Satirical TV Research Articles

Ridiculing the unreasonable: The political aesthetic ofZondag met Lubach

This article analyses the highly popular and critically acclaimed Dutch satirical TV show Zondag met Lubach (2014-2021), using the approach of political aesthetics. Through this approach, which focuses on the form, style and rhetoric of cultural artefacts, and the way in which these elements perform politics, it is shown that Zondag met Lubach was much less critical and progressive than is often thought. Overall, the show mainly defended the existing liberal status quo. It did so by depoliticising its own viewpoint, which was presented as simply reasonable, while ideas and practices that did not fit within this viewpoint were framed as irrational and ridiculous. It also turns out that the solutions it proposed for current social issues were strongly inclined towards individual responsibility, much less towards structural changes. This is another way in which the show acted as a defender of the given socio-political order.

Political Satire TV Shows in the Trump’s Era: Examining Their Impact on Latinx Viewers’ Political Knowledge, Political Engagement, and Trust in Institutions

ABSTRACT The popularity of political satire on American television has led to a significant amount of research on their role in American political life. However, the current political satire television show environment has considerably changed, as has the political environment in the US with the election of Donald Trump. These changes compel us to (re)examine the impact of political satire TV shows on audiences. This study examines the relationships between political satire TV consumption, political knowledge, political engagement, and trust in institutions among a sample of 238 young Latinx adults. The results reveal that political satire TV consumption is positively related to political knowledge. Surprisingly though, political satire TV consumption is not related to trust in institutions.

Satire and The Cambridge Introduction to Satire

Satire and The Cambridge Introduction to Satire

Televisual Satire in the Age of Glocalization

This article analyses the highly popular Dutch satirical TV-show Zondag met Lubach (ZML) from the perspective of ‘glocalization.’ This places the show both within the global tradition of late-night satire, originating in the United States, and in the local Dutch tradition of satirical TV. A general overview of these traditions is followed by a close reading of one ZML segment, which is then compared to the American show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. This comparison reveals the dominant influence of the American tradition of performing televisual satire, thus contesting the common assumption in television studies that nationhood still plays a central role in the practice of broadcasting.

Phraseological Anglicisms in German: A look at a satirical TV program

Phraseological Anglicisms in German: A look at a satirical TV program

Keith Moser: The Advent of Simulated Reality and Computer‐Generated Femininity in the South Park Episode “The Hobbit”: A Baudrillardian Reflection

AbstractThis essay investigates a recent episode of the American, satirical TV show South Park from the lens of the interdisciplinary philosophy of Jean Baudrillard. The creators of this popular comedy program are rarely given credit for some of the substantive issues that they often address in numerous episodes due to the raunchy nature of the humor itself. However, this investigation demonstrates that this program should be taken more seriously by international scholars in the field of popular culture. Specifically, this essay reveals that the episode “The Hobbit” is a timely discussion of the perils of simulated reality and computer‐generated femininity in the age of information. Delving into the complex and nuanced philosophy of Jean Baudrillard, this analysis of “The Hobbit” demonstrates the veritable depths of the ‘crisis of simulation’ to which the philosopher often refers in numerous works. This Baudrillardian reflection illustrates that the advent of simulated reality is a real issue that warrants more attention than it generally receives in the modern world.

The role of political satirical TV programs during political crises

Satire is a technique that laughs at particular people or objects in order to point out problems in an attempt to bring about change. Politicians, social structures and narrow-minded or biased public opinions and systems are the most common targets of satirical compositions. Satinsts (people who compose satire) often use techniques such as irony, exaggeration, sarcasm (Antonyms), metaphors and sketches in order to ridicule their subjects. The paper focuses on Bassem Youssef’s show Al Bernameg (The Program), which regularly criticizes public figures. It has become a Sensation after it was launched online in the aftermath of Egypt’s revolution. Political humor excited the protests in gaining new momentum, with a new generation of satirists using comedy to speak truth to power. Bassem Youssef used the clips to create a mock Arabic newscast posted on YouTube, homage to Comedy Central’s Daily of Jon Stew- art. Al Bernameg of Bassem Youssef is similar to The Daily Show of Jon Stewart in merging entertainment with news. It is notably news satire format and the talk show format. This paper tries to answer many questions: whether this political satirical talk show will help flourish a new genre in Egyptian media, And what exactly is the political content of the program, Many theories as critical discourse analysis approach of Fairclough (2003), Grice’s conversation maxims (1975), and Entman’s framing of media effects (2004) are used in the satirical analysis of the texts of “Al Bernameg”.

Arab Labor's alternative vision: the ‘liberal bargain’ in the welfare state of Israel

This study focuses on ‘Independence Day’, an episode of Arab Labor (first season, 2008), a pioneer bilingual Hebrew-Arabic satirical Israeli TV series, written by Sayed Kashua, an Arab-Israeli author and journalist. Arab Labor was a breakthrough in the Israeli popular TV scape, where, as a rule, Arab-Israeli citizens are either depicted stereotypically, or as symbolically ‘extinct’. Broadcast in primetime, the series exposed Jewish-Israeli viewers for the first time to AI petit bourgeoisies – a middle-class Arab-Israeli ‘normative’ family. The episode is a core example of the way in which satire is employed to promote the ‘liberal bargain’ between the Jewish democratic liberal state and its Arab-Israeli citizens, depicting a lifestyle vacillating between hybrid multilayered identity options, within the complex, often difficult reality of the Arab-Israeli citizens in Israel. Methodology combined both integrated CDA and focus groups, in order to reveal the modes in which deep cultural constructs are embodied in the episode, and to explore how these representation modes are deciphered by middle-class academic Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Israeli female viewers. As opposed to the prevailing extreme nationalism accompanied by multiculturalism, to a large degree as a consequence of neo-liberal economy, our analysis and findings reveal that Arab Labor suggests an alternative vision for Israeli society: the ‘liberal bargain’, which favours liberalism and cultural pluralism within a welfare nation state, in which disputes and conflicts are peacefully resolved.

