A comment on yesterday’s column about Occupy Wall Street touched on something I think about sometimes, and it seemed worth addressing in a bit of detail. Here’s the comment:
So, first: I am completely aware that the real reason I decided to highlight this comment is probably because he said nice things about me. In fact, “Ben” is probably either my mom or an alter ego that I lapse into while in a fugue state, like Brad Pitt’s character in Fight Club.
But now let’s address the ostensible (i.e. “fake”) reason for talking about this: It really is worth wondering what role comedians do play and should play in our political dialogue. It sometimes feels like we’re playing a game but pretending that we’re not, like if the beer vendor at a basketball game ran onto the court and swatted away a three-pointer, and then ran back into the stands yelling “I’m just the beer guy!”
I think there’s one context in which the “I’m just a comedian” line is not only okay, but actually the right thing to say. And that’s when a reporter is trying to goad a host into saying “I’m the real news!” Here’s the Daily Beast doing that to Last Week Tonight, and here’s Vox doing it. John’s response is: “It’s not journalism, it’s comedy—it’s comedy first, and it’s comedy second.”
In that context, I think that’s absolutely the right way to go. Our show was self-righteous enough without John saying “I am real news — your other news sources are false idols! Have no other news gods before me!” Besides being obnoxious, that would denigrate the work of journalists who do things like cultivate sources, investigate evidence, and leave the office sometimes. You know: Those ancient relics of journalism that explain why I still read the New York Times and the Washington Post even though they regularly suck.
But other times, I think saying “I’m just a comedian” is a deflection technique. In 2004, Jon Stewart downplayed his role in the national dialogue, saying: “The show that leads into me is puppets making prank phone calls.” That’s an objectively good line, and it probably comes partly from a healthy sense of perspective. But he said it during the famous Crossfire appearance in which he called Tucker Carlson a dick (a line which has aged much better than the prank phone call line). Jon Stewart was enormously influential at that moment — it’s a denial of reality to say “Hey, we’re just a Comedy Central show — no difference between us and Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire.” (Free subscription to anyone who gets that reference)
Joe Rogan recently did a version of this after saying that young people don’t need to get vaccinated. In a subsequent episode, he clarified his remarks, which included this qualification:
“I’m not a doctor, I’m a fucking moron, and I’m a cage-fighting commentator who’s a dirty stand-up comedian. I’m not a respected source of information, even for me.”
Okay, yes, sure. Again: I see how this comes partly from a sense of perspective and humbleness. But on the other hand: Come the fuck on. Joe Rogan has more listeners than Australia has violated sheep. If he doesn’t know that what he says can be enormously influential, then he should learn that immediately.
Comedians fall backwards into this trap. What happens is: You go to an open mic when you’re 23. You do okay. Soon, you’re telling dick jokes to alcoholics at a topless-bar-slash-gun-range called “Cooters”. Then things really snowball, and before you even know what happened, you’re at the White House Correspondents' Dinner thinking that George Will is a real prick for not laughing at your “Sonia SotoMAYOR McCheese” bit. You didn’t plan this, you didn’t ask for it; it just happened.
I sometimes wonder if comedians should be in this space at all. It almost feels like we’re cheating; it’s like we sucked people in with a free week in Hawaii (the comedy), but then make them sit through a mandatory all-day sales pitch for a time share (the politics). And sometimes, the politics part is garbage. One of my favorite Weekend Update characters is Fred Armisen’s political comedian Nicholas Fehn — I saw him do this and thought “Wow, we are attending the same shows”:
But really: Isn’t any political commentary potentially garbage? That dick Tucker Carlson has a huge audience, so clearly popularity doesn’t indicate quality. Credentials don’t ensure quality, either; Newt Gingrich and Pol Pot were both history professors, and I’m not personally a huge fan of either. Really, any opinion is worth what the listener decides that it’s worth. There’s no category of person for whom you can say “yes, they should comment” or “no, they shouldn’t”.
Which means that political comedians are commentators like any others. We’re not a discrete category; we’re in the one, big category of “people talkin’ ‘bout shit.” Any standard of rationality or intellectual honesty than can be applied to anyone in that sphere can also be applied to us. We might be the single stupidest part of the political conversation — we’re definitely the only part that couldn’t exist without photoshopped graphics of animals acting like people — but we shouldn’t pretend like we’re not part of the conversation when we obviously are.
Hey Jeff,
I think that in 2021 your last paragraph is true. Comedians are part of the political discourse and a major force at that.
Comedy has always weighed in on politics and for good reason, such a great way to deliver a viewpoint (as you do so well) that otherwise might not get heard or immediately dismissed. Back in 2004 though when Jon Stewart made that comment I always interpreted that as a challenge to the mainstream news sources to do a better job. Cable news in particular (which The Daily Show in it’s early years was especially critical of) was the epicenter of a fragmented and oversimplified sensational style that didn’t do much to serve the public discourse. Shows like Crossfire were the worst with to predetermined viewpoints with zero probability of considering the other.
Later on he couldn’t really have to both ways but I thought that was a key moment in the repudiation of the state of news in 2004.
Cooters!!! *That’s* where I know you from!
Perhaps a guiding principle of comedic political commentary might be, don’t make the joke if you don’t stand behind the sentiment.
I’m a big fan of yours. I feel like so far you’re handling it well.