A new Media Research Center study by Alex Christy underlines that the late-night jesters on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Comedy Central overwhelmingly tilt their political jokes to whack Republicans. He counted 9,518 political jokes, and of these 7,729 (or 81 percent) were directed at someone or something on the right side of the political spectrum.
The shows included Jimmy Kimmel at ABC, Stephen Colbert and James Corden at CBS, Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers at NBC, and the carousel of cranks on The Daily Show (including Sarah Silverman) on so-called Comedy Central.
Rich targets of satire like Hunter Biden and Kamala Harris are rarely touched, while they gave us an astounding 835 jokes on George Santos. They must have been a little sad Santos was forced out.
This study goads me into my usual question: "Who's president right now?" The Donald Trump to Joe Biden ratio is 2,440 to 912, or about 2.5 to 1. But the kids ratio is fascinating: Trump’s children were joked about in far greater numbers than Hunter at 250-27 or a ratio of over 9:1. And the spouses? Melania Trump drew 58 jokes despite being largely missing from the public eye, compared to Jill Biden's six.
Other than Joe Biden, no Democrat placed in the top 25 targets. One would have to go to Bernie Sanders (53) in 26th place to find the next lefty.
"The Squad" -- Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and fire alarm-puller Jamaal Bowman -- had a combined zero jokes told about them. Compare that to back-bencher MAGA Republicans: 196 jokes at the expense of Marjorie Taylor Greene, 78 for Lauren Boebert, and 69 for Matt Gaetz.
Enjoy the podcast below, as Alex Christy explains his voluminous 2023 findings, or enjoy it wherever you listen to podcasts.