Understanding Culture Wars through Satirical/Political Infotainment TV: Jon Stewart andThe Daily Show's Critique as Mediated Re-enactement of the Culture War

Abstract:Recent US culture wars have been waged through televised entertainment news (infotainment TV). The imprint left by Jon Stewart and The Daily Show on mainstream news outlets has been analyzed in political communication studies and media studies. However, no one has so far made a case for Jon Stewart as a protagonist in these culture wars, especially because Stewart himself wants to stay clear of and set himself apart from them. This paper looks at the performativity of these culture wars in infotainment TV as the medium and locus where the culture wars are waged. While I recognize the crucial role played by Jon Stewart and The Daily Show in critiquing news-media coverage of American politics, I nevertheless contend that Stewart can also be seen as a culture warrior, albeit an unwilling one, and that, by giving him a voice, the medium of infotainment TV is turning him into such a warrior. My argument is predicated on the belief that satirical/political infotainment TV is an important locus of the culture wars and must be studied carefully because it plays a political role in mediating their re-enactment. Using this news-media satirical form as epistemological grounding, I first focus on how these culture wars play out in satirical/political infotainment TV and show that infotainment TV, because it is mediated as such, both critiques and re-enacts the culture wars and affects the American journalistic mediascape. I then examine satirical infotainment TV as political practice.

Sabina Guzzanti: From TV satire to political documentary

ABSTRACTSabina Guzzanti came to international attention following the cancellation by the Italian state broadcaster Rai of her satirical TV programme Raiot. Armi di distrazione di massa/Raiot. Weapons of Mass Distraction in 2003, which caused a stir amongst the Italian and international media alike (Boria 2009; Rothenberg 2009). Her documentary Viva Zapatero! (2005), based on her censorship case, became a box-office success and introduced her to an international audience. I discuss Guzzanti's one feature film and her three documentaries to date. I argue that the gradual radicalization of Guzzanti's recent work is only partly a consequence of the ostracism she faced. It is also part of a wider positioning of the artist's persona as an embodiment of anti-Berlusconian values, and her activity is organized and promoted as a militant act of counter-information. Guzzanti's films are quintessentially ‘social texts’ (Allen 1997) as they originate from an osmotic process between events, their representations and a ‘politicised fandom’ (O'Leary 2010). Their strong stance voices the ideas and the frustrations of a well-educated politicized audience, whose space in the public arena has been gradually eroded by the prevailing neocon discourse.

Reviews: Prime Time Soap Operas on indian Television, beyond a Joke: The Limits of Humour, Reading Little Britain: Comedy Matters on Contemporary Television, Media Audiences: Television, Meaning and Emotion, Music, Sound, and Silence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Seven Up!, Civilisation, Dexter: Investigating Cutting Edge Television, the Queer Politics of Television, Queer TV: Theories, Histories, Politics, Gender and Sexuality in

Reviews: Prime Time Soap Operas on indian Television, beyond a Joke: The Limits of Humour, Reading Little Britain: Comedy Matters on Contemporary Television, Media Audiences: Television, Meaning and Emotion, Music, Sound, and Silence in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Seven Up!, Civilisation, Dexter: Investigating Cutting Edge Television, the Queer Politics of Television, Queer TV: Theories, Histories, Politics, Gender and Sexuality in

Book review: Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P Jones and Ethan Thompson (eds), Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era, New York University Press: New York and London, 2009; xiv + 283 pp.: £14.99

Book review: Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P Jones and Ethan Thompson (eds), Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era, New York University Press: New York and London, 2009; xiv + 283 pp.: £14.99

Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era by Eds. Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thompson

Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era by Eds. Jonathan Gray, Jeffrey P. Jones, and Ethan Thompson

Laughter and Liability: The Politics of British and Dutch Television Satire

Contemporary politicians face immense rhetorical and communicative challenges. Performing on the intertwined stages of politics, media (including Internet) and everyday life, they need to master diverse and contrasting repertoires of talk. Political communication research, at present, has ignored the question of how politicians face and experience these challenges, and how they reflect on the new communicative field. In this article, we begin to redress this situation by analysing and comparing the motives, experiences and reflections of politicians who appeared in the British satirical TV show, Have I Got News for You, and its Dutch adaptation, Dit was het Nieuws. Based on in-depth interviews with seven Dutch and 14 English MPs, we conclude that they draw from three repertoires to legitimise and reflect on their participation: a strategic, indulgent and anti-elitist repertoire. The first repertoire is predictable in the context of current political communication research, whereas the latter two add new dimensions of pleasure and bottom-up representation to it.

Satire TV: politics and comedy in the post network era

Satire TV: politics and comedy in the post network era