The Atlantic: How Late-Night Comedy Fueled the Rise of Trump

[DC Al Fine]

Voted "unsure". I think it contributed, but it was part of a broader problem within the institutional left.

Agreed. John Oliver and Samantha Bee are terrible, but it's not like the left's snark and classism problems are limited to late night comedy.

[Hindsight was 2020]

libtard that is all

[cinyc]

I don't know about the article's theory, but you'd think someone in the very biased media would have figured out that there is a market for comedy that blasts Democrats, for once.  All of these shows, from Colbert to John Oliver to Samantha Bee promote pretty much the same biased, anti-Republican talking points masquerading as "satire".  They sanctimoniously think they are speaking truth to power, but never spoke the truth about Obama, Pelosi and the Democrats when they were in power.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I don't know about the article's theory, but you'd think someone in the very biased media would have figured out that there is a market for comedy that blasts Democrats, for once.  All of these shows, from Colbert to John Oliver to Samantha Bee promote pretty much the same biased, anti-Republican talking points masquerading as "satire".  They sanctimoniously think they are speaking truth to power, but never spoke the truth about Obama, Pelosi and the Democrats when they were in power.

The thing is that before you can do anything with that market, you need to find a conservative comedian who is actually...you know...at least remotely funny.

[pbrower2a]

Donald Trump ran on the promotion of his own vulgarity as a common thread with the common man. He acts much like some workingman who won the Super-Duper Megabucks Lottery and could tell his employer "Take This Job and Shove It" -- and mean it. How Donald Trump differs is that he has always had that sort of wealth and shows no empathy toward anyone not already rich.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I think this is a small piece of the big picture - he just had a singular dominance of the conversation and air time, which overcame any monetary disadvantage he may have had.

Trump's success can largely be boiled down to his own force of personality and the stunning cognitive dissonance of Democrats. He's like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddyshack.

I don't know about the article's theory, but you'd think someone in the very biased media would have figured out that there is a market for comedy that blasts Democrats, for once.  All of these shows, from Colbert to John Oliver to Samantha Bee promote pretty much the same biased, anti-Republican talking points masquerading as "satire".  They sanctimoniously think they are speaking truth to power, but never spoke the truth about Obama, Pelosi and the Democrats when they were in power.

The thing is that before you can do anything with that market, you need to find a conservative comedian who is actually...you know...at least remotely funny.

Roseanne Barr is on the Trump Train. Give her a late night show and a joint and she'll be set.

[Hindsight was 2020]

It's a 100 days into his admistration an his crowd is chanting "lock her up". I'm sorry but how can you not see that an just laugh at people like that?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The Hillary campaign and the DNC pushed for the media to give him a lot of airtime because they felt she could easily beat him. So, they're really who you should blame.

[Kingpoleon]

Not to turn into Bronz, but Both sides do it. I think what these late night shows do is tacky, but the bigger question is, if Milo or Sargon had caught some Antifa protestor with tacky hair and endlessly castigated them on their Youtubosphere community, it turned out she had brain cancer, would the have apologized? Would their teenage followers have cared?

Neither of those two are considered as mainstream as Samantha Bee is. Furthermore, people like Stephen Colbert who regularly mock conservatives and Trump voters are considered legitimate by most people. However, I'd say Colbert is probably the least of the offenders, as the way the others do it aren't humorous unless you think mocking people in a dull, otherwise unfunny manner, is humorous.