Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Conan O'Brian-and critiques their approach to current American politics. Classifying all three comedians as pseudosatirical and safe, he contrasts their humor with the genuinely satirical, political, edgy brand of cable television's John Stewart, Steven Colbert, and Bill Maher. Although he focuses on the current climate of comedy and politics, Peterson does take a historical approach, introducing us to Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby, 19th-century pseudonymous print equivalents of Jay Leno and Steven Colbert. This book 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, this book is strongly recommended for large public and academic libraries.
—Jennifer Zarr Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

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