No Laughing Matter: 98% of ‘Comedy’ Show Campaign Jokes Target Trump
Alex Christy
October 30th, 2024 9:20 AM
During the fall presidential campaign, a Media Research Center study found that hosts of the late-night "comedy" shows told a total of 1,463 jokes about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris -- but 1,428 of them were about Trump, and only 35 were about Harris. That's a whopping 40:1 ratio or almost 98 percent to 2 percent.
From September 3 through October 25, MRC analysts assessed 136 episodes of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Meyers.
For comparison, in 2023, the ratio of Trump to Joe Biden jokes was 3:1, or 74 percent. The 98 percent number is similar to the 96 percent figure that the Center for Media and Public Affairs out of George Mason University reached for the 2020 campaign, although CMPA’s numbers did not include Seth Meyers.
In addition to the 1,428-35 Trump-Harris split, analysts also found that the comedians told 302 jokes about the vice presidential candidates. Of these, 236 were directed at J.D. Vance compared to 66 at Tim Walz. That equates to a 4:1 ratio with 78 percent aimed at Vance.
https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/alex-christy/2024/10/30/no-laughing-matter-98-comedy-show-campaign-jokes-target-trump
