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

[Virginiá]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/05/how-late-night-comedy-alienated-conservatives-made-liberals-smug-and-fueled-the-rise-of-trump/521472/

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[Maxwell]

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.

[Beet]

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?

[This account no longer in use.]

I'd argue that it's the other way around. The rise of Trump has made late night comedy better than ever.

[Technocracy Timmy]

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?

Mainstream media has far more influence than some British journalist trolling people and Sargon of Cuckkad.

[Devout Centrist]

Wait, this crap made its way into the Atlantic? Christ, I'd expect this nonsense from Politico or somewhere else.

Yes, there's definitely a role the media played in Trump's win, but again, the author is over exaggerating that role and attempting to find meaning where there is none.

We so desperately want to know why Trump won, even going so far as to invent hare brained theories about the white working class or the media or liberals or whatever else have you. The fact of the matter is, his message was more focused and ended up appealing more where it counted. There is no meaning beyond that and the futile search for the "true reason" isn't going to go anywhere.

Absurd things happen in an absurd world. Let's focus our efforts on getting him out of power, not writing thousands of goddamn articles on why he won.

[Beet]

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?

Mainstream media has far more influence than some British journalist trolling people and Sargon of Cuckkad.

Late night comedy =/= all mainstream media. Alt right media arguably has as much influence.

[KingSweden]

I do think, though, that a line can be drawn from the retirement of Jon Stewart and the subsequent constellation of pale imitators. Stewart wasn't liked by the right, necessarily, but he never stopped to the nonsense of Bee

[Technocracy Timmy]

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?

Mainstream media has far more influence than some British journalist trolling people and Sargon of Cuckkad.

Late night comedy =/= all mainstream media. Alt right media arguably has as much influence.

Looking at the collective ratings of all of the late night shows on CBS, HBO, TBS, ABC, NBC, Comedy Central, etc. dwarf that of alt right YouTube videos.

[Beet]

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?

Mainstream media has far more influence than some British journalist trolling people and Sargon of Cuckkad.

Late night comedy =/= all mainstream media. Alt right media arguably has as much influence.

Looking at the collective ratings of all of the late night shows on CBS, HBO, TBS, ABC, NBC, Comedy Central, etc. dwarf that of alt right YouTube videos.

HBO and TBS spend their time making fun of Trump supporters? Most of their content is non political.

[Technocracy Timmy]

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?

Mainstream media has far more influence than some British journalist trolling people and Sargon of Cuckkad.

Late night comedy =/= all mainstream media. Alt right media arguably has as much influence.

Looking at the collective ratings of all of the late night shows on CBS, HBO, TBS, ABC, NBC, Comedy Central, etc. dwarf that of alt right YouTube videos.

HBO and TBS spend their time making fun of Trump supporters? Most of their content is non political.

Doesn't HBO have last week tonight? I'd suspect that the number of views he gets on a weekly basis even with one 30 minute show is higher than the total number of views Sargon gets in 1 week.

TBS was mentioned in the article but honestly I don't know which late night shows they were referring to.

[Virginiá]

The author also mentioned that clips, quotes, etc of these late night / comedy show hosts tend to filter into other news outlets, so while they may get limited viewers, select parts of their performance reaches a much wider audience. I'm not sure of the extent of that, but from my own experiences I can say there is some truth to that, but maybe not a super-consistent basis.

[I Won - Get Over It]

I don't what's so special about late-night comedies, but elitism of the media and Democrats indeed helped Trump.


Democrats and the media got orgasm when Hillary admitted about 'basket of deplorables'. Not everyone was brave enough to agree with her, but come on, why would we fool ourselves. Democrats and the media thought, and still think, she were totally right. They loooved this.

And you still do. Right?

[Virginiá]

I don't what's so special about late-night comedies, but elitism of the media and Democrats indeed helped Trump.


Democrats and the media got orgasm when Hillary admitted about 'basket of deplorables'. Not everyone was brave enough to agree with her, but come on, why would we fool ourselves. Democrats and the media thought, and still think, she were totally right. They loooved this.

And you still do. Right?

How is Sweden enjoying the Trump presidency, LittleBigPlanet?

[I Won - Get Over It]

How is Sweden enjoying the Trump presidency, LittleBigPlanet?

A lot! But no one is brave enough to admit it

If the current late night shows triggered you then your really not gonna like Comedy Central's new Trump sitcom: "The President Show"

https://youtu.be/bsGawGjQIpY

I like most of them. Especially "Real Time with Bill Maher". Even "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" is very good even though he is a bit weird.

