Republicans took the heat during the 2012 election cycle, but this year it’s the Democrats who are receiving the most ire from late night hosts, according to a new study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University.
The CMPA looked at hosts Jay Leno, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel and found that Democrats were the target of 713 jokes in the first half of 2013, versus Republicans being the butt of 417 jokes. That means Democrats were made fun of 70 percent more than their GOP counterparts, according to the study.
President Obama was taunted the most, with comedians making 288 jokes about the Democratic president. In second, was New York City mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner, who was made fun of 120 times. Former President George W. Bush was the top Republican to joke about. There were 84 jokes about “dubya” in 2013. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was the only other Republican to make the top ten list. There were 71 jokes made about the GOP governor.
Here’s the full top ten list of political targets and how many jokes were made about each:
1. Barack Obama (D) – 288
2. Anthony Weiner (D) — 120
3. Pope Benedict XVI — 112
4. Joe Biden (D) — 88
5. George W. Bush (R) — 84
6. Chris Christie (R) – 71
6. Pope Francis I – 61
8. Kim Jong-Un — 57
9. Dennis Rodman – 48*
10. Edward Snowden — 45
(* Rodman is included as a public figure because of his “basketball diplomacy” with North Korea during this period.)
Additionally, Fallon was the toughest on Democrats, telling three times as many jokes about Democrats than Republicans. Letterman, on the other hand, was the only comedian to tell more jokes about the GOP. This follows his 2012 trend, in which Letterman ripped GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney more than Obama.
