The Last Laugh: The Impact of Satire on Global Issues

In the past 3 or so years, the world as a whole has witnessed an almost constant news cycle of horrific events, some inside the government. The center of this vicious typhoon of controversy seems to be our country and its current commander-in-chief, Donald Trump. News broadcasts, newspapers and Twitter feeds across the globe are littered with stories of corruption, greed and even more despicable acts that create this emotional dark cloud over the global community. It is in these times that most of the world can be healed by the powerful medicine that is laughter. Humor could be used to heal emotional wounds in two different ways. One is through frivolous, silly bouts of escapism. The other way is through directly making humor and mockery out of the situation itself. For world events, that brand of humor would be referred to as satire.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of Satire is wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly. Satire is an extremely powerful weapon to strike back against ignorant and power-hungry people. If they see themselves being satirized in the media, they see it as a personal attack. In this current political climate, satire has taken a major place in the world of popular culture, and its power is two-fold. It is allowing those angered by world events to release their frustrations through laughter. It is also allowing those who let said horrible events happen a blatant warning that at least part of the nation does not think well of them at all. Comedians in 2017 are essentially speaking on behalf the nation to express their anger, sorrow, and resentment towards current events. They are the cry of a nation that is in desperate need of some rational thinking.
Most people would seem to agree that at the forefront of contemporary American political satire is Saturday Night Live. The iconic NBC sketch comedy show, created and still overseen today by Lorne Michaels, is now in its 43rd Season. Since 1975, SNL has been presenting edgy, subversive comedy and thrilling musical performances. Characters from the show’s earliest seasons are still in the cultural zeitgeist today, and the performers who started on the show have gone on to become some of the most iconic comedic performers of the last 50 years. Saturday Night Live is truly a cultural landmark that has actually managed to become more popular and relevant in the last few years than it has in its entire history.
Saturday Night Live has been presenting political satire as long as it has been on television. However, there has definitely been a progression in quality over the years, both in material and presentation. When the show first aired in 1975, the president was Gerald Ford. On the show, Ford was portrayed by Chevy Chase, one of show’s breakout cast members. That being said, Chase did not resemble Ford in the slightest, and did nothing to alter his appearance (Parker). His performance was more in the physical nature than the verbal nature. Most of the sketches featuring Chase’s Ford “impression” consisted of a series of pratfalls and other bits of physical comedy (Parker).
At first viewing, there was nothing much satirical to these sketches, both in the writing and in Chase’s performance. In later years, though, Chase and other creatives have revealed that there was calculated reasoning for portraying Ford in that way. Chase, like the bulk of the other cast and creatives on the show at that time, was extremely liberal, and wanted to portray the conservative Ford in a negative light in order to help the get his opponent in his race for reelection at that time, Jimmy Carter, elected. Chase and the writers decided to portray him as clumsy and scatterbrained to create this image of him in the popular culture that reflected the nation’s view of the actual Ford (Parker). The liberal tones of Saturday Night Live, both subtle and blatant, will be discussed later on in the paper.
In the early years, there was not much political satire on SNL other than Chase as Ford and Dan Aykroyd as President Jimmy Carter, altering his appearance slightly more than Chase but still not doing the strongest satire on him. There was, however, a lot of satire on the country’s obsession with consumerism and high-tech products in the form of commercial parodies. To this day, the show still creates very sharp parodies of commercials for products ranging from hybrid cars to Totino’s Pizza Rolls (Boller, Bush, and Bush). These parodies essentially satirize our nation’s obsession with the most current trends in consumerism.
Saturday Night Live also has a weekly segment that has existed since the first season dedicated to current events. “Weekend Update” is a parody of news broadcasts with the anchors doing comedic runs on the headlines of that week. This is where the show had some of its sharpest bits of satire, as the performers were not hiding behind characters; they were making these tough remarks as themselves, as if it were their own thoughts (Cesca). Over the years, the segment has become a lot more pointed at the trials and tribulations of our government and even the global community, never failing to mention world events like Brexit, North Korea and Kim Jong-un’s regime, and the recent Russian hacking scandal (Cesca).
Throughout the next two decades, Saturday Night Live, continued to do light political satire of the revolving door of political figures in the country, from Ronald Regan, played by Phil Hartman, to George Bush Sr., played by Dana Carvey, to Bill Clinton, played first by Hartman and later by Darrell Hammond (Cesca). Aside from the Bill Clinton/ Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998, political satire was not exactly what the show was known for (Cesca). The tide slightly turned, however, in 2000, when George W. Bush became President, and then-cast member Will Ferrell began portraying Bush on the show. Ferrell’s Bush, similar to Chase’s Ford, was portrayed as naïve and slightly inept and out of his element as President of The United States. The difference to Chase, however, was that Ferrell’s Bush was slightly more grounded. Effort was made, in both physical appearance and vocal quality, to make Ferrell actually look and sound like Bush. It was the writing and Ferrell’s comic delivery that created the comedy in the “character” (Cesca).
Ferrell and his fellow cast members began to portray Bush and other political figures in that administration. In late 2008, the campaigns for the Presidential elections was in full swing and a host of exciting characters were all over news cycles, from Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Senator and former First Lady Hilary Clinton, to Republican Candidate Senator John McCain, and Saturday Night Live was taking full advantage of these colorful personas. They hit the satiric jackpot, though, when Senator McCain announced his running mate, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin, who both political parties would admit has a very strong personality, especially compared to her running mate, the rather dry and reserved McCain.
The major difference with this presidential election from any prior election was that this was the beginning of the social media age we are still in today. With that in mind, when Governor Palin was announced as our potential Vice President, social media was flooded with people noting her resemblance to former Saturday Night Live cast member and head writer Tina Fey, and a lot of pressure was put on the show by its fans to have Fey play Palin on the show (Seelye).
When the show premiered its 34th Season in September of 2008, the first sketch featured Tina Fey playing Palin opposite cast member Amy Poehler as Hilary Clinton. The sketch, pairing the two most prominent female political figures who could not be more different in every way, is considered an iconic moment in SNL history to this day. As expected, Fey nailed the physical appearance of Governor Palin, as she did the Alaskan accent and colloquialisms. The interesting bit of satire, though, was in her portrayal and the writing of the Sarah Palin “character”. SNL’s interpretation of Palin was not that of an intellectually vacant “pageant girl”, but of a calculating woman strategically using her sex appeal to get her into a position of power (Seelye). Fey continued to appear as Palin until she and McCain lost the election to Barack Obama and his running mate, Senator Joseph Biden. There was, however, a small piece of vindication for Sarah Palin in the form of an Emmy win for Tina Fey’s recurring performance on SNL, though the Governor may not exactly see it that way (Cesca).
Following the 2008 election, Saturday Night Live continued to sharpen its political satire through the Obama administration, including his run for re-election against Governor Mitt Romney in 2012 (Cesca). The next major breakthrough in political satire on the show was the beginning of the 2016 Presidential Election. The first major player to arise in that race was a returning candidate, Hilary Clinton. This time though, she was played in a brand new characterization by Kate McKinnon. While Amy Poehler’s Clinton was rather stiff and humorless in addition to her signature drive, McKinnon brought sense of passion for her country and coveted job to Clinton (Morris). She also gave her Clinton a real sense of playfulness, mainly in how assured she was that she was going to win the election and become the first female U.S. President, which turned out to merely be a bit of hubris. Regardless, McKinnon really brought out the innate charm the Democratic candidate.
The other major figure to appear in this particular Presidential race was a business magnate-turned Reality Television star and pop culture icon named Donald Trump. From the minute he announced his intention to run in 2015, Trump was making headlines in every form of news media over the world for his eccentric personality and unorthodox and abrasive campaign tactics, providing great fodder for satirical institutions like Saturday Night Live to tackle (Roschke).
For the show’s 41st season, the role of Donald Trump was played first by cast member Taran Killam and then by returning cast member Darrell Hammond. For Season 42, however, in anticipation of the debates between Trump and Clinton, Lorne Michaels decided to recast Trump with actor Alec Baldwin, who currently holds the record for hosting SNL the most times (Roschke). Baldwin made his debut as Trump on October 1st, 2016. For his appearance, Baldwin wore a yellow wig and grotesque, yet still realistic make-up, and perfectly emulated the vocal patterns and hand gestures of the Republican candidate, to the delight of audiences all over the country (Roschke). Baldwin, Michaels, and everyone else on the show intended for Baldwin’s Trump to recur on the show until he ultimately lost the election. To their collective shock, the opposite happened, and to this day, Baldwin appears on the show to lampoon the commander-in-chief, even winning an Emmy Award for his contribution to the show (Roschke).
Fans of Saturday Night Live who also happen to take umbrage with Donald Trump’s presidential methods see a cathartic power in Alec Baldwin’s performance. This is mainly because Trump has been notably infuriated by the performance from the beginning, chastising it on social media on an almost-regular basis (Roschke). The show continues to mock both Trump and his allies, from Kellyanne Conway to Anthony Scaramucci to Sean Spicer, portrayed notably by comedienne Melissa McCarthy (Cesca). SNL has even begun to take sharper jabs at world leaders such as British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Cesca). The show’s portrayal of Putin, done by current cast member Beck Bennett, is interesting to note due to the off-the-wall-characterization. While the real Putin is intimidating in his coldness and stiff demeanor, Bennett’s take on the “character” is much more charming and playful; he is a man absolutely relishing in his role as “the bad guy” (Pallotta).
Despite all of this celebrated political satire, Saturday Night Live has also come under fire recently from many conservatives, including President Trump, for leaning too far to the left, feeling that a cultural institution should give equal time to both major parties (Toto). The show tends to be much harsher on Republican politicians like Donald Trump and George W. Bush in their satire than Democratic figureheads like Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. Some Conservatives see the show as nothing more than liberal propaganda (Toto). That being said, the show has a long history of inviting political figures onto the show to appear in sketches. Some, like John McCain and Donald Trump while he was running for President, have even hosted full episodes (Toto). Politicians like to appear on SNL because it shows voters that they have a sense of humor that they seem to be in on the joke. Sometimes that works successfully, like with McCain, and sometimes the results are more hindering, like with Trump, which is ironic based on the outcomes of their respective Presidential races (Toto).
The show also came under fire in the past year for not mentioning the Harvey Weinstein scandal just days after the news came out. However, the following week, “Weekend Update dedicated the bulk of their segment to verbally eviscerating Weinstein (Itzkoff). With that in mind, the show cannot be considered too liberal. The entertainment industry is made up of predominantly liberal democrats, so it just happens that that particular voice rises amongst the chaos.
America is not the only country to have a strong voice in political satire. Great Britain has a long history of poking fun of not only their own government, but the follies of all other countries. One of the true highlights of British satirical wit is a television show from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s called Spitting Image. The show, much like, SNL, consisted of a series of sketches. The major difference, though, was that the performers were not people, but puppets. These puppets were designed as extreme caricatures of the major figures in the news cycles at the time (Eames). British audiences adored the show because of over-the-top, yet true to life characteristics of these countless household names. More recently, British comedienne Tracey Ullman has starred in a series of variety shows where she donned extensive make-up to portray major female political figures like Angela Merkel, Theresa May, and Camilla Parker-Bowles. Ullman’s feminist views give strong, multi-layered personalities to these famous and infamous women (Portwood).
Aside from Saturday Night Live, the other major source of political satire on television is the late-night talk shows featured on the major networks. The major late-night hosts seem to range in how far they go with the political humor. At one end of the spectrum, you have hosts like Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel, who are very open about their political views and base their comedic material on everything going on in politics at that point in time, sometimes even breaking from comedy to make an impassioned plea for change (Rutenberg). In the middle of the spectrum is a host like James Corden who only does political material when he is truly compelled to (Rutenberg).
At the opposite end of the spectrum is someone like Jimmy Fallon, who rarely mentions politics and focuses mostly on giving his audiences a sense of escapism with fun and silliness (Rutenberg). Fallon was accused of trying to humanize Donald Trump when he appeared on the show during the election by playing with his hair and kidding around with him (Rutenberg). These talk shows also receive complaints from conservatives for leaning too much to the left, so Fallon prefers to keep a bipartisan program (Rutenberg). Fallon has, however, begun to speak out more recently about events like the Charlottesville riot that have happened under Trump’s regime.
In conclusion, television programs like these, no matter what country they hail from, have a tremendous power. They give a voice to the angry, the hurt, and the sad. The performers and writers speak on behalf of these people. They announce their feelings and views loudly for all of the world to hear, specifically the ones who are fueling their anger. They can also chastise these people and what they have done through the sword of satire. The goal of satire is to bring a combination of healing, realization, and eventual change.
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