Political late-night comedy has a reliable viewer base, but fans shouldn’t mistake entertainment for social change.
In most cases, the comedians preach to the choir.
“The bombastic headlines used to describe Oliver’s late-night antics overstate the real-life impact such takedowns can have,” Adam Felder wrote for The Atlantic. “At best, such headlines are exaggerations, but at worst, they perpetuate the myth that late-night comedy is an effective tool for broad political change.”
For political change to develop, reformers need to talk to people outside their support base. Late-night comedy doesn’t do that. Its audience skews ideologically. The crowd that loves Jon Stewart and John Oliver rarely overlaps with fans of Andy Levy and Red Eye on Fox News.
So, while Oliver and others tear into Republicans or whoever drew their ire one night, it generates a fan base, but not a movement for political change. It’s another effect of Americans living inside a bubble. A sorting process has made social circles more congenial to a person’s beliefs, and it’s obscured other perspectives on a political issue.
Thus, “people aren’t just angry; they’re also out of touch with the possibility that other people aren’t angry, or at least, not angry in the same way, at the same people,” Megan McArdle noted.
Liberals can’t fathom how Donald Trump has such high support in Republican primaries. Conservatives can’t understand how bad liberal arguments are supposed to “eviscerate” or “destroy” Republican politicians. It’s easier to lose touch with reality because people can avoid others who disagree with them.
In some respects, Oliver and late-night hosts recognize their limitations, as Felder noted in his piece. Polititainment rose because ideological comedy found a following among those in ideological bubbles. It’s easier to lambast differing opinions as regressive and unintelligent when a person doesn’t know many people who holds those views. The comedians don’t expect to launch the revolution, no matter how idealistic their fans might be. A funny video, however, isn’t revolutionary praxis. That takes other forms of activism, such as engaging the opposition instead of berating them with comedy.