But the elitism triggers to give them the finger by voting for Trump.

[Antonio the Sixth]

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

[Bismarck]

I do think, though, that a line can be drawn from the retirement of Jon Stewart and the subsequent constellation of pale imitators. Stewart wasn't liked by the right, necessarily, but he never stopped to the nonsense of Bee

Stewart was funny and had self awareness to know he was a leftist hack even if he didn't admit it. His imitators are much less witty and don't even seem to realize how biased they are. As to the article I think i think it's right although it is just part of a larger picture.

[Technocracy Timmy]

I do think, though, that a line can be drawn from the retirement of Jon Stewart and the subsequent constellation of pale imitators. Stewart wasn't liked by the right, necessarily, but he never stopped to the nonsense of Bee

Stewart was funny and had self awareness to know he was a leftist hack even if he didn't admit it. His imitators are much less witty and don't even seem to realize how biased they are. As to the article I think i think it's right although it is just part of a larger picture.

I agree with this. Ever since Stewart left there was nobody close to his caliber left in the comedy/political satire arena.

The only source of comedy that I could rely on from when Stewart retired was Trump's campaign and all of his trolling antics. 

[OSR stands with Israel]

He won cause the liberal media cried wolf at Dubya , McCain and Romney now a real wolf comes and nobody believes them .

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The premise of this article is so idiotic I'd be surprised to see it in Politico, much less The Atlantic.  My guess is that it only got written as an obligatory counterpoint to the insufferable puff piece they had about Alec Baldwin's new role on SNL (seriously, can we not spend a whole article pretending that mimicking Trump on SNL is some sort of courageous blow against tyranny? K, thx)

[Maxwell]

The premise of this article is so idiotic I'd be surprised to see it in Politico, much less The Atlantic.  My guess is that it only got written as an obligatory counterpoint to the insufferable puff piece they had about Alec Baldwin's new role on SNL (seriously, can we not spend a whole article pretending that mimicking Trump on SNL is some sort of courageous blow against tyranny? K, thx)

especially mimicking Trump so poorly

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

The premise of this article is so idiotic I'd be surprised to see it in Politico, much less The Atlantic.  My guess is that it only got written as an obligatory counterpoint to the insufferable puff piece they had about Alec Baldwin's new role on SNL (seriously, can we not spend a whole article pretending that mimicking Trump on SNL is some sort of courageous blow against tyranny? K, thx)

especially mimicking Trump so poorly

Effing Comedy Central is shilling for some "The President Show" that looks as ill-conceived as it does smarmy.

[Maxwell]

The premise of this article is so idiotic I'd be surprised to see it in Politico, much less The Atlantic.  My guess is that it only got written as an obligatory counterpoint to the insufferable puff piece they had about Alec Baldwin's new role on SNL (seriously, can we not spend a whole article pretending that mimicking Trump on SNL is some sort of courageous blow against tyranny? K, thx)

especially mimicking Trump so poorly

Effing Comedy Central is shilling for some "The President Show" that looks as ill-conceived as it does smarmy.

To be fair the Comedy Central show's guy can actually do the impression - but the sad fact is that that show is going to be bad for two reasons

1. The more you do an impression, the less like the human you're going to sound (I notice his impression has become more comical in a bad way)
2. There's just not going to be all that much you can do beyond hope Trump does something you can follow (which will be more shocking).

The guy who does the Comedy Central show was very funny in the Bernie vs. Trump debate series.

[Devout Centrist]

The premise of this article is so idiotic I'd be surprised to see it in Politico, much less The Atlantic.  My guess is that it only got written as an obligatory counterpoint to the insufferable puff piece they had about Alec Baldwin's new role on SNL (seriously, can we not spend a whole article pretending that mimicking Trump on SNL is some sort of courageous blow against tyranny? K, thx)

This.

[krazen1211]

I don't what's so special about late-night comedies, but elitism of the media and Democrats indeed helped Trump.


Democrats and the media got orgasm when Hillary admitted about 'basket of deplorables'. Not everyone was brave enough to agree with her, but come on, why would we fool ourselves. Democrats and the media thought, and still think, she were totally right. They loooved this.

And you still do. Right?

Ross Douthat wrote the same article before the election. That nasty woman Bee got triggered and responded by screaming into a camera.

Of course, John Oliver wanted Trump to run for President. Now he is crying like a baby.

Thanks for the votes!