Satire TV Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era

These sharp, compelling essays respond to the current state of American politics, which is characterized by politicians abandoning shame, news media trivializing political news, and commentators screaming at one another. . . . Many young Americans consider satirical television news their primary source of news, and this volume helps one understand why. Stewart, Colbert, et al. take news seriously. They may be the only ones left on television who do. . . . Highly recommended. (Choice) The authors of Satire TV make no bones about it: Satire is a gateway drug that does more good for democracy than harm....This book offers historical depth and theoretically sophisticated approaches to satire TV's contemporary breadth. (Journal of Communication Inquiry) . . . the book has succeeded. It made me think outside the points made by the various essayists. With academic studies of comedy still representing a somewhat small (but ever-growing) facet of the media studies canon, Gray, Jones, and Thompson's anthology represents a worthy primer on the broad functions of satirical media, a timely investigation of a contemporary televisual phenomenon, and an argument for further examination of the political dimensions of television comedy. - Evan Elkins (Scope Cinema Journal) It has been said that if you have to explain a joke, its not funny. This wonderful collection proves that nothing could be farther from the truth. Satire TV takes the study of comedy in new directions, expanding beyond earlier work done on classical Hollywood cinema and the sitcom. In politically trying times, the contributors to this volume reveal through analysis of programs such as South Park, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report, laughter is not the best medicineit is the surgeon's scalpel. - Heather Hendershot,editor of Nickelodeon Nation: The History, Politics and Economics of Americas Only TV Channel for Kids This smart and savvy crew has noticed something creeping up on us, something with bite. Now we have to take satire TV seriously; it turns out to be the bearer of the democratic spirit for the post-broadcast age. In this field-shaping book, some of the brightest talents in TV studies show us how the marginal has become the model for a much-needed media make-over. See what happens when entertainment bares its teeth. - John Hartley,author of Television Truths

Jonathan Gray is Hamel Family Distinguished Chair in Communication Arts, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and author and editor of numerous books, including Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts (2010), Fandom, Second Edition (2017), Keywords for Media Studies (2017), and Satire TV (2009), as well as Television Studies (with Amanda D. Lotz), and A Companion to Media Authorship (with Derek Johnson).Jeffrey P. Jones is Associate Professor of Communication & Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University. He is the author of Entertaining Politics: New Political Television and Civic Culture and co-editor of The Essential HBO Reader.Ethan Thompson is Professor of Media Arts at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He is the author of Parody and Taste in Postwar American Television Culture and co-editor of Television History, the Peabody Archive, and Cultural Memory and Satire TV: Politics and Comedy in the Post-Network Era. He directed the documentary TV Family about a forgotten forerunner to reality television.