In conjunction with traditional journalism outlets seeing a decline in viewership, there has been an increase in comedic relief used as a vessel to cover the political and economic state of the world. The popularity of late night talk shows and comedy sketch shows like Saturday Night Live have contributed to this as every week on SNL, viewers are able to tune in to see a cold open skit regarding the latest trending political news or a satirical sketch regarding a viral social media trend.
These sources provide great outlets for the average viewer to catch up on the events of the week while also delivered in an easily digestible manner for those not tuned into the constantly changing landscape of the 24-hour news cycle. Along with this, the comedic aspect of journalistic media is important as it gives viewers a break from the serious nature of politics. This is supported by data from the American National Election Study which shows that the number of people watching comedy sketch shows like SNL during election season has more than doubled between 2020 and 2024.
Late night television hosts have capitalized on this form of media’s growing popularity using their platforms to call attention to the actions of the current presidential administration and those in power actively suppressing the rights of the American people. This has brought to the forefront a growing issue of censorship in the media as those who have attempted to call out the President have seen their careers in media affected.
One instance regarding a major media outlet involves Stephen Colbert, host of the Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert which airs on CBS. In the aftermath of the 2024 election cycle, Colbert criticized a decision by the entertainment company Paramount after they settled with President Donald Trump after a lawsuit by the President regarding a 60 Minutes interview with Democratic challenger Kamala Harris which Trump claimed contained false editing and bias favoring the Harris campaign. Shortly after, CBS announced Colbert’s show would be canceled, set to go into effect on May 21, 2026 due to its ‘financial performance’. Despite this, according to data from LateNighter, The Late Show is the highest performing late night show by total viewers averaging 2.43 million viewers during the week of Mar. 1.
“With many Americans relying on late-night comedy for political news and trusting late-night hosts to provide background and critical engagement with political matters, further suspensions or cancellations of late-night shows could have substantial effects for the 2026 midterms.” said University of Manchester researcher Caroline Leicht. The actions by CBS highlight the growing deconstruction of traditional journalism in favor of falsified propaganda hidden behind comedy designed to misinform the American public through memes and short form content.
This capitalization of propagandized content has grown as social media has become a more popular source for media consumption, especially among younger generations. Due to the influence of technology in our world, the way in which trends and jokes spread is mainstream. In this way, memes are essentially the world’s current political caricatures, a movement which has been weaponized by politicians in promoting their campaigns as it provides a more cost-efficient alternative to spending money on campaign ads. In the 2024 election, both Trump and Harris used the popular social media platform TikTok. Harris received widespread traction by capitalizing on the popularity of Charli XCX’s Brat album to increase turnout among younger voters.
Although these trends contribute to large audiences and provide a humorous outlook in contrast to the often buttoned up nature of politics, the ease of this consumption is starting to show its negative effects. This follows a growing trend of scandals in the media being treated like jokes. For example, despite early public backlash regarding the Epstein files, a case regarding child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his ring which included many wealthy celebrities with major political influence, including the President; contributing to the issue being brushed aside as majority of the files information was redacted and members of the White House called to testify gave no true information regarding why this was the case. On the social media side, Epstein and his island became a meme contributing to the ease of downplaying both the seriousness of the issue and the coverup by the government.
As this is happening, the current state of the country is involved in a serious conflict with Iran which could be further escalated with the positioning of U.S. ground troops to the Middle East, and economic conflict which has seen gas prices rise to record highs.
The response from the federal government hasn’t been to try and solve a conflict which is providing an obvious detriment to its country’s people but to capitalize on the use of short form content for comedic purposes. The White House’s official TikTok account posts propaganda based content supporting the escalation of the U.S. conflict in Iran and AI based content seemingly making fun of the country’s current economic situation as it promotes an idealized “American Dream” which is the complete opposite of what the majority of the country has experienced during the Trump presidency.
And this may be how many people on both social media and who pay attention to the daily news cycle feel, as social media provides the illusion of activism without anything actually being done. However, the growing sentiment across the country is that the abuse of power in the federal government needs to be addressed.
On Mar. 28, Americans across the country once again gathered for No Kings protests which aimed to act as a further reminder that a large portion of the country is unsatisfied with the direction of the country under current President Donald Trump. The movement has also spread globally with protests being seen in major European cities including Paris and London. The estimated total of protestors in these March rallies was supposedly over 8 million, beating the October totals of nearly seven million.
