How The Trump Era Ruined Comedy

Yes, yes I know... The title of this article is quite sensational. You may be thinking "How can you say that when people like Stephen Colbert and Samantha Bee have high rated shows?" I'm not disputing that the Trump era has definitely bolstered the ratings for certain shows, but what has happened is these shows have slowly shifted away from what we traditionally call comedy towards a more activist partisan stance. Can shows be partisan and funny? Absolutely. Is this what is happening to late night? No; most of the reasons people watch a show like Stephen Colbert boils down to the stances he takes and not his style of humor. In fact, I know many people personally who don't even like his style of comedy, but instead tune in to hear how he rags on the Trump administration.

Now, there is nothing wrong with a little political commentary. I have long considered myself a political junkie. Although, I have also considered myself an aficionado of stand up comedy. This has lead me to notice something. When you go back and watch episodes of SNL from few years ago people belly laugh hard at the political sketches. The jokes are standard SNL fare and land in predictable ways. When you watch contemporary episodes of SNL short spurts of laughter are punctuated by reassuring hoots and yelps. It's almost the equivalent of a political rap battle, where the excitement comes from seeing the other side get owned.

It's obvious that the more we make room for "Owning" the political opposition the less we have for conventional comedy. Comedy that, pre-Trump, often heavily relied on self deprecation and introspection. It's hard to do that when you have to assure your audience that they are on the "right side of history" or remind them you are part of the "Resistance". Comedy come from the little things not much thought of, from new and exhilarating takes on mundane things. By the time I tune in to late night it sounds like an abstract of the news.