Satirical news television made its popular conception in the 1990s and early 2000s with programming such as Brass Eye in the U.K (1997 – 2001).Though parodies of the news have existed for some four decades, many are most familiar with the slew of comedy and news satirical shows ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’, ‘The Colbert Report’ on Comedy Central, and most recently ‘Last Week Tonight’ with John Oliver on HBO.
Lubeck describes that “satirical news is often defined by its comedic nature, using deadpan humour to create what is called “fake news”, its underlying objective is to make statements about real people, events and trends, often with the intent of influencing change.” (2009)
Monologues from comedians such as Oliver are spoken at what could be described as a news desk, as he shuffles papers and commentates across from a small screen portraying the news story in question, adhering to many of the typical conventions of news broadcasts. Many of the footage included in the segment include news footage from mainstream news media sources such as Fox News, CNN or MSNBC. These monologues are often laced with a sense of disillusionment at the mainstream news, communicated through deadpan expressions as if to imply the “stupidity” of the program.
Satirical news programmes within this genre are often said to integrate comedy and journalism, so much so that the question arises as to where along the spectrum they fall between infotainment and the news that they attempt to satirise and criticise. To answer this, we must consider the origins of the genre. Grondin suggests that it was within the context of the war on terror that shows such as Stewart’s gained popularity, as political humour was used to cope via “publicly [externalising] feelings” (2012).
It seems as though those feelings expressed resonated sharply with viewers, and this continues to be the appeal today, with different political contexts. Consider for example Colbert’s coverage of news media response to multiple incidences of police brutality in the U.S in 2014.
Colbert manages to simultaneously, critique news media’s arguably bias coverage of these incidents, and the wider culture of denying the issues with race relations in the U.S. It seems as though, where viewers may be discontented with poor mainstream news programming, they turn to satirical news comedy for what they deem truthful depictions of news, albeit through the medium of sarcastic monologue. It is this satirical comedic performances which gives Colbert, and similar comedians, the ability to imply critique, poke fun at institutions, all the while bringing to attention serious issues such as police brutality.
Though outside of the realm of traditional presentation of the news, this mode of television is still informative – so much so that in 2014, a Pew Survey found that 12 per cent of America noted that ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ was their news source. (Gottfried, Jeffrey et. al, 2015) Though comedic, these kinds of satirical performances could be also be considered as infotainment, rather than just “the fake news”.
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References:
Grondin, D 2012, ‘Understanding Culture Wars through Satirical/Political Infotainment TV: Jon Stewart and The Daily Show’s Critique as Mediated Re – enactment of the Culture War.’, Canadian Review of American Studies, Vol 42, no. 3, pp. 351 – 352. Available from: Project MUSE.
Sterling, CH 2009, Encyclopedia of journalism, SAGE Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, viewed 14 August 2015, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412972048.
Gottfried, Jeffrey et al. ‘As Jon Stewart Steps Down, 5 Facts About The Daily Show’. Pew Research Center. N.p., 2015. Web. 14 Aug. 2015.