Drs. Baumgartner & Lockerbie’s “Maybe it is More than a Joke: Satire, Mobilization and Political Participation” will be published in Social Science Quarterly. The analysis examines the relationship between viewing late night political humor and political participation.
The essay shows that viewership of “Late Night with David Letterman,” a simple form of political comedy, seems to be unrelated to political participation. However viewership of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report,” considered by most to be genuine political satire, is associated with higher levels of political participation.
The results suggest that advocates of political satire may be correct when they suggest that satire mobilizes viewers to political action.
