Politics everywhere contain an element of the ridiculous, and politicians in particular are easy targets for ridicule. In the United States, politics provide fuel for an entire entertainment industry in its own right. Tens of millions of viewers tune in nightly, weekly, or whenever convenient through their electronic devices to watch public figures get lampooned by cheeky-eyed pundits such as Stephen Colbert, or through satirical sketches on famous, long-running shows such as Saturday Night Live. Politicians themselves even get in on the action, often participating in their own critiques across platforms, while the characters that pundits play can step over the boundary between skit and reality. Stephen Colbert, for example, recently dressed up and crashed the Republican National Convention as Caesar Flickerman, a blue-haired authoritarian and game show host from the hit youth-literature series The Hunger Games. Colbert hijacked the stage, swinging a gavel, "to hereby launch and begin the 2016 Republican Hungry for Power Games!" When irritated security officers came to escort him away, Colbert acquiesced, but not before saying that, "I know I'm not supposed to be up here. But let's be honest, neither is Donald Trump."
Saturday Night Live is a giant within American late-night entertainment, and has been around for decades. Aside from openly mocking the machinations of celebrities and politicians, the show operates as an alternative space where those same politicians and celebrities can get in on the fun. President Obama showed up in a Halloween mask of his own face on SNL, and presidential candidate Donald Trump recently hosted the show. However, the satire practiced by Stephen Colbert and his compatriots (such as HBO's John Oliver and TBS's Samantha Bee) took off slightly more recently. Colbert's career, along with Oliver and Bee's, was launched when he became a correspondent on The Daily Show, a faux-news comedy show hosted by Jon Stewart (since retired). Colbert created his own show, The Colbert Report, which ran immediately after Stewart's on Comedy Central (owned by Viacom [NASDAQ: VIAB]). The two programs ran side-by-side for many years, covering both the Bush and Obama presidencies, and even served as a primary news source for a considerable number of left-leaning youth (both shows did not tend to be sympathetic to conservative views).
Stewart took a slightly more serious tone compared to his peers, alternating between silliness and deep concern, whereas Colbert chose to play a bombastic, hyper-patriotic, over-the-top Republican character in order to ridicule the very same qualities in real Republicans. Colbert's host character often strayed into real-life politics: he created his own Super-PAC to illustrate the innate hypocrisy of Citizens United, and ran for President (twice). This tactic has been adopted by other hosts very successfully: John Oliver for instance, on Last Week Tonight, just became the official reverend of his own church in order to expose the corruption of mega-reverends that accept donations from their followers. Comedy thus serves an important role in exposing the pretenses and inconsistencies in American politics. The internal goings-on of the United States may seem baffling and irrational to many parties abroad. Yet as the US entertainment industry demonstrates, it can be equally baffling-and darkly funny-to Americans at home as well.
