Startseite America’s faith in the laugh resistance – popular beliefs about political humor in the 2016 presidential elections
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America’s faith in the laugh resistance – popular beliefs about political humor in the 2016 presidential elections

  • Holger Kersten

    Holger Kersten is professor of American literature and culture at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. His main research interests include 19th-century American literature, with a special focus on Mark Twain, the use of nonstandard language in literature, humor studies, and environmental writing. E-mail: holger.kersten@amerikanistik.uni-halle.de

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Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 22. Februar 2019
HUMOR
Aus der Zeitschrift HUMOR Band 32 Heft 2

Abstract

Taking its cue from the observation that forms of aggressive humor directed against the political figure Donald Trump are not an ephemeral aspect of contemporary American politics but have been firmly embedded in American cultural discourse for more than two years, this article will explore the ways in which comedians, journalists and other contemporary observers have described and commented on the role and functions of humor and comedy with regard to the Trump phenomenon in the context of the 2016 presidential elections and its aftermath. Drawing on a selection of material from established online news resources the essay will document how popular media outlets have presented the nation’s most prominent late-night comedy as an arena in which the format’s popular hosts deploy humor in an attempt to undermine Trump’s status and ultimately to end his foray onto America’s highest political sphere. The article will then trace the popularity of the idea that political humor is subversive in the tradition of the country’s intellectual history and check it against a selection of empirical studies devoted to the topic. In this context it will become apparent that the belief in the corrective power of humor is deeply ingrained in the American popular imagination and is being perpetuated by contemporary reports and comments in important segments of the media landscape.

Keywords: political humor; 2016 presidential elections; media representation; late-night comedy; ridicule

About the author

Holger Kersten

Holger Kersten is professor of American literature and culture at Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. His main research interests include 19th-century American literature, with a special focus on Mark Twain, the use of nonstandard language in literature, humor studies, and environmental writing. E-mail: holger.kersten@amerikanistik.uni-halle.de

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Published Online: 2019-02-22
Published in Print: 2019-05-27

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Introduction: Special Issue dedicated to Christie Davies
  5. Oppositions, overlaps, and ontologies: The general theory of verbal humor revisited
  6. Tearing up the sanity clause: A class action
  7. Was it you who died, or your brother?
  8. Between cant and Kant: Christie Davies and the (im?)possibility of seriousness in humor studies
  9. Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes?
  10. Christie Davies at the Humor Summer School
  11. The Chinese as targets in Polish humorous discourse
  12. Racism in recent Greek migrant jokes
  13. Lessons learned about humor from J.C.H. Davies and examples in his home collection
  14. America’s faith in the laugh resistance – popular beliefs about political humor in the 2016 presidential elections
  15. Select bibliography of Christie Davies’ works
https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2019-0004
Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel
political humor; 2016 presidential elections; media representation; late-night comedy; ridicule

Artikel in diesem Heft

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Introduction: Special Issue dedicated to Christie Davies
  5. Oppositions, overlaps, and ontologies: The general theory of verbal humor revisited
  6. Tearing up the sanity clause: A class action
  7. Was it you who died, or your brother?
  8. Between cant and Kant: Christie Davies and the (im?)possibility of seriousness in humor studies
  9. Early Titanic Jokes: A disaster for the theory of disaster jokes?
  10. Christie Davies at the Humor Summer School
  11. The Chinese as targets in Polish humorous discourse
  12. Racism in recent Greek migrant jokes
  13. Lessons learned about humor from J.C.H. Davies and examples in his home collection
  14. America’s faith in the laugh resistance – popular beliefs about political humor in the 2016 presidential elections
  15. Select bibliography of Christie Davies’ works
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