There’s a trick to doing political comedy well. Some writers and performers get big laughs with it, satisfying everyone and angering no one. How do they do it?
It’s not about toeing the line between Left and Right. The best political comedians transcend Left and Right. They use a different, more sophisticated spectrum.
Regular people on the Left and Right disagree on a handful of social issues, but the politicians who represent them agree on everything. Politicians on both sides, for the most part, don’t represent regular people. They represent the one percent—big-money political donors and corporations. They agree to do their bidding.
A recent Princeton University study proved this. It showed in America, the more money you have, the more outsized influence you have in politics. It showed if you’re poor or middle class, you have almost no influence. It showed the US is an oligarchy, not a democracy.
Regular people (the 99 percent) hate this. They’re angry. They resent the 1 percent for their corrupt elitism.
Smart entertainers see this. They ally themselves with the 99 percent, not the one percent. The one percent are a rich target environment—for ridicule.
If you tell jokes about specific politicians, your material will date very fast. Whereas if you tell jokes about how bad the political system is, in a subtle way, the material will have more enduring appeal.
My idols Wayne & Shuster knew this and employed it in their work. In one piece, Wayne is dressed as a Mountie and suddenly sees the rear end of his horse. "That reminds me," he says. "I gotta report to Ottawa!"
Helpful advice. I think I've also seen some comedians identify with a familiar Left or Right political position but be self-deprecating about it. That kinda transcends a simple political spectrum dichotomy and makes it more palatable to people across the spectrum and those who don't really identify with the Left-Right spectrum at all.