In anticipation of the midterm elections on Tuesday, we’ve put together a quick issue index of recent articles about the power of humor to save democracy!
Maggie Hennefeld discusses the status of “truthy” satire in the era of post-truth and fake news in her recent Film Quarterly think piece, “Who Is America? On Truth, Lies, and Laughter,” which responds to prankster-troll Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2018 Showtime series. Kyle Stevens proposes a new concept of “Wet Humor” in his Critical Inquiry article. In contrast to dry wit, wet humor “stages the sentiment of laughter through tears” and is exemplified by the devastating protest signs on display at the 2017 Women’s March (such as “POWER BOTTOM AGAINST PATRIARCHY”). Finally, Jon Stewart and Dave Chappelle talk about Donald Trump, political comedy, and the midterm elections with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
Also, check out a sampling of news coverage of non-Western political humor: The New Yorker’s piece on political humor in Nigeria, The Guardian’s interview with the founder of the Arabic Onion-style satirical newspaper al-Hadood , and Splice’s coverage of how social media is reshaping satire in Asia.
Laugh your hearts out, and get out there and vote!