POLITICAL HUMOR AND THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

As the years leading up to the 2020 election demonstrated, political humor has become an increasingly important part of American political discourse. The 2020 presidential campaign offered a new opportunity to consider presidential candidates and political humor. While Donald Trump was unopposed for his Republican renomination, the incumbent president was never out of focus when it came to late-night comedy. While there are some powerful similarities between how late-night comedy treated the 2016 and 2020 nomination contests, the policy environment was very different in two ways: the opening months of 2020 included the rise of a nationwide health emergency relating to the coronavirus as well as President Trump’s first impeachment trial. For more than four decades, Saturday Night Live has offered humor and satire, largely through character portrayals of real political figures and imagined citizens reacting to political events. During the general election campaign, a lot of the Trump commentary took place during “Weekend Update” segments.