ABSTRACT
At the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel quipped: “Members of the media, politicians, corporate executives, advertisers, lobbyists, and celebrities – everything that is wrong with America is here in this room tonight.” So began another roasting of Washington insiders, political journalists, and our system of representative democracy. Such political humor rules contemporary popular culture. As such, scholars argue for the important relationship between humor and politics (e.g. Gray, Jones, & Thompson 2009). As political scientists Baumgartner and Morris (2008) remind us, “[A]lthough humor may take temporary hiatus from time to time, it has always been – and will continue to be – part of the political landscape” (p. xiv). The range of political humor is vast; it includes stand-up comedians (i.e., Hari Kondabolu; George Carlin), late-night talk show hosts (David Letterman; Conan O’Brien), sketch comedy (Saturday Night Live), news satires (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore), Internet memes and videos (FunnyorDie. com; JibJab.com), television series (South Park; The Simpsons), and more. However, one genre remains largely under-examined: the roast.
