Over the years, late night television has had its share of satirical comedic hosts. Some of these satirical late night hosts have brought viewers to tears due to their witty comebacks about world events, covering every newsworthy story they can craft a joke around. When you combine the hilarity of satire with the presidential election, which has it's own bit of hilarity surrounding it, you get a masterpiece of television that the youth of our country is dying to watch every weekday evening. Every night, these talented people sit in front of a camera, joking through the daily news, giving their viewers a take on the news that will make them chuckle the night away. With their late night spots on prime networks, these satirical television hosts have managed to influence their viewers in different ways when it comes to the presidential election.
Hosts such as Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Jon Oliver, Trevor Noah, Larry Wilmore and Samantha Bee are some of the funniest hosts to grace our television sets for our generation. Their extensive knowledge of politics combined with their natural ability to put together a joke is the pure talent that keeps their viewers coming back on a weekly basis. Especially with the younger generations of the American public, these major satirical late night hosts have a massive amount of influence over their political views.
With this increase in satirical hosts speaking of the election on their shows, the amount of political debate had nearly doubled. Young people who generally do not watch the news on a regular basis are still getting the information they need on the election, with a hilarious twist that keeps their attention. Though they all have their own particular views when it comes to the election and their own opinions on who they believe should be elected, they all have one major thing in common: taking every major aspect of the election, especially things that the candidates are doing, and making it the butt of their hilarious jokes.
A few years ago, it would have seemed to be completely inconceivable to see a president, former or current, sitting at a desk on a late night television show. Even less likely to see one on a basic cable show compared to one of the main channels. But it has now become a legitimate reality. Huge political figures, including current President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, have made appearances on satirical TV shows on Comedy Central, as well as many other late night and day time television talk shows. While they passed witty banter back and fourth, the interviews these important political figures who have dominated Washington D.C focused their interviews around the crucial political issues.
With this major influence of the general public, especially the younger generations who are not usually interested in politics as a whole, you would think that the presidential candidates would be taking advantage of it. Instead, they seem more focused on taking childish jabs at each other during speeches, making outrageous comments, and giving the younger generations more things to make fun of them for.
