"Is this All a Joke to You?": Metacommunication, Advocacy, and the Serious Side of Satire during the 2020 Election

Abstract

Political humor assumes some level of seriousness from politicians. The establishment of political norms allows comedians to level critiques through laughter and provide new perspective on the status quo. But Donald Trump disrupted political and democratic norms during his presidency, relying on an entertainment aesthetic and using an insult-comic style to mock his opponents. This nonseriousness from the president disrupted the traditional process of political humor. This study examines how five U.S. television satire shows—Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Saturday Night Live, Last Week Tonight, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—balanced seriousness and nonseriousness in the weeks leading up to the 2020 election. Comedians contextualized Trump as a threat to democracy and focused on the election as a moment for potential political change. With this backdrop, comedians engaged in earnest advocacy against Trump while also engaging in metacommunication about their social role. This shift toward discourses of outrage and earnest advocacy has implications for the role of detached irony as the main mode of political humor.