Political Satire: The Colbert Report

“Political satire is a humorous, ironic, or sarcastic examination of the political arena in an attempt to expose absurdity and hypocrisy.” Political satire has rapidly become the most popular form of political news for he younger generation. Since the release of the Colbert Report in 2012 there has been a shift in the political scape of the United States. These political comedy shows, generally targeted at a more adolescent audience, is beginning to spark the interest of the younger generation. The presence of political satire is doing more for the political spectrum than simply attract the interest of the younger generation, the presence of the political satire is beginning to act as one of the sole news sources that is accessible for those

With the assumption that the political satire is the entire frame of reference that adolescents have for the political scape, therefore causing a push the viewers to vote liberal to agree with the views of the show, that is mostly a false statement. There have been arguments made that the popularity of satirical political programs has forced the youth who come into the political stage only knowing these satirical comedies are only narrowing their view of politics; however, “[a]rguments that satire actually increases narrow-mindedness because it panders to liberals also have their flaws. While there are few Republican and conservative viewers, data show that less than half of the viewers of “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are liberals; in fact, 38 percent of viewers of “The Colbert Report,” as well as 41 percent of those watching “The Daily Show,” consider themselves independents. These shows have roughly the same percentage of Democrat viewers as the New York Times and USA Today and a lower percentage than CNN, all of which claim to be non-partisan news sources.” There is proof that while it may seem as if there is a majority of the viewers of these comedies identify as liberal, that would be incorrect. Despite the correlation of the majority of the viewers of these shows being in the youth bracket, and the majority of the

Political satire first became popularized in the early 2010s with the premiere of the Colbert Report, a satirical comedy that made political news more interesting to other demographics and made it more accessible. With this new influx of youth participation in politics, there was worry of the political satire swaying the opinions of the youth demographics; however, there was no causation seen when looking at the actual statistics of the active youth in the political conversation and those who are regular viewers of these political comedy programs. In response to the concern of these programs swaying the political opinions of youth brackets, the history of the single sided satire was necessary to understand how the political balance is functional. Finally, we were able to conclude that it was the democratic party in need of resurgence, prompting the creation of this modern news form, causing a boom in political participation from youth demographics. With this new influx of youth participation, the United States political scape has been thriving. In the end, the new presence of political satire as a method of political news distribution has caused great change in the political scape of the United States over the last approximately five years, encouraging youth participation and creating a growth in the entire system. The political satire