On Friday, Politico spoke on the tendency of late night hosts to avoid making jokes at the expense of President Biden, even though he is a “rich vein of material for late night or sketch comics.”
Politico noted that Biden has managed to avoid jokes, made at the expense of past presidents, regardless of party, have been subjected to, with a major emphasis on former President Trump.
The article opened by discussing the fundraiser which took place in late March for Biden’s 2024 campaign. The fundraiser, which was packed with celebrities and other dignitaries, would have been a prime event for some light ribbing, but there was none to be found.
Politico said there was “one reason” why this was the case. “The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert, one of the most famous comedians in the world and a self-styled hero of the ongoing resistance against former President Donald Trump, served as the event’s moderator.”
“Colbert’s ultra-friendly exchanges with Biden, Obama and Clinton as emcee of the largest Democratic fundraiser ever…were emblematic of a new era in late night comedy,” the outlet continued. “It’s more proudly partisan. More one-sided. More cautious in its targets. And it’s generally soft on Biden.”
Politico called Biden a “rich vein of material for late night or sketch comics,” pointing out his reputation as a “gaffe machine,” and pointing out that since the beginning of his presidency, he has “stumbled over his own words, mixed up the names of world leaders and countries and even physically stumbled on stage.”
“For all his ripeness as a comic target, though, Biden has largely escaped the kind of pillorying that some of his predecessors got,” the outlet continued. “Despite Biden’s own trouble navigating stairs, there’s nothing on television like Chevy Chase imitating President Gerald Ford’s stumbles, a running gag that turned Ford into a national punchline. When Clinton’s extramarital affair with intern Monica Lewinsky broke, it consumed late night (and much of American popular culture) for weeks, with Jay Leno joking, ‘Now we know why Clinton’s eyes always seem so puffy and red. Mace.’”
The outlet even noted a previous joke of Colbert himself, at the expense of former President George W. Bush, which he made to the former president’s face.
“Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32 percent approval rating,” he said. “But guys like us, we don’t pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in reality. And reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Politico cast blame on the change on, you guessed it, Donald Trump. However, unlike most outlets, they argued that the era of Trump’s presidency “has prompted a sea change in comedy that has carried over to Biden’s presidency, with late night hosts appearing to view themselves as bulwarks against Trump, careful not to let their humor be perceived as advancing his interests in any way.”
The bias against conservatives is well documented. A recent Media Research Center study found that 81% of all political jokes told on major late night comedy shows in 2023 targeted conservatives.
The outlet noted that while there are still occasional jokes made at Biden’s expense, “even when the knives are out for the president, they’re often drawn in the context of comparing him to something far worse, as if any joke about him requires a Trump counterpoint.”
They argued that Trump is still the primary target for late night hosts, claiming that this was “the result of his narcissism and a set of singular traits and peccadilloes that stretch far beyond those of his recent predecessors.”
It further claimed that it’s driven by late night audiences, writing, “Largely liberal late-night audiences don’t want to hear about Biden’s stumbles — in fact, much of the audience finds that criticism somewhat offensive. They want to hear about Trump’s foibles instead. The programming largely reflects that.”
They cited instances in which late night hosts received pushback for trivializing or downplaying the alleged danger that Trump held. Host Jimmy Fallon famously had Trump on the Tonight Show in 2016, which garnered him pushback for “mainstreaming a man who gleefully defied the norms of American politics.”
Similarly, when Jon Stewart returned to the Daily Show in February of 2022, he took aim at both Biden and Trump, getting pushback for daring to suggest that Biden was allowed to be criticized, even if Trump was worse.
The outlet concluded by warning against this change in behavior, writing, “It’s a change in attitude that has huge implications for all art forms that seek to blend politics and culture. If some topics are verboten, and some political figures are beyond reproach, then we’re setting ourselves up for a culture of increasingly niche products serving niche audiences.”
The post Politico Explains Why Late Night Hosts Are So Unwilling To Make Jokes About Biden appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: John Symank
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