For the late night comedy shows, the week of the Democratic National Convention provides the hosts with an opportunity to prove that they can make fun of Democrats in the same way they attack Republicans. However, a new MRC study shows they failed to do so this past week. In terms of quantity, the comedians hold 113 fewer jokes than they did during the RNC and 60 fewer jokes about Kamala Harris than Donald Trump.
For the purposes of this study, analysts examined 20 episodes of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, and ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live! guest hosted by RuPaul throughout all four nights of the DNC.
Analysts looked at jokes told about Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and everything else related to the convention. We also analyzed what type of jokes were told and who the hosts brought on as guests to help them make sense of the proceedings. Finally, we compared the findings to July’s RNC.
Who Was Joked About
Throughout the week, there were seven jokes told about Harris, 13 about Walz, and 124 about everything else related to the DNC, for a total of 144. The Daily Show led all shows with five jokes about Harris and 45 about the rest of the convention. Colbert topped the count with six about Walz.
To put those numbers in context, Trump was targeted with 67 jokes over four days, Vance had 28, and everybody else had 162 for a total of 257 RNC-related jokes.
What Was Joked About
It was not unexpected that during the week of the DNC, comedians would joke about Democrats. However, to identify themes, jokes were divided into ten categories: policy, character, personality, physical appearance, age, names, gaffes and bloopers, nonsensical statements, impressions, and polls. For a detailed definition of each, check the methodology section below.
Jokes about speakers' personalities or individudal quirks topped the list at 38. Jokes about age, mainly about President Biden, were second at 19, while impressions rounded out the top three with 18.
The top three categories the comedians found interesting about the RNC were physical appearance, character, and personality, the last being the only constant between the two conventions.
Jokes about physical appearances provided the biggest gap at 47 more jests about Republicans. There were 41 more jokes about Republican character flaws or moral failings, as well as 23 more jokes about GOP policy.
Guests
Unlike during the RNC, Colbert and The Daily Show took their shows on the road. While the RNC ratio of liberals-to-conservatives was 4:1, during the DNC it was 11:0 for a total of 15:1. The DNC Week guests were as follows:
COLBERT: Hillary Clinton, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jefferies, Pete Buttigieg, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
THE DAILY SHOW: J.B. Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, Lauren Underwood, Wes Moore
SETH MEYERS: Ramin Setoodeh
Conclusion
Even after President Biden dropped out, late night would rather tell “Joe Biden is old” jokes than ones about Kamala Harris or Democratic policies. While Republicans were lampooned as bad people, Democrats got the “you tease the ones you love” treatment. Gone were the concerns of overheated rhetoric and lack of national unity.
The comedians, espicially Colbert and The Daily Show, also highlighted that when trying to understand Republicans, they bring on Democratic guests, and when seeking to understand Democrats, they also bring on Democratic guests. This week, the comedy shows took "Late Night DNC" a little too literally.
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JOKE METHODOLOGY:
- Policy: Ideas, stereotypes, or the party platform.
- Character: Moral failings, real or perceived, including scandals and showing excessive amounts loyalty to the nominee.
- Personality: Individual quirks, tendencies, hobbies, or other non-political traits.
- Physical Appearance: Includes things such as clothes, bad hair days, and unflattering photos.
- Age: How old someone is, including whether they’re too inexperienced.
- Names: Puns or other creative uses for proper nouns.
- Gaffes/Bloopers: Any flub, technical difficulty, or physical embarrassment.
- Nonsensical Statements: A statement that is not a mistake, but nevertheless deemed to be confusing or weird.
- Impressions: Voice imitations or the mimicking of signature mannerisms
- Polls: Popularity
